I'm seriously thinking about buying my first DSLR camera. All the reasons I want one are obvious I'm sure...better pictures at night, better firework pictures, better indoor lowlight pictures, etc.
My main concern is carrying the large camera around in the parks. I have a friend who told me she hates to carry hers on rides. That is kinda the whole point of why I want it.
I'm not a big backpack carrier either, and she told me you have to be to carry a DSLR.
Talk to me guys!!! Do you have one, how do you carry it, what about those FL downpours, will I be sorry I have it??????
After my 2011 trip with my girls I found my PNS camera really lacking in the indoor meet and greets and especially at the character dinners. That prompted me to get a DSLR.
8 days of open to close and carrying a DSLR can be done and I've done it.
A GREAT sling (strap) is a must. I've got a carryspeed pro which is amazing and light years ahead of black rapids straps, unfortunately the deep pockets of black rapids lawyers caused carry speed to go bankrupt in the US but you can still buy them out of the country and shipped into the US.
Next is a bag. You need some sort of bag because, no matter how hard you try, at some point you need to put it up. BTMRR, Space or Splash for example. I have a Kata bag.
Very similar to this one
http://www.amazon.com/Kata-KT-D-3N1...id=1426022001&sr=8-3&keywords=kata+camera+bag
You can use it as a sling or a back pack and in sling form you swing it around without taking it off and side access you camera very easily and safely. Very cool for standing in lines.
I carry my camera with a "walk around" lens on it. a 18-135 STM cannon lens 3.5-5.0f . Not too heavy and handles just about anything I might enouncter while walking around.
In the bag I carry one extra lens. A fixed 2.0f lens 17-50mm sigma. It takes great low light shots and cost / weight wise is about as good as I could come up with. I tried a 17-70~ 2.0 and it was way too heavy.
It's rare when I need the 2.0 lens and don't have time to change it.
I keep a diffuser (small fong puffer) to stick over the built in flash, weights about 1 ounce, very compact.
In the pack I get to keep a few small clear THIN trash bags (single use type things, folded up small, they take up minimal space. After a rain, just toss it. The bag itself also comes with a waterproof cover but the cover only covers the top, front, sides and bottom, the back (where your back would be) isn't covered. I also keep a small bag with some asprin, advil and tylenol in it, a handful of small bandaids and a small flashlight.
Spare battery for the cell phone and camera.
If I know I'm going to be doing a lot of night stuff, such as a
MVMCP I'll put a speed flash in it as well but usually I don't. It's too heavy to lug around all day.
Consider a locker. During my last trip I rented a locker stashed a tripod and flash in it. Cheap way to go for $15 IIRC.
A good sling for the camera will make or break you. Don't skimp, don't even consider it.
I'll be back next month and bringing my Canon T4i and the above "usual" stuff.
Last two trips to contemporary I brought my tripod and a few other lenses (I love shooting off the balcony into MK, especially at night. So many awesome pictures to take. Remember you can leave other lenses in the hotel room, you don't have to pack them all into the parks every day. At AK I subbed out a 250mm zoom lens for the shorter 2.0 lens. Really worked out well for some of the animal shots and I knew that low light shots would be few and far between there.
Oh, don't forget to get a rider for your home owners ins policy to cover your camera gear. Cheap peace of mind when you on a trip.
I bought my camera today!!!
) Inspired by that success I started digging through some other recent work and went through enhancing photos that looked perfectly fine but now I was able to shift color settings and lighting in such a way to bring out the details I had missed/hadn't concentrated on while taking the shots - Finally I remembered the Bellagio photo and brought it up too. I was able to not only correct the lighting with a few mouse clicks I did some color saturation enhancement and tweaked the blackness levels to bring out the neon and other lights all around the strip. Now a photo that was a nice but "incorrect" memory (several family members made large prints of it) was enhanced to be something that looked better than it actually did. (Ironically the family members like the yellow jets in the photo better because it makes the picture "warmer"...
)
