What kind of Camera do you use for Disneyland and where are your fav photo spots?

[ReneeB]

I'm looking to upgrade my digital camera and am just wondering what kind of cameras the other Disneyland fans out there are using to capture the spirit of the Happiest Place on Earth.

Part two of this question, just to make it more fun and interesting, is what are your favorite photo spots, or photo subjects in the Disneyland Resort?

Thanks in advance for all your input.

 

[AFMom]

We use a Sony digital 4.1 mega pixel with 4x optical zoom.
My favorite spots are looking out over the Rivers of America with the Mark Twain in the background from New Orleans Square, Looking over to the Sun Wheel across the water in CA ADV, From the top of Tarzans Treehouse, there are some neat spots in the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail, and neat props in Bugs Land. We try to get a picture in front of the flowered mickey head everytime, and somewhere different on Main St each time as well. Also - a picture of the group waving goodbye from Main St at the end of the last day.

 

[challada]

We've always used a Canon digital....just upgraded to a new 4.0 MP Canon.

My favorite spot for a pic is always inside the "o" of California...I have watched my kids grow inside that letter w/each trip.

Other pic spots we always do is on the jungle boat, eating a Mickey bar outside Small World, at the end of the "street" at California Adventure backlot area, with Minnie at her house, having lunch at Goofy's kitchen, at the entry flowers, in MadHatters....etc, etc, etc....

 

[Redcon1]

We use a Sony digital 4.1 mega pixel with 4x optical zoom.

AFMOM-
We just bought a Sony Cybershot 4.1 megapixel with a 3x optical zoom yesterday, our first digital camera!
Do you like yours? Does it seem to satisfy your needs? Any problems? Any tips on using it? We're taking ours for our DL trip in two weeks and between now and then we'll be doing our best to figure out how to use the different features, etc. I'm sure it's gonna take longer than two weeks tho. I guess we'll have to stay at DL till we get it down!

 

[geffric]

I just bought a Canon 3.3 mp, 10x optical zoom.. hope that it is okay with DL/DCA.. I thought that the 10x optical zoom would solve my problems with the old digital a Canon 3.2 mp with 3x optical zoom.. I'll let you know when we get back..

 

[HaleyB]

As for cameras, mine just died at 13 months and I was told by the maker they would give me a great price on another one... yeah like I want another one after this one goes belly up and you will not fix it... so don't by an HP Photosmart, whatever you do.

Photo spots,
The classic castle in the background picture on Main Street is a must for me. The trick to being able to get this shot without 100 other people in it is to get to the park at least 30 minutes before it opens (they open Main Street early).

Haunted Mansion Gate (standing under the gate) is a cool picture.

Also in the display cars in Fantasyland.

Toon town looks great in pictures, toons of good backdrops. I always take a bunch of my kids in the play area witht the mailboxes and jail. Also sitting on the edge of the big fountian (up by Minnie's House) is where we do a big group picture when we go with a big group...

Tom Sawyer's Island has some good spots too, where you can get a picture without tons of people in the way...

 

[crasher11]

We bought a Fujifilm S5100 4.0 mp, 10X optical Zoom digital Camera 2 weeks ago just for our June Trip to DL. I love the Camera, takes Clear sharp Pics. Hopefully I can take some good pics at DL, not much of a photographer here but working on it..LOL

 

[DLovinFam]

My brother got me a Sony Cybershot 5.1 mp for my birthday last fall, and I can't wait to use it at DL! For Christmas, he got me a 512 mb memory stick which, I think, holds around 3000 pics. I also have 32 mb and 256 mb memory sticks, so we shouldn't have to worry running out of room for pics!

 

[AFMom]

Redcon1 - Love our camera! Picture quality is great - we always keep it at the best quality setting, and get about 65 pictures on a 128 mb card. It's a little slow after a picture is taken to record the shot and be ready to take the next one - but that's pretty normal for any digital camera!
As far as tips - uh - no..... I don't use any of the fancy features really - I'm a point and shoot kinda person! I don't really use the video (the quality isn't too great ), the black and white print out with funny blue colors, so I don't use that anymore! I do kinda like the sepia tones - they look pretty neat, and you could probably get some cool Frontierland pictures using that setup! Have fun!

 

[hookedup]

I love my Canon PowerShot S70. It is 7.1 megapixels but it is small and compact. I keep it in my purse, fanny pack or around my neck with no worries. It is powerful and feature packed. I love it. I got it from Costco.

My fav pic spots - Castle front and side views, Storybook Island in Fantasyland, Tom Sawyers, on the Mark Twain Riverboat, Cannery Warf (DCA), in front of the Golden Dreams theater looking across the water to the Paradise Pier area (DCA), and in front of the 'A' at the entrance to DCA.

 

[drgalyen]

I have a Fuji Finepix S5000. It is a little bigger than the normal point and shoot but my husband has large hands and wanted something to fit him too. We love this camera but it took us awhile to get use to it. With that said here are a few things to look for:
1. I don't have one specific camera to suggest because it depends on what you want it to do.
2. Make sure it has a least 3 MP, the more the MP the better your picture quality. And set it a higher MP but not always the highest. Ours is a 3 MP but can go digitally up to 6 MP- we don't notice a difference between the 2 on our camera.
3. Also look for image stabilizer if you are not a steady hand- my camera does not have this feature and this is why it took some time to get use to it.
4. To get shots of someone on a roller coaster or far away you will need more optical zoom, but don't confuse that with digital zoom- if you use digital zoom then your pictures are very grainy.
5. Go to a camera shop and tell them what you want and they can help you the best. I wanted a smaller Nikon and when we checked them out the person told us about their very short battery life.
6. Tips while at the park: if you can download your pictures every night so you don't lose any of them in a accident. Make sure and have extra batteries on hand and/or charger in the hotel room. And don't forget the extra media card just incase

Lastly about where to take pictures. Don't worry as much about where but when you take the pictures- catch the reaction of your child when they first see the castle then take their picture in front of it. If going digital take lots of pictures, but dont' forget to print your favorite ones when you get home!
I am currently looking to upgrade to a Canon digital SLR for more advanced photography. But probably will not use it much for our trip to DL. Small and light works better.
Hope I didn't ramble too much, you just picked a subject I really enjoy and have researched a lot myself.

 

[Blndiebby25]

We just bought a Kodak Easyshare cx7430 with 4.0mp and 3x zoom. This is our first <a style='text-decoration: none; border-bottom: 3px double;' href="http://www.serverlogic3.com/lm/rtl3.asp?si=22&k=digital%20camera" onmouseover="window.status='digital camera'; return true;" onmouseout="window.status=''; return true;">digital camera</a> (didn't even realize that you "needed" a <a style='text-decoration: none; border-bottom: 3px double;' href="http://www.serverlogic3.com/lm/rtl3.asp?si=22&k=memory%20card" onmouseover="window.status='memory card'; return true;" onmouseout="window.status=''; return true;">memory card</a>, otherwise my camera would only be able to take about a dozen pictures ). Not sure how it will work for Disneyland (going for the first time in 21 days) but have tried it out around here and I'm pretty impressed.

 

[drgalyen]

Not all cameras need memory card. My MIL has, I think, a Kodak and hers does not need a card but she can use one with it if she wants. It puts the pictures on the camera itself, but you might be able to use a card also. I would still download each night just incase something happens to your camera you won't lose the pictures already taken. You should be able to download them to a computer even without a memory card, just use a USB cord. You best bet its to look through your manual or check it out on the Kodak web-site.

FYI, the bigger your card the more pictures you can take. A 128 card can take about 128 pictures at 1 MP, about 80 at 3 MP The larger the MP, the less pictures you can take.
Hope I didn't confuse you.

 

[Redcon1]

AFMOM-
Thanks for the feedback.
Back in my younger days, I used to love fooling around with things like cameras, vcr's, etc, but now I just don't know have time to sit and read thru all the instructions and fiddle with the different features(I still know how to adjust the clock on my vcr tho! ).
We have a 256mb memory stick which should hold about 128 photos, so between that and my daughters 35mm, we should be set.
Maybe I'll try the Sepia setting, that's a good tip.
drgalyen-
I don't understand when you say yours is a 3MP, but can go up to a 6MP digitally. If ours is a 4.1MP, is there a way to increase the MP's? Not sure I follow you on this. Also, do you know about how many pictures you can generally take on rechargable batteries. Ours only came with the two plus the charger and our salesman said, as long as we just recharge the batteries at night, we should be able to take a good number of pics the next day. Thanks!

 

[LUVCINDERELLY]

I would still download each night just incase something happens to your camera you won't lose the pictures already taken. You should be able to download them to a computer even without a memory card, just use a USB cord.

This maybe a really dumb question, but how do you download each night if you don't have a computer with you?

LuvCinderelly

 

[drgalyen]

To Recon1, About the MP: Some cameras, I'm not sure if all, you can change the MP for the camera. It is normally in the menu somewhere. I'm not sure exactly why since you'd think most people want to use the most MP for better picture quality.
Batteries: It all depends on the batteries and how long you leave your camera on. My camera shuts off by itself after a couple of minutes of not being used to save battery time. Normally though, the higher the number on the battery the longer it should last (we have 1800mAh and 2400mAh NiMH). My batteries will last at least a couple of day with taking pictures of kids in sports. But I would still recharge every night to make sure. The reason I say take extra batteries with you is because you never know when a battery will just up and quit working, its better to be save than sorry. Rechargeable batteries don't last forever, although mine are still going after one year.

LuvCinderelly: Sorry, I have a laptop that I will be taking with me specifically to download my pictures! But you can take your card or camera to any store that has one hour photo and get your pictures put on a disk-CD. This disk will work in any computer and you can also get pictures printed off it. Its normally only $3-4 to do this.

 

[Redcon1]

drgalyen-
I must've misread your statements about the MP's. I thought you were saying you had a maximum of 3MP and somehow it went up to 6MP. Now I understand it's just the opposite:your using the lower 3MP setting, but your maximum is 6MP. That's why I thought you were doing some trickery to get it to work at a higher setting.
I guess with the lower setting, folks can fit more onto the memory card. Good suggestion too about taking the card somewhere to burn a cd thus reopeing the space on the card. Even though, ours SHOULD hold all the pictures we want to take, my wife may go nutzoid since this a new "toy" where it becomes necessary to clear the card.

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

I have a Canon S40 - I've had it for a couple of years now and love the pics it takes - it is very easy to use.

 

[drgalyen]

Sorry Redcon1, you read it right the first time-MP. My camera has a 3.1MP with 6.0 interpolated. It is confusing so I just ignored the 6.0 since I don't notice a difference with photo quality. I found a definition of interpolated so hope it helps but I would probably forget about making sense of it if I were you.
The definition of Interpolation: In an image interpolation adds extra pixels. It's done with some zoom lenses.
A few cameras achieve their upper-most resolution through interpolation - that is, the camera actually can only achieve a lower resolution, and then it electronically makes the image larger. These interpolated images are usually not as sharp as a normally captured image.
Sorry, didn't mean to confuse anyone!

 

[Redcon1]

So in other words, it "blows-up" the image thus giving the photo a bit of distortion, making the image larger than it realistically and technically should be....I see now..thanks.