just back and boy is my Rebel XT tired.

[rtphokie]

Got back late Friday night from a week at WDW. The rain was tollerable but made photos a challenge. Humidity was very high and coming in and out of AC into the humid air fogged up my lenses many times.

I'm still weeding through the nearly 2300 shots I took and will post some as I get through them. Some thoughts...

• The Lowepro Slingshot 200 camera bag preformed like a champ. It's easy to open and grab the camera for quick shots and also easy to open up completely for inspection when going through bag checks. The built in rain cover got used a lot too. It comfortably fit: 300mm, 200mm, 50mm, and a 18-55 kit lens, a canon DV camcorder, a Canon Rebel XT, extra DV video tapes, a baseball cap, sunscreen, hand sanitizer, various maps and touring plans, and a bottle of water (in the optional bottle holder strapped on the side) and never once felt heavy. The cross chest strap kept it in place when navigating through crowds too.
• I'm glad I brought my Canon 100-300mm f4.5-5.6 USM lens. It came in handy on the AK safari.
• I never once used my Sigma 55-200mm f4-5.6 lens. I figured I'd be leaving it on the camera and occasionally switch to something else but ended up leaving the 18-55mm lens that came with my Rebel XT kit instead. Crowds were so low that I took wider shots than usual.
• I set ISO at 1600 often when shooting indoors then forgot about it and kept shooting outdoors producing blown out highlights and white skies due to the overcast conditions. I've got to remember to check that more often.
• I'm also glad I brought my Canon 50mm f1.8 lens. A lot more shots on Pirates of the Caribbean turned out that I expected. I even got a shot or two on Haunted Mansion.
• Focusing is a problem through the scrims between guests and the effects on the Haunted Mansion.
• I debated buying a bunch of CF cards before leaving but instead bought a JOBO image storage device which was on clearance at my local camera shop. It's basically a card reader and a hard drive. It worked great. I'd shoot all day with a pair of 2 GB cards, a 1 GB card, and a handful of smaller cards and then transfer them to the hard drive in the room at night. It's not the fastest at transferring but I was able to transfer 5+ GB some nights while getting my son in bed and watching a little TV before turning in myself.
• Any doubts about the durability of the JOBO drive were solved when I realized I'd put the drive in my camera bag the last day and that it had ridden Space Mountain and Splash Mountain at my feet.
• Before we go back, I'm getting a rain cover for the camera.
• My camera battery doesn't last nearly as long at WDW as it does at home because I used the flash so much there, especially when taking photos with characters.

 

[Master Mason]

Looking forward to your pics....

The ISO issue is one of the things I hopefully solved for myself with the 40D as it shows the ISO speed in the viewfinder.

I'll be finding out how the slingshot 200 works out for me next weekend

 

[SueInBoston]

The ISO issue is one of the things I hopefully solved for myself with the 40D as it shows the ISO speed in the viewfinder.

Ummmm, very tempting.....

I just blown a bunch of Columbus Day soccer tournament pictures. Again I forgot to reset ISO after taking pictures of players inside restaurant during lunch .

 

[bostran1]

I"m glad I'm not the only one who has this problem!

I'm going to game 2 of the ALCS on Saturday and that is the first thing I'll be looking at. I even put a sticky note on my camera to remind me when I start shooting!