Anyone Here take Camcorders?

[brunette8706]

Hi All!

I would love to take a camcorder to Walt Disney World. Walmart has them on sale for $227.00 for a JVC. With that said do you think they're more of a nusance or do you find they're welll worth the money. You do capture all the memories.....

What do you all do?

Thanks All!

Brunette

 

[Mymatisse]

We took our camcorder and unfortunately we didn't get to use it because the humidity was too high. Since our last trip I have heard that there is a way to solve that issue. Other than that taking the camcorder wouldn't have been a problem at all. They are so light these days and easy to carry/store you may as well bring one.

 

[mmccoy]

We take ours, and use it extensively. But, if you take one, always have it at the ready.

We start filming as we pile in the car on our way to Disney, and finishing filming as we sit around on our final night, reminiscing. On the final night, we have categories we discuss - favorite, funniest, etc.

We'll film as we're waiting in line, sometime during a ride (Test Track!), and, of course, for the postride review. Our last Disney trip (five days) produced five hours of tape. Some of its pretty boring, but some of it is classic. I mean, we have film of my older son and son-in-law putting on an impromptu puppet show in China, my wife making a bizarre hole-in-one at the Fantasia course, and my younger son's excitement over everything.

As I'm sure you do, we have tons of Hollywood movies at home. By far the most requested, though, are our vacation movies. Like I said, though, overdo, rather than underdo. You can always fast-forward through the overdone stuff. And, narrate!

 

[Jasminesmommy]

I bring mine. Since they are young. Now how did you handle Humidity problem? I went Durring Hurricane Jeanne and the night before i couldn't record because it kept saying Dew Problem.

 

[mmccoy]

Jasminesmommy, if you figure that one out, let me know. I didn't have much trouble on our Disney trip, but we've gone on a couple of cruises, and the camera is worthless first thing in the morning. Once the camera gets "acclimated", its useable, but you just hope nothing "good" happens early.

 

[Tigger031266]

No way... no one want to watch old vacations. Boring. Spend the cash on a good Dig Camera

 

[lsteadman]

They are both about the size of my palm and I have a very small hand.

I would only take a camcorder if it was very small. I have seen some people carry around those big comcorders the size of a television news crew camera or the kind that you insert a VHS tape into ..... I don't see how they carry those heavy things all all day.

Mine are small and they both fit into a mini-pack, plus I still have room in the mini-pack for keys, ID, credit cards, 4 DVC tapes, batters, etc. It is very a very mini-pack. I love to tape the parades and watch them when we get home to remember the fun days.

Tip: You can purchase 6 DVC tapes at Sams Club for $19.00 and play with your new camcorder before you leave so you know how all of the features work.

 

[Leota]

Yes we do. Over the past few years that my son does the filming, we get much more (and better) film. We carry the video camera about 1/3 the time we are there. Not everyday.
He just got a new min-DV recorder & has promised some excellent shows for us. (It helps that he is majoring in Film Studies, wants to do sound/image editing & makes movies with his friends for fun) I can't wait to see what he comes up with this year!

BTW - We take more video than stills & get as much use out of our video as we do our digital stills.....

 

[tjkraz]

For families with younger kids, use the camcorder to tape candid conversations with your children at the end of the day back in your hotel or even while waiting in a line for a character that has gone on break. Ask the little ones to tell you who they just met (character) or about their favorite ride.

Our son is almost 4 now, and we've got video from our trip when he was 1 1/2 telling us he rode on "Bumbo" and showing everybody the ducks off of our balcony at Old Key West. You couldn't force me to watch video of "It's A Small World", but the family stuff is priceless.

The character meet-and-greets are also worth taping--you never know what will happen. And many of the nighttime shows are worth watching again, IMO.

 

[DVC-Don]

We did a few trips, but have since given it up and use a digital camera now. We rarely view the movies we made there, but quite often pull up the digital pictures in the 'puter.

 

[civileng68]

I never go to Disney without my camcorder AND my digital camera.


It's easy to take camcorders. In fact I take them on all rides as well. Get a nice camcorder bag with a shoulder strap and make sure it has good padding on all sides. I NEVER take it off of my shoulder or lap as to not forget it on the ride. I take it on everything except Mission Space, due to the tightness.

On Splash I take it and just tuck it under my shirt at the wet part.

I take it on TOT.

BTMRR is great for camcorders.



Most new camcorders when they get under extreme humidity don't work. It normally doesn't damage the camera but most new ones just put up a message that the humidity is too high at this time to work.

normally humidity isnt high enough down here (yes even with our humidity it's normally fine) to cause the problem by itself. The problem is when condensation is created on the internals of the camera. This is caused by going from one temperature to an extreme other temperature too fast. Example: coming out of a very airconditioned building into 95 degree heat with high humidity. The best way to do this is to simply keep the camera in the bag for a while in these transitions. When I come out of POTC I will keep my camera in my bag for about 30 minutes as the bag serves as a slow insulator and buffer.

 

[lllovell]

We take both but but typically only take the camcorder one day into the parks. Old style - pretty heavy and we are BIG picture takers, so it means two pieces of equipment to always be messing with.

Maybe they will be boring to us now, but in 20 year, I will watch

 

[civileng68]

I never go to Disney without my camcorder AND my digital camera.


It's easy to take camcorders. In fact I take them on all rides as well. Get a nice camcorder bag with a shoulder strap and make sure it has good padding on all sides. I NEVER take it off of my shoulder or lap as to not forget it on the ride. I take it on everything except Mission Space, due to the tightness.

On Splash I take it and just tuck it under my shirt at the wet part.

I take it on TOT.

BTMRR is great for camcorders.



Most new camcorders when they get under extreme humidity don't work. It normally doesn't damage the camera but most new ones just put up a message that the humidity is too high at this time to work.

normally humidity isnt high enough down here (yes even with our humidity it's normally fine) to cause the problem by itself. The problem is when condensation is created on the internals of the camera. This is caused by going from one temperature to an extreme other temperature too fast. Example: coming out of a very airconditioned building into 95 degree heat with high humidity. The best way to do this is to simply keep the camera in the bag for a while in these transitions. When I come out of POTC I will keep my camera in my bag for about 30 minutes as the bag serves as a slow insulator and buffer.

Sorry to go on again but I have another helpful thing you can do.

Always get a bag that is bigger than the camera. A bag with lots of room. Many bags have adjustable inner linings that you can move to make it snug on the camera. This leaves lots of extra storage space int he camera. I have a bag that I place my digital camera and camcorder in. I also put small little things in there.

 

[marciemi]

It's a tossup. We've brought ours on several trips, lugged it on the plane, around with us, and ended up filming maybe 5 minutes the entire trip. But just the other day we were going back through our tape from our 1997 trip, when my kids were still young and adorable (1,3,5) and it's SOOOO fun to watch. Less the hours of stuff DH taped (anyone need the entire Little mermaid show which you can barely see because the camcorder wasn't great quality?). But the few minutes of my 1 year old figuring out how to work the water fountain while we waited for the others outside Star Tours. And the two youngest rolling around on the bed in the hotel. Priceless!

I agree with lllovell that just take it one day, not every time!

 

[kilee]

We've taken ours twice. The first trip we taped the parades and some shows. The second trip it never left the hotel room. I think if you're really into that sort of thing it is great. For us, your arm gets really tired holding that camera up for 20 minutes, and I'm not lugging a tripod around.

However, I do have to say I just LOVE the video footage we do have. I just watched it again this weekend. So, I do wish we had more of it. Just wish it was easier to get in the long run.

 

[Ilovestitch]

We have a digital video camera that fits nicely in a fanny pack. We usually take some video of the resort and a little in the parks. I would be fine just taking the digital camera, but my bf insists on taking the video camera. That's ok, he can carry it.

 

[dolphindan1]

I take a 2 in 1...Camcorder/camera....its a JVC gr-72us from wal mart about 280.00...it takes the mini DV tapes and memory cards...you can set it to record and as you take snapshots it will send them to the memery card automatically....its pretty nice and its palm size...I bought a 512 MB card and it held up to 1200 or so picks but we only took 400....the pic in my signature was taken with it....I also bought a longlife battery from Ebatts.com....never had to change it all week....The only complaint is that it doesnt zoom out far enuff....i tried to get all of the CP in one shot but could only get half at a time...

 

[HollyJoy]

OMG, I taped EVERYTHING! At first I thought, "what a pain this will be to carry this thing around", but I was so glad I did! I got all character interactions on tape, as well as many shows, and scenery. Very cool.

 

[lilpatty19@aol.com]

I just recently got back on friday from disney and took my video camera...it was a great idea..I video taped all the shows is saw (fantasmic, lion king etc..) videotaped the majority of the rides except for the ones that eithere didn't allow cameras or may have been too dark..video taped parades and when I got home it was nice to watch it all..so I say definitely take a camera

 

[henrylovespooh]

Definitely take one! My kids (2 and 3) love to watch the movies all the time. As we are planning to go in October, we show it to them now and ask them who they want to see, what they want to do.

I run it all the time to pick up the kids' views on things and the funny things they say. I think it better captures the look of wonder when they see things.

I have a JVC and have never had trouble with humidity. These posts were the first I ever heard of it. I used mine in May and October - maybe that is why.