do you carry your

[grover]

camera with you most of the time?
granted some of you have a lot of gear and it may not be practical.
just curious

 

[PoohJen]

Well, depends what you mean.

On my last trip to WDW, I brought it to the parks everyday, finally leaving it in the room for the last night. And I brought it with me everywhere on my Disney cruise, and to every one of my son's baseball games.

But I don't bring it to work, keep it in the car, etc. To valuable for me to start getting careless about it. And it did get a little heavy around the parks, but I'm glad I had it!

I don't carry all my gear to the parks (I do to the games, b/c I can just stick it in the car when not in use). I need to invest in a better hip style bag for just carrying the camera around w/o all the gear.

 

[Dan Murphy]

On vacations, yes, day-to-day, no, but I should.

 

[Scottl]

I carried mine everywhere I went at Disney. You never know when you'll need it. I don't usually have it with me driving around at home but there have been several times when I saw a sunset or something and said to myself, "self, wish I had my camera" .

 

[scoolover]

In Oct, I had it every time I left the room. It was a pain but I found some comfortable ways to carry it. At home it stays packed away unless there is an event going on.
Scott

 

[DebºoºS]

In WDW I carry a small digi with me at all times. My good camera is used for fireworks or special events. It's too heavy to carry all day and night. At home the small digi stays by the backdoor to grab shots of passing wildlife, hot air balloons, butterflies. Good lenses & bodies stay in the hall closet within easy reach but protected. I'll use them soccer or other events. I use my phone to take pics that pop up out of the blue. Like the peacock who daily blocked traffic by strutting in front of cars back and forth in the road. People would get out to shoo him away and as soon as they got in their cars he would do it again

 

[barrie]

I've been staying at SSR since last Wednesday and have carried my camera bag with me most of the time. Twice in the evening I left my bag when I went out to dinner.

I have a Tamrac Velocity 5 bag that has worked out really well. Mostly I have carried it over my shoulder, but I found it more comfortable to carry it like a fanny pack when standing in one place for awhile - like for fireworks. I only noticed my back starting to get a little sore starting yesterday. Of course the bag is a bit heavy, but not too bad. This was the first time I used this bag and I loved it - it worked great.

In it is

• a D50 body
• 2 lenses (18-55 and 55-200)
• polarizer filter
• remote control
• 3 SD cards (one 2GB and two 1GB - I only ran out of disk space before the end of the day once. I am shooting in RAW+jpeg basic and downloading photos to my computer each night.)
• a tiny flashlight
• manual
• there was also room to carry all my little personal things - park maps, pen, list of photos to get, hand lotion, advil, money, tickets, sunglasses and gum

On one night I carried my mini tripod. That was pointless and I'll never bring it again. It was too limiting. There are trash cans everywhere except where you want them to be. For some strange reason Disney doesn't like to place the trash cans in the middle of the walkways - I just don't get it!

I did take my full size tripod but only carried it when I wanted to get good night shots and if I felt like going back to the room to get it and SSR is a long way from everything. Yesterday I carried my tripod all day. That was fine, but I wouldn't want to do it everyday. My tripod is a big, sturdy one that doesn't fold down very small. It works great but isn't that handy for carrying around all day.

This was a solo trip and my focus was to take photos and attend MouseFest. Whenever I didn't feel like carrying everything I just reminded myself that that's what I was here for. There was of course a bit of fun mixed in too! Things I learned to make it easier on the next trip:

• Changing lenses is a big hassle, especially when you only have one polarizer filter. It's enough to deal with camera settings when going indoors and out and wanting closeups and wide shots. I REALLY want the 18-200 VR lens so I don't have to carry 2 lenses and so I don't feel like I need to rely so much on my tripod to get sharp photos.
• It's great to have a full size tripod but next time I'll bring a lighter weight one that folds up small enough to strap onto my bag or leave in a locker.
• I'll bring along a little point and shoot for those times when I just don't feel like having photography be the main focus of what I'm doing - or when I don't feel like looking like such a geek. A big camera bag just doesn't go well with nice dinner attire.
• I'll stay in the Boardwalk area so I am closer to the places I most like to take photos.

So how's that for a long-winded reply to your post grover?! Four people posted in the time it took me to write this! Definately my longest post ever. Now I'm off to Epcot to take more photos...

 

[Anewman]

Wife always has a compact Digicam in her purse, I always have a DSLR CASE in the back of the SUV.

 

[extreme8]

I try to keep my DSLR with me whenever it's practical.
My D200 is sitting along side my desk right now in my Lowepro compudaypack.
With that backpack there is very little reason not to have my essential camera gear with me most of the time. It has a seperate camera zipper section on the bottom, it has a sleeve for my laptop, and a fair amount of space for other items.
The Nikon adds some weight, but I feel it's worth it.

 

[Cheeky in TN]

Depending on where I am going, i will typically bring a camera. If I know it is going to just be random shots, I will bring my SD800 which fits in my pocket with it's case. If I think there might be something where I will want to take a portrait or still life etc, I will take my Tamarac backback that has the Rebel XTI, three lenses, flash, mini tripod, a Minidv camcorder and my sd800. It sounds like a lot, but the backpack does a great job of organizing everything and I am prepared for about anything when I take it with me.

 

[boBQuincy]

I try to always have my older D30 with the low-end 28-90 lens with me. You never know when a great phot opportunity will appear. If I can't carry the dSLR I try to at least have my small P&S.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Yes, I always have my camera in my pocketbook. For Disney trips, I'm never without it.

 

[ukcatfan]

It was just within this past year that I was able to remove my 35lb. DD off my shoulders everywhere we went in WDW, so a few pounds of camera gear does not seem like much! Talk about a sore back after five days of her on my shoulders. She is five now and I had to cut her off.

I always take my camera with me everywhere in WDW, b/c you never know when you will need it. There have been days where it never even came out, but at least it was there in case.

Now that I have a DSLR, I plan to carry it and my old S1 IS. I want to keep it around in case I come across something and need to react quick, but have the wrong lens on the DSLR. It also takes decent video.

I do not carry any to work with me b/c I would probably end up leaving it there and then need it at night. My route to work is pretty darn boring also. A wreck is about the only thing that would be picture worthy. Then again, I always have my super powerful 0.5MP camera phone I can't help but laugh when I see people using these things for all of their pics at WDW.

Kevin

 

[Groucho]

Considering that I've had nightmares for years of going on vacation (usually WDW) and forgetting my camera, you can be sure that it's never far away when I'm in a Disney park (or any other vacation)!

At home...well, it's usually not far away. I sometimes toss the camera bag in the car when going to work and bring it in (don't want it sitting in the car all day, just for the heat/cold if nothing else), but most of the time it stays home. It's an older Tamrac and holds the K1000 and the DL plus five lenses, a couple filters, a clamperpod, remote shutter, mini tripod (a slightly oversize one that just barely supports the cameras), some memory cards, etc - pretty much everything except the tripod, monopod, and 400mm. Adorama is shipping me an OpTech SOS strap for it which should help with the weight, and that is the LAST FREAKIN' THING I'M BUYING before our trip in 18 days! The LAST! (I do wish I had a half-way tripod case with shoulder strap, that I could cram the monopod and 400 into.)

I would carry it with me more on an everyday basis if I weren't driving around my 20-month-old nearly every day! That kind of puts a crimp on the ability to pull over here and there and take a photo of something interesting. Lucky for him that he's so darn cute.