Pea-n-Me
DIS Legend
- Joined
- Jul 18, 2004
- Messages
- 41,894
ETA what would a TR from me be without a long winded OP?
Jump right to my second post if you want to just see the pictures!
Trying to think of how I want to do this. I think Ill approach it primarily from a photography standpoint.
Background: last trip 2009, which was first trip using a dSLR, an Olympus E510. That trip was a bit hairy (basically due to my inexperience), but I did get some nice shots, ultimately. You can read about it here.
Over two years, lots of experience, and a camera upgrade later now using an Olympus E30 I was much more comfortable this trip knowing what I needed to do to get the shots I wanted. I had a few
and duh moments, usually when I was distracted by the kids and/or otherwise not fully concentrating on photography, but fortunately, they were pretty few and far between.
Uggh. As before, I once again forgot the darn tripod at home!
This was discovered the first night we arrived and I mentioned to my DH, cant wait to get out here with the tripod. This was him 
lol. Hed done me a favor packing my photography equipment along with all the electronics (trade off: I took care of all the planning and most of the clothes packing). But it was my own fault for not making sure it came with us. Id also wanted to take the monopod and that wasnt packed, either. But alas, I was able to run to WalMart to pick up a cheap tripod. Thankfully they had one. (Bonus was that I was able to pick up some cheap Disney souveniers for the kids friends back home, as well as a bottle of Diet Ginger Ale for myself which you seemingly cannot find anywhere in Disney!)
I brought most of my equipment because I knew there would be times Id need something and would have been frustrated not having it. I brought both camera bodies and most of my lenses: a Sigma 25mm f/1.8, and Olympus lenses - a pancake 24mm f/2.8, a 14-54 f2.8, a 50-200 f/2.8 (for savannah view AKL room only), and an 18-180 f/3.5 . My plan was to use both bodies, with DS13 carrying one, and myself carrying the other; with a prime and a zoom for each, depending on lighting conditions and landscape, etc. And I was pretty proud of myself with that plan, lol. I also brought my FL 36 flash, which did come in handy, and the rest was batteries, cards and such.
Well I went to get the 18-180 to put on my sons camera as his walkaround, and lo and behold, we left that at home, too.
Fortunately, friends of ours were joining us at WDW later, so they were able to get the lens for me and gingerly transport it down there. On arrival, friend took it right out of his carry on bag, handed it to me, and said, Im so glad to be rid of this thing. 
(As it turned out, we didnt use it much after all, as after a day or two, DS lost interest in both picture taking and videotaping, for which hed even bought his own video camera. I guess its to be pretty much expected with kids. This was the first trip that wed made them completely carry ALL their own stuff and he was getting overwhelmed with it all, as even us organized, motivated adult folks do at times. He did do some shooting later on with the E30, but he was way more interested in riding rides and running around with his sister and their friends than taking pictures. To complicate matters, DH brought and planned to use our Canon S3IS, but he wound up using the E510 most of the time, which actually made more sense. Why deal with blurry pictures when we have what we need to get decent ones?)
A little embarrassed re-reading here at my seeming incompetence,
but I think things really did get better. Again, this was my mistake for not communicating better with my DH if he was nice enough to pack my stuff for me. Live and learn. The more important point was that I felt, at least, that I, for the most part, knew what I was doing.
A word, once again. about camera bags and carrying equipment. Last trip I had a Crumpler 6MDH and that was really uncomfortable and awkward walking around the parks. This time I brought along the Slingshot 100 (for DS, which he didnt use, preferring his sports pack) and the Slingshot 302 (for myself). I like the 302 because, along with my equipment, theres room for my travel wallet and phone, girlie essentials, and Im sure I could have even stuffed a light jacket in there if I needed to, which allowed me to forego the pocketbook and just deal with the - albeit heavy - camera bag. I saw a lot of people walking around with Slingshots (and I also saw a few with the WalMart version, which Id noticed that night at the store
). I did find the Slingshot heavy, but not awkward at all. The sucker is solid. Most people I noticed carrying them mainly over their shoulders, as getting on and off rides and going into bathrooms, shows, and through turnstiles, bag checks, etc, made it seem almost silly to put it all the way on. (When I did, it was off within minutes.) Even the big one, however, fit very easily on rides (ETA with the exception of Soarin), the biggest difficulty being getting in and getting your feet on either side of it - gracefully! We saw no rain, but it was good to know that the Slingshot had a rain cover if need be. The 302 also has a tripod holder.
Although I really, really love my camera and lenses, I said to my family on several occasions, I really need to think through this whole camera thing, at least on trips to WDW. As much as photography is one of the best parts of a trip for me, it got pretty tedious at times shuffling all the stuff around and digging for and changing lenses, etc. Ive been thinking about getting an Olympus PEN and that might wind up being the way I go, but I have to say I developed a re-newfound love for my E510 this trip as it seemed so darned easy to operate and light compared to the more complex and larger E30. But I think I would really miss the feel and sound of a dSLR, especially after working so hard to learn the skills to use one over the last few years, so basically Im not going to make any changes at this point and will continue to search for answers to this dilemma as time goes on. (I might wind up selling the 18-180 and picking up a 12-60 f/2.8, which is supposed to be a great lens, or maybe I'll invest in some fast m4/3 lenses, not really sure yet.) I did see one person using a PEN with a large lens and it did look kind of funny! DH wants me to mention we did commandeer an abandoned stroller one night near 3am as our shoulders were just about broken.
It was so nice to have, lol!
And oh, in Grouchoesque form, Ill give my little dSLR sightings around the parks report. Mostly Canons, some Nikons, one white Pentax, no Sonys and no Olympuses, other than the PEN. I was surprised at the sheer number of Canons I saw, mostly beginner cameras with kit lenses, as I think ukcatfan also reported recently, and many walking around with the built in flash up.
I know people are anxious for pictures but I have to go grocery shopping and take DS to baseball practice tonight, then Ill try to get some up.
Something that absolutely plagued me on my last trip was crooked landscapes that caused me an awful lot of work to fix in pp. Happy to report that that is one area Ive improved on greatly since then. And although I took a lot of pictures, I had far fewer throw aways than Id had in the past. To me, those two things alone are real progress!
Oh, and a special little note to our favorite girl annewjerz
... didnt I say payback would be forthcoming on that nice little thread you started for me a couple of weeks ago? Ha!!!!!!!!!!! I had a lot of fun getting you back!!
Jump right to my second post if you want to just see the pictures!
Trying to think of how I want to do this. I think Ill approach it primarily from a photography standpoint.
Background: last trip 2009, which was first trip using a dSLR, an Olympus E510. That trip was a bit hairy (basically due to my inexperience), but I did get some nice shots, ultimately. You can read about it here.
Over two years, lots of experience, and a camera upgrade later now using an Olympus E30 I was much more comfortable this trip knowing what I needed to do to get the shots I wanted. I had a few
and duh moments, usually when I was distracted by the kids and/or otherwise not fully concentrating on photography, but fortunately, they were pretty few and far between. Uggh. As before, I once again forgot the darn tripod at home!
This was discovered the first night we arrived and I mentioned to my DH, cant wait to get out here with the tripod. This was him lol. Hed done me a favor packing my photography equipment along with all the electronics (trade off: I took care of all the planning and most of the clothes packing). But it was my own fault for not making sure it came with us. Id also wanted to take the monopod and that wasnt packed, either. But alas, I was able to run to WalMart to pick up a cheap tripod. Thankfully they had one. (Bonus was that I was able to pick up some cheap Disney souveniers for the kids friends back home, as well as a bottle of Diet Ginger Ale for myself which you seemingly cannot find anywhere in Disney!) I brought most of my equipment because I knew there would be times Id need something and would have been frustrated not having it. I brought both camera bodies and most of my lenses: a Sigma 25mm f/1.8, and Olympus lenses - a pancake 24mm f/2.8, a 14-54 f2.8, a 50-200 f/2.8 (for savannah view AKL room only), and an 18-180 f/3.5 . My plan was to use both bodies, with DS13 carrying one, and myself carrying the other; with a prime and a zoom for each, depending on lighting conditions and landscape, etc. And I was pretty proud of myself with that plan, lol. I also brought my FL 36 flash, which did come in handy, and the rest was batteries, cards and such.
Well I went to get the 18-180 to put on my sons camera as his walkaround, and lo and behold, we left that at home, too.
Fortunately, friends of ours were joining us at WDW later, so they were able to get the lens for me and gingerly transport it down there. On arrival, friend took it right out of his carry on bag, handed it to me, and said, Im so glad to be rid of this thing. (As it turned out, we didnt use it much after all, as after a day or two, DS lost interest in both picture taking and videotaping, for which hed even bought his own video camera. I guess its to be pretty much expected with kids. This was the first trip that wed made them completely carry ALL their own stuff and he was getting overwhelmed with it all, as even us organized, motivated adult folks do at times. He did do some shooting later on with the E30, but he was way more interested in riding rides and running around with his sister and their friends than taking pictures. To complicate matters, DH brought and planned to use our Canon S3IS, but he wound up using the E510 most of the time, which actually made more sense. Why deal with blurry pictures when we have what we need to get decent ones?) A little embarrassed re-reading here at my seeming incompetence,
but I think things really did get better. Again, this was my mistake for not communicating better with my DH if he was nice enough to pack my stuff for me. Live and learn. The more important point was that I felt, at least, that I, for the most part, knew what I was doing. A word, once again. about camera bags and carrying equipment. Last trip I had a Crumpler 6MDH and that was really uncomfortable and awkward walking around the parks. This time I brought along the Slingshot 100 (for DS, which he didnt use, preferring his sports pack) and the Slingshot 302 (for myself). I like the 302 because, along with my equipment, theres room for my travel wallet and phone, girlie essentials, and Im sure I could have even stuffed a light jacket in there if I needed to, which allowed me to forego the pocketbook and just deal with the - albeit heavy - camera bag. I saw a lot of people walking around with Slingshots (and I also saw a few with the WalMart version, which Id noticed that night at the store
). I did find the Slingshot heavy, but not awkward at all. The sucker is solid. Most people I noticed carrying them mainly over their shoulders, as getting on and off rides and going into bathrooms, shows, and through turnstiles, bag checks, etc, made it seem almost silly to put it all the way on. (When I did, it was off within minutes.) Even the big one, however, fit very easily on rides (ETA with the exception of Soarin), the biggest difficulty being getting in and getting your feet on either side of it - gracefully! We saw no rain, but it was good to know that the Slingshot had a rain cover if need be. The 302 also has a tripod holder. Although I really, really love my camera and lenses, I said to my family on several occasions, I really need to think through this whole camera thing, at least on trips to WDW. As much as photography is one of the best parts of a trip for me, it got pretty tedious at times shuffling all the stuff around and digging for and changing lenses, etc. Ive been thinking about getting an Olympus PEN and that might wind up being the way I go, but I have to say I developed a re-newfound love for my E510 this trip as it seemed so darned easy to operate and light compared to the more complex and larger E30. But I think I would really miss the feel and sound of a dSLR, especially after working so hard to learn the skills to use one over the last few years, so basically Im not going to make any changes at this point and will continue to search for answers to this dilemma as time goes on. (I might wind up selling the 18-180 and picking up a 12-60 f/2.8, which is supposed to be a great lens, or maybe I'll invest in some fast m4/3 lenses, not really sure yet.) I did see one person using a PEN with a large lens and it did look kind of funny! DH wants me to mention we did commandeer an abandoned stroller one night near 3am as our shoulders were just about broken.
It was so nice to have, lol! And oh, in Grouchoesque form, Ill give my little dSLR sightings around the parks report. Mostly Canons, some Nikons, one white Pentax, no Sonys and no Olympuses, other than the PEN. I was surprised at the sheer number of Canons I saw, mostly beginner cameras with kit lenses, as I think ukcatfan also reported recently, and many walking around with the built in flash up.
I know people are anxious for pictures but I have to go grocery shopping and take DS to baseball practice tonight, then Ill try to get some up.
Something that absolutely plagued me on my last trip was crooked landscapes that caused me an awful lot of work to fix in pp. Happy to report that that is one area Ive improved on greatly since then. And although I took a lot of pictures, I had far fewer throw aways than Id had in the past. To me, those two things alone are real progress!
Oh, and a special little note to our favorite girl annewjerz
... didnt I say payback would be forthcoming on that nice little thread you started for me a couple of weeks ago? Ha!!!!!!!!!!! I had a lot of fun getting you back!!
It's still in the box however, since I had to drive up to Cincinnati and back tonight (4 hours roundtrip) and now I'm too tired to get it out.
Can't wait to hear how you like it and to see your pictures. What lens(es) did you get with it?
