First DSLR trip to WDW in 6 weeks

[ThurlFan]

I recently purchased a Digital Rebel XSi with the kit lens (18-55mm), and also the Canon f/1.8 50mm. First thing I know is I've got a lot of practicing to do. I've been using shutter priority, aperture priority and full manual on my S3 for a while now so hopefully that will help a bit with the transition. Also, I'll be rereading Understanding Exposure and trying to do some exercises to get better acquainted with the new gizmo.

I'm super excited, but I want to keep expectations realistic for a quick 3 1/2 day trip. I also have to hope DW and DD will be patient with me while we're there

I expect to use the kit lens mostly, and try the nifty fifty on selected dark rides. Here's some of the things I'm interested in trying:

I'd really like to get some shots from shots from Spaceship Earth and Pirates.

What would be my chances of getting something worthwhile out of the Haunted Mansion? I figure I'm still out of luck on Peter Pan, though something from Pooh might be nice.

Fireworks are not a huge priority this time around. Will probably snap away at Spectromagic though.

Would love to hear any comments or suggestions from the peanut gallery.

 

[tazlikesrobots]

WDW is a great place to experiment with your new camera! I've taken my DSLR on my trips and had a great time taking photos in the park.

If you plan to shoot fireworks or in nighttime low light settings, I would remcommend playing around with the camera's bulb setting and use a tripod. this will allow you to keept the shutter open for a prolonged period of time and capture great detail on your photos. Plan around a 5 to 10 second exposure time and you'll have some great nighttime picutres.

I tried to get phots in the rides before, but I found that there is not enough light and the flash will ruid the effect you are after. You can try a high ISO setting (1600 or better) however your photos may not be crisp. This may be ok for web pictures, but printed photos will not look that good.

Good luck and have fun with your camera!

 

[scoot241]

Haunted Mansion will be tough. I struggled with the same camera and the Sigma 30mm f/1.4. I was able to capture some stretching room pictures, though.

You should be able to get some decent shots on SSE and Pirates. What I did was turn the ISO up to 1600, set the camera to shutter priority at 1/50 of a second, ignored the meter and just shot.

I suggest using the 50mm for Spectromagic. I found that shutter priority, 1/50 of a second, and ISO 800 worked well.

 

[boBQuincy]

Use ISO 1600 and Aperture Priority, set it for wide open, f/1.8. That will guarantee the fastest shutter speed possible. Try spot metering with exposure compensation of maybe -1/2 or even -1 for Madame Leota and dark areas of Pooh. For Spaceship Earth and Pirates evaluative metering worked ok.

The 50 is really not wide enough for some rides but anything as fast and wider is $$$.

 

[SrisonS]

I made a very similar camera transition. I used to have the S3, but upgraded to my first DSLR, a Rebel T1i, a few months ago. And your experience with the manual settings of the S3 will definitely help your learning curve. I don't have experience with the 50mm, but from what I sort of know about it, I'd definitely go with that on the dark rides. I've tried to use my kit lens on those dark rides.... and now I don't even bother taking it out in those situations. The only time you could get a decent shot with the 18-55mm is if the ride completely stops and the ISO is turned way up. But good luck!!!! I know you'll have a blast with your new cam. Also, if your memory card capacity allows, I'd suggest shooting in RAW now. It'll be the end of worrying about some of the camera settings (i.e. Shot settings like Cloudy, Daylight, etc...); as well as some other things. You can adjust those settings later.

 

[ThurlFan]

Thanks for the tips and suggestions. I'm going to make a short list of desired targets for Pirates, so I can try to not be in a hurry for any particular shot.

 

[Bstanley]

Thurlfan - I just returned from my first trip to The World with my brand new DSLR - which is identical to yours and I have to say that it is not quite fast enough to reliably capture dark ride pictures.

So having said that there were a couple of things I figured out:

First - between the ride motion and my 'wiggling' I can't take a clear hand-held picture below 1/30th of a sec with the 50 (not IS unfortunately). Most of the advice I read said to set the camera to aperature priority, but I had more successes setting it to a shutter (TV) priority of 1/30th. On the Rebel XS this forced the exposure to wide open (f1.8 with the 50) - it continually warned that there wouldn't be enough light, but by shooting RAW there was enough light to rescue some pictures in post processing.

Second - the camera just couldn't focus reliably - and neither could I - so I started doing a 'manual focus bracketing' exercise, taking several shots and adjusting the focus through a range. The focus issue was made worse by the fact that at f1.8 the lense doesn't have much depth of field. I also think leaving the camera in the default state of using all 7 focus points was a mistake. I found late in the week that setting it to only use the center focus point helped it - and I noticed that even if you are in manual focus mode the auto-focus points will blink red when you have manually adjusted the focus so that point is in focus - pretty handy actually - I got into the mode of adjusting the focus manually until the center dot lit and then shooting a shot, adjust the focus a bit, shoot another then adjust the focus the other way etc.

I never had a chance to put it to the test, but by the end of the week I was beginning to suspect that if I had been shooting the kit zoom I might have had the same luck - I was able to shoot 1/10th hand-held (it is Image Stabilized) with it. That would be 3 stops better than the 1/30th with the 50 right?

And I wondered whether setting the exposure adjustment lower or higher might have been useful - does setting it higher actually up the exposure 'amplifier' so that you effectively would get 2 ISO steps higher?

You might want to try some of that before you go.

Good luck! It's a challenge, but I think there are a number of shots I could have gotten if I had figured a few more 'tricks' ahead of time.