I did it! And a few cameras in the parks questions

[mannasn]

I did it! I bought the Canon Rebel XT at a local camera shop this morning! DH was a little reluctant for me to shell out this much money, but I told him it was my graduation gift to myself (I graduate college in May).

A question for those of you with these larger/bulkier cameras - when you carry them into the parks, what do you do about those places/rides where they might get wet? Do you have a waterproof bag or do you stash it back in the room for those occasions?

Also - I know people often take hundreds of pics over the course of a vacation. How many blooming Flash cards do you have to fit that many photos? Or do you bring a laptop and download daily? Just curious about how that works with relatively small space (I got 1gb of flash, the largest they had at the shop - do they make larger ones?) and relatively hefty picture sizes.

 

[Kelly Grannell]

1. Congratulations. Welcome to the Canon family.

2. At the highest resolution JPEG, you can fit about 133 pictures (at ISO100) or 105 pictures (at ISO1600)

3. I have oodles of 512Mb Sandisk Ultra II cards. Why 512 Mb? Most places still burn/transfer your card to CD-R. By using 512 Mb card you're filling the safe-area of a CD capacity (700Mb) and there is no need to span (spread) the files from one card onto 2 CDs (some places can not span/spread a card larger than the size of the blank media, be it 650 Mb, 700Mb or 800 Mb -- yes, there are 80 Mb CD-Rs, don't use them, they are very unstable beyond 700 Mb mark)

4. If you do the 'old-school' way (think/compose before shooting) instead of just "shoot everything and select later" method, you don't need more than four 512 Mb cards for a 2 week vacation.

5. Out of curiousity... what lens do you use?

 

[mhutchinson]

Congrats, next you will get the lens fever and only see 'L' or start realizing thos cost of accessorizing.

To answer some of your questions, when you go on a wet and wild ride you will want to protect the camera from water. There are several bag makers out there that make all weather water proof bags. I put my 20D in a Lowepro AW for these magical moments. If there is a really good chance of getting wet, like on the river rafting ride at Animal Kingdom, you might want to double bag the camera (and parts or entire bag) in (double) ZipLock bags or another plastic bag or even put in in a tote (if you have one). And always pack a small towel just in case.

Compact Flash cards can be bought in intervals to 8 Gigabytes (GB). When I shoot I typically have my camera in a Medium Fine setting, this yields very good quality and size (6+ megapixel)....it also allows for about 300 or so pictures per card. Use large only for those special shots you really intend to make a poster out of.

I am heading down next week with 5 cards (4-1 GB SanDisk Ultra 2 and 1-2GB Ultra 2). The Ultra 2 is more than fast enough for a camera with a maximum write speed between 12X-24X. You can shop around and typically pick up the 1GB for $35-$60 and the 2GB for about $70-$100 depending on the speed, check buy.com, amazon.com, or costco for prices. As far as how many cards or laptops, I'd rather have a 1/2 dozen cards than just one or two for that just in case factor and no laptop unless you need it for another reason...no sense in lugging another thing with you. And like Kelly mentioned think before you shoot to minimze too many, but when you do shoot, shoot a couple...subjects and backgrounds don't always co-orperate and the extra shot might make the difference.

A tip fo minimzing memory usage is to periodically review the pictures that you have taken and like (to whatever degree) and tag them as 'protected'. Then if you need to free up space you can perform an erase all to remove the unprotected ones. If you are nervous doing this, as you are reviewing the pictures or after taking one that is not a keeper just delete it off the card.

You should also grab a spare battery, my spare came with a 'starter kit' that also included a bag and UV filter. The bag is just an advertisement to rip me off, so it stays at home as an all holding storage bag. But the price ended up being better than buying the filter and battery seperatley online.

BTW you are always better off going into the parks and having more memory than not enough. You don't want to be buying these at Disney Dollars.

Mike

 

[makinorlando]

BTW you are always better off going into the parks and having more memory than not enough. You don't want to be buying these at Disney Dollars.

Mike

You got that right... twice in recent weeks, I went with camera in hand, and memory still in the computer at home. (I don't always take a camera bag for quick visits>0

I paid - $54 for 256 MB card and $25ish for 128 MB.

Believe me - I DON"T leave home without it now.

 

[mannasn]

Kelly -

I just got the kit lens, and plan on ordering a Sigma. Strangely enough, the shop had lots of cameras but very few lenses. Go figure.

I've been playing around taking photos in Auto, and actually attempted to tweak the settings some in Manual. I'm such a newbie, so that proved disastrous. I need to keep reading my photography book before I attempt that again. I'm seeming to have alot of trouble with focus, so far.

We're going to the local national park to hike and fish tomorrow, so I hope to get some practice out there!

 

[Ratpack]

The info you have received is all great. The only thing I would add as far as memory goes is if you start shooting in RAW mode as I did, the number of photos per card oes way down. I have a 1GB card and in RAW mode, I get 135 photos. Also, I shoot that many in a 3 hour trip to the local zoo. So whatever you shoot normally will increase at WDW. I take the laptop route and download my pictures each day after the parks, plus that is how I archive them, by day (meaning the folder name is the date). Good luck with the new camera and have fun.

 

[PaulD]

I always download my photos at the end of the day. If you're not interested in lugging around the laptop consider a digital wallet. Theses are portable hard drives with built in card readers that are designed to backup your cards. You can get a 60gb drive for about $170 at Costco.com (look for the Wolverine). Of course they become increasingly more expensive as they add features (like color LCDs and larger hard drives). Also look at BHphotovideo.com and Adorama.com.

I have two different digital wallets that I use on my trips. Neither can be bought anymore but they still work great.

 

[Razor Roman]

Mannasn,

congrats on graduating!

I find a nice way to shoot in "manual" in m Rebel is to use Program AE mode. You can use that, set your ISO to 100 and get tons of great shots outdoors in the sun. That lets you manually select if you want flash or not, and set your own ISO/White balance and more or less let the camera do the rest. Bump your ISO to 800 or 1600 and leave the flash closed and see how well you can do taking pictures where "no flash photography" is allowed.

This will also let you shoot in RAW mode if you'd like.

 

[WillCAD]

I have a great poncho for my camera from a company called Glad - it's sold in supermarkets under the name Ziploc.

I take a 1-gallon Ziploc and snip the bottom corners off, and carry it folded up in my pocket all day. When water from a ride or falling from the sky threatens, I put the bag over the camera, run the strap's quick-connects through the small holes in the bottom, and put it back around my neck. The holes are small enough that no water will get through them unless you actually immerse the camera, and even then the air pressure inside the bag would probably keep leakage to a minimum.

As far as memory, I take my laptop to WDW and download my pcs at the end of each day. I carry two 512mb CF cards with me, which is more than enough to cover a single day's hard shooting.

I shoot my 300D in Medium Fine mode, which is about 2.7mp. But I never print my pics, so this lower resolution works fine for me. In fact, I have printed a few pics from those files at sizes up to 8x10 and still gotten beautiful prints from them, although if I were printing all the time I would set the resolution higher.

 

[ndelaware]

I did it! I bought the Canon Rebel XT at a local camera shop this morning! DH was a little reluctant for me to shell out this much money, but I told him it was my graduation gift to myself (I graduate college in May).

A question for those of you with these larger/bulkier cameras - when you carry them into the parks, what do you do about those places/rides where they might get wet? Do you have a waterproof bag or do you stash it back in the room for those occasions?

Also - I know people often take hundreds of pics over the course of a vacation. How many blooming Flash cards do you have to fit that many photos? Or do you bring a laptop and download daily? Just curious about how that works with relatively small space (I got 1gb of flash, the largest they had at the shop - do they make larger ones?) and relatively hefty picture sizes.

Congratulations on your new camera! Hope you get lots of great memories with it.

On a Rebel XT with a 1 Gb card you will get approximately 250 shots at the highest JPEG setting or just over 100 if you shoot in RAW. I would recommend staying with JPEG unless you want to do alot of processing work on your images. I have four 1 Gb cards but I really never even fill one on a day at one of the parks. I take my laptop and my card reader with me and copy them to the hard drive on the laptop. I then immediatly burn them to a CD just for backup purposes. They do make larger CF cards, 8Gb if you want, but they are pretty expensive. If you are a Costco member they are selling Sandisk Extreme II 1 Gb CF cards this weekend for $50. Worth getting one or two if you can.

 

[pxlbarrel]

What do you guys carry it in that doesn't make you feel like a pack mule? I'm used to a G5 and recently carried my new Rebel XT on a trip to NYC. I used a LowePro bag (typical looking gadget bag) to hold the body, 2 lenses and a flash. It was so cumbersome I couldn't believe it. (It was like a flashback to the 80's when I used to carry about 30 lbs of equipment with me. )

I came home and immediately bought a LowePro Zoom Bag. I plan on carrying the body and 1 lens (and spare battery) in it while carrying the telephoto and flash in backpack (that I usually bring with me to the parks). So far, the Zoom bag is so much better than the other bag. The test will be my trip to DL in August.

Just need to find a telephoto bag now. <sigh>

 

[enchanteddisney]

I use a Tamrac Expedition 5 to carry as much as I can handle and/or need.
It's water proof just in case you are on splash. hehe. I carry it on the plane and not have to worry about having pieces here and there. I carry a Canon 350D, four filter, 2 lens (one being a 100x400), batteries, Cards, Battery charger, tripod, mini tripod and other stuff. It is very light. It doesn't make me feel like a pack mule at all really. I have full mobility.

Tamrac Expedition 5

I have a Tamrac Tek backpack I am wanting to sell if anyone is interested. It is like this one. Except it is a dark green.

Tamrac Tek Back Pack

 

[WillCAD]

What do you guys carry it in that doesn't make you feel like a pack mule?

Air.

I put the camera on a wide, comfortable, cloth strap, with a good walkaround lens, and wear it hanging from my shoulder and neck all day. My strap is long enough that I can get the camera into shooting position without taking my arm out of it.

I carry no spare lens - that's the whole reason I invested in a 28-200mm for my film camera, and last week in an 18-125 for my Digital Rebel, so I could have just one lens that fits a wide enough variety of shooting conditions that I wouldn't need any others.

I typically carry my Canon Speedlight 220EX flash in my pocket, along with a spare memory card. I don't yet have a spare battery for my Digital Rebel, but on my last WDW trip I didn't even run the battery down half way in a single day's shooting.

Having a lot of equipment can make it easier to get a great shot, but the way I figure it, the most important piece of equipment you'll ever need is that gray goop between your ears. As long as you have some of that, everything else is superfluous.

 

[boBQuincy]

I carry a 24-105 and 70-200, the 'small' lens is good for maybe 95% of my photos and the long lens gets the rest (except for the very rare time when I need even more).

Memory cards? Carry a few 2GB cards and you're good for the day! I do pack a lot of memory cards since I shoot in RAW. Btw, if you are not shooting in RAW you are missing out on a lot of the power of the SLR. A jpg has 8 bits, a RAW has 12, that's 16 times as much information in the file!

I usually keep the camera strap wrapped around my wrist and the rest stays in a LowePro Nova Mini bag. It's a workable combination that doesn't feel like too much, even after a 12+ hour day at a theme park.

Some of my WDW trips are "fun & ride" trips and others are "photo" trips, each with a different amount of equipment, but that's another topic...


boB

 

[Kelly Grannell]

Bob, I'm contemplating to buy the 24-105 f/4L IS. What do you think about the wide side? Is it wide enough? Because unless you're using an FF camera (such as 5D), it will be equivalent to 36mm lens on an APS-C sensor camera (such as XT or 30D).