Poll: New Gear or Trip to WDW?

[annnewjerz]

My Husband and I are finally at a point in our marriage where we are free of any credit card debt and have money in our savings account for a rainy day, and it only took us five years to get here!

This means, next year will more than likely be time to start thinking about/acting on starting a family. With a small portion of the money we've saved over the last few months, we decided that we'd both get one "reward" or "last hurrah" before taking the plunge. My Husband wants to go to Mexico again---it's his favorite vacation destination. I want to either a) go to Disney again since our last trip was cut short due to a death in the family or b) get some new gear, probably either an upgrade from the D90 or a new lens or two.

The camera gear would be nice because of the fact that it'll help me capture better memories of our eventual family. The trip to Disney would be nice because, well...let's face it, I love Disney and I'm having the shakes over the thought of not going back until maybe 4-5 years from now.

Which would you pick? It's a nice dilemma to have, but still troubling me all the same.

 

[Code]

That's a tough one, Ann. We were in the same spot with a bit of "last hurrah" money available before starting (and finishing lol) our family, but fortunately my wife wanted WDW also, so I didn't have to decide.

I'm really glad I had all the camera gear I reasonably wanted when my boys arrived, I have so many great photos of them as babies and that is priceless so that would probably be my vote.

But at the same time, our last trip to WDW was really, truly special. At the time, we were in the same boat thinking that it'd be at least 4-5 years till we returned (yeah, right ) and we had a great great time together just the 2 of us.

What camera gear would you get? D7000? Lenses? I forget what lenses you've got for your D90 now, still have Sigma 30/1.4 right? That lens, a fast standard zoom (17-50/2.8), and sometimes a bounce flash have been my essential pieces of kit for capturing my kids. 50/1.4 has been used much less than 30/1.4, but that might have something to do with there being 3 babies instead of 1 . Maybe I'd also consider 70-200/2.8 essential but really only in the past 6 months as they are mobile - it's a beast to lug but I love the results too much to leave it behind. The others - macro, UWA, fish - I've tried to use them for some creative kids shots now and then but usually fail.

 

[mom2rtk]

If you didn't have decent gear already, I'd vote for gear so you can document the addition to your family properly.

But once you take that big step, things change for good. Some good ways, some challenging ways. But you will never again be just a pair. Go celebrate that, make some memories. Then come home and add another Disney fan to the world.

Best of luck!

 

[mom2rtk]

BTW..... does your husband know you didn't even put Mexico on the poll?????

 

[annnewjerz]

What camera gear would you get? D7000? Lenses? I forget what lenses you've got for your D90 now, still have Sigma 30/1.4 right? That lens, a fast standard zoom (17-50/2.8), and sometimes a bounce flash have been my essential pieces of kit for capturing my kids. 50/1.4 has been used much less than 30/1.4, but that might have something to do with there being 3 babies instead of 1 . Maybe I'd also consider 70-200/2.8 essential but really only in the past 6 months as they are mobile - it's a beast to lug but I love the results too much to leave it behind. The others - macro, UWA, fish - I've tried to use them for some creative kids shots now and then but usually fail.

Cody, I'd probably get either a D7000 (or D700 if I could swing it) if I was going to upgrade bodies and for lenses, I might branch out and get some sort of zoom lens, although I'm not sure if I'd get a walk-around range or another 70-200. I had the Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 and sold it because I wasn't getting much use out of us and figured for all that money I could buy some stuff I'd really use. Maybe I'd get the Tamron 70-200 or Nikon 80-200 and then a faster all-in-one walk around lens.

Right now, I have a Lensbaby, Nikon 10.5 fisheye, Sigma 30/1.4, Nikon 50/1.2 (manual focus), Nikon 85/1.8 and Nikon 105/2.8 (manual focus). I also have an SB600 external flash and Gary Fong diffusers. I'm sure I'd have plenty of lenses/gear to use for great kid shots...just wondering if there is anything that may be important to add.

My thought about gear is that I can always find a way to buy some myself, whether it's Christmas/birthday money saved throughout the year or getting something as a gift...but a WDW vacation isn't something we'll be able to do because of funds, but also because of hopefully a baby.

 

[WDWFigment]

You have the gear you need to capture shots of the kids. While you can always add gear (if money allows) while the kids are little, you might be precluded from visiting WDW by their age, etc.

WDW, easily.

 

[annnewjerz]

BTW..... does your husband know you didn't even put Mexico on the poll?????

Oh Mexico isn't in the running at all, because it's already booked. It's Mexico and then either Disney OR gear, not one of the three. He'd never go for that.

 

[annnewjerz]

You have the gear you need to capture shots of the kids. While you can always add gear (if money allows) while the kids are little, you might be precluded from visiting WDW by their age, etc.

WDW, easily.

That was pretty much my thinking, just more efficiently stated.

 

[ThurlFan]

that was pretty much my thinking, just more efficiently stated.

+1

 

[mom2rtk]

Down the road I could definitely see the benefit of a fast walk-around zoom though. You have a lot of primes. It's harder to switch around as much when you're chasing a moving target.

 

[annnewjerz]

Down the road I could definitely see the benefit of a fast walk-around zoom though. You have a lot of primes. It's harder to switch around as much when you're chasing a moving target.

I do agree, only sort of though because I'm not a huge fan of the zoom lenses. The thing about getting a faster walk-around is that I can get a Tamron or Sigma for only a few hundred bucks. Usually for Christmas, I get around $500-$800 in Christmas money from my bosses at work, so that while I won't be guaranteed to be able to use all of it on myself once we have kids, I'm sure I could swing like $400 to buy a new lens if I really needed one. A vacation, on the other hand, will never be $400.

 

[photo_chick]

I vote for gear.

Before we had kids we went on vacations... our last hurrah was Vegas right after I got pregnant. I thought I'd have money to buy the things that I wanted later but I woudln't get a vacation for a while.

I was so wrong. Once I had kids I felt guilty dropping even $100 on a lens just for me, but not spending $2000 on a vacation for the whole family.

That's my experience anyway.

 

[Suburbanmom]

My first impulse was gear...without a doubt. You are going on a vacation with the hubster to Mexico, afterall.
Then I looked at my 15-year-old and realized how rare vacations for 2 have been for the last 15 years. Right now I'm embracing family vacations. In 3 years he'll go to college; his brother is not far behind.
Trips to WDW are vastly different with kids than as a couple. You won't get that again for a very long time.
Go to WDW and have a wonderful time.

 

[C&B Young]

You have the gear you need to capture shots of the kids. While you can always add gear (if money allows) while the kids are little, you might be precluded from visiting WDW by their age, etc.

WDW, easily.

This!

 

[ChiSoxKeith]

First of all, congrats on getting to being debt free and having your rainy day fund all set up!

Second....any chance either of you could pick up extra hours at work or so for a couple of months so you could do both? Disney AND some new gear?

 

[MarkBarbieri]

You have the gear you need to capture shots of the kids. While you can always add gear (if money allows) while the kids are little, you might be precluded from visiting WDW by their age, etc.

My experience is different. When our kids were very young, we made lots of trips to WDW. Now that they are in school, it is much harder. Trips have to either be during the summer (too hot), during long holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Spring Break (too crowded), over a weekend (too short), or we have to take the kids out of school (not our preference at their current ages). So for us, little kids were great for Disney trips but older kids are not.

With that said, I still lean towards your conclusion. You have gear enough already and the improvements for newer gear aren't going to be all that great. I would opt to do the WDW trip but do it on the cheap.

 

[ChiSoxKeith]

Usually for Christmas, I get around $500-$800 in Christmas money from my bosses at work, so that while I won't be guaranteed to be able to use all of it on myself once we have kids, I'm sure I could swing like $400 to buy a new lens if I really needed one. A vacation, on the other hand, will never be $400.

Man, can I work for your bosses? That's a nice little Christmas kicker.

 

[ColleenG]

So here's my 2 cents. Go to WDW. It sounds like you have a good collection of gear and once kids start coming along it gets really hard to take a vacation alone (check my sig). Go have one last hurah at Disney, just you and your hubby, maybe you'll even come home with a little souvenier!

 

[ukcatfan]

The memories will last a lifetime where the gear will eventually break or become outdated.

 

[Iwant2BAprincess]

Take the trip. Enjoy a couple of final just the 2 of you trips. We used to take several long weekend trips a year before our boys came along-they are almost 9 & 7 and we have taken no trips without them.

Besides, you already have good gear-it isn't like you are shooting with an old p&s.