Camcorder or no Camcorder.....that is the question?!

[dan_smith]

I am thinking of taking a video camera with us for our trip and wondered whether its a good/bad idea?

I obviously don't want to lose it but on the other hand I would love to get some videos of the shows!

Any suggestions?

 

[Pegasus928]

Is it your first trip?
Are you going with friends and family and will want to capture once in a lifetime memories?
Personally I couldn't imagine going without a camcorder, and as a family we love sitting down and reminding ourselves what we got up to.

 

[dan_smith]

It'll be my first trip and my gf's first trip without her parents and family etc so were going together, I think the same, it will be a great memory to try and share etc and will be great to have something to look back on.

I was thinking more along the lines of a waterproof one one also (just in case)!

 

[Pegasus928]

Waterproof is a good idea. I wish I had had one during my last trip as I would have loved to have some footage on the wet rides, and in the splash zone at Believe.
I find it a lot of fun putting some of the clips together when we get back and have made a couple of music videos of our favourite bits. You can see them in my signature below if you are interested. To me this makes carrying it around the parks worthwhile.

 

[dan_smith]

Brilliant thanks!! Cool webpage!

 

[Pegasus928]

Brilliant thanks!! Cool webpage!

Thank you

 

[Dimplenose]

Our camcorder caused family tension as DH was for ever stopping (without warning) to film stuff. Our two teenagers didn't want to be filmed at all, which caused more problems. DH began to feel he was having a holiday through a view finder rather than experiencing it first hand.

In the end we came to a compromise and just took it out on some days and left it firmly locked in the safe on the others.

 

[JohnnySharp2]

We haven't taken our camcorder for years though we have many memories on the tapes we accumulated when we did take it.

With all the things we have to take in the hand luggage, including portable DVD player for Joshua plus 4 fairly heavy batteries, numerous discs, digital camera, etc etc we just find it too much to carry though to be honest it isn't one of the newer & smaller digital type.
In addition when I did take it I seemed to find I was either fliming or taking pictures a lot of the time at the theme parks and not necessarily enjoying the experience.

 

[fuse04]

We always take the camcorder but sometimes I over use it but it is great to look back on as DD grows up

 

[2Tiggies]

The modern compact camcorders are so lightweight - in fact, often smaller and less bulky than your average good camera. I think it is worth it. I don't have one and my camera takes very good quality video clips, but I am seriously considering getting one for this trip.

 

[dan_smith]

Our camcorder caused family tension as DH was for ever stopping (without warning) to film stuff. Our two teenagers didn't want to be filmed at all, which caused more problems. DH began to feel he was having a holiday through a view finder rather than experiencing it first hand.

In the end we came to a compromise and just took it out on some days and left it firmly locked in the safe on the others.

Yeah I think this is my worry, if I film too much I might subconciously miss something, or a lot!

On the other hand I guess I could venture into getting a digital camera with the video option!

 

[wayneg]

We have taken one about 6 times. Only time I have watched the footage is when transferring to DVD. I much prefer to look at photographs than video.
I guess someday I will watch them and be glad I took it, maybe I should watch the 1st one from 17 years ago and see how things have changed.

 

[Neoshoegal]

For us it's definitely yes, but then again, we're event filmmakers so it's hard to leave our job at home. This year we did buy a new camera, Panasonic Lumix GH1, which is a stills and video camera in one, professional HD video quality. Saved us carrying photo and video equipment about.
Think about it this way: if you were to find a film of your great-grandparents first vacation together and a photo album of that vacation, but can only see one, which one would you choose? Your answer will answer your own question about taking a video camera or just a stills camera.

 

[dan_smith]

For us it's definitely yes, but then again, we're event filmmakers so it's hard to leave our job at home. This year we did buy a new camera, Panasonic Lumix GH1, which is a stills and video camera in one, professional HD video quality. Saved us carrying photo and video equipment about.
Think about it this way: if you were to find a film of your great-grandparents first vacation together and a photo album of that vacation, but can only see one, which one would you choose? Your answer will answer your own question about taking a video camera or just a stills camera.

Thats an excellent point!! Now im swayed again!!HAHA

 

[torsie24]

We have a tiny flip video which is great for what we need.

I would much rather watch the shows with my eyes and enjoy them than worry about filming.

Plus there are always better videos on youtube than ones I do.

When we take our kids I'll take videos at it'll be about fiming them having a wonderful time, but while it's jsut the two of us and we'd only film stuff I can watch online we don't see the point.

 

[JohnnySharp2]

As I said earlier and others have also said I think having a camcorder is great for a Florida holiday and we have many tapes of Joshua's early years which are priceless.
I just personally found with a camera AND camcorder I was constantly using one or the other at the parks and it distracted from my enjoyment, though having all those memories is special.

It also was something extra to carry in hand luggage and we were already taking quite a lot of stuff.

 

[Clare D]

We have a Flip Mino HD and for us it is great as it is the size of a mobile phone and you can record 2 hours worth of footage before you need to download to a PC. Much better than the camcorder we have used in the past.

 

[Kevin Stringer]

I wouldn't dream of going on any holiday without a camcorder these days. Back when it was difficult to edit video you ended up with hours and hours of unwatchable footage. Now it can be downloaded to a computer, edited to a reasonable length and music added very simply, although it can be somewhat time consuming.

We watch dvd's of our old holidays fairly often and they are wonderful reminders of the places we've been and the things we've seen.

I do agree with those that have said you can spend so long looking through the viewfinder of the camcorder that you can forget to enjoy the show, parade etc you are filming. You just have to get the balance right.

Kev

 

[zippy99]

We have a Flip Mino HD and for us it is great as it is the size of a mobile phone and you can record 2 hours worth of footage before you need to download to a PC. Much better than the camcorder we have used in the past.

We too have a FLIP (in fact I won one at work) we used that last year for filming shows etc. Ours only has 60minutes, however, we just film bits - and then upload them to the laptop. My favourite video we did was our ride on Test Track - my daughters face was hysterical!

 

[Natasha&Matt]

Just me and my boyfriend going and we bought a waterproof camcorder to take the sanyo vpc-wh1 looking forward to using it