Digital SLR users: Favorite WDW walk around lens?

[wdwmagic]

For all those SLR users out there (Digital or non), what is your favorite lens to take around the parks?

 

[RonAnnArbor]

What camera? I have a Nikon and use the 18-200 vibration reducation lens on all travel trips.

In general, I tend NOT to take my dSLR into any of the parks - I throw my compact digital camera in my cargo shorts pants pocket and use that. The dSLR is just too big of a pain to take with you, unless you are merely walking around and not experiencing the attractions.

 

[PhotoDave219]

Jeez, tough question.

The 18-200s or the 28-200s make for good, general purpose, DAYTIME lenses. Good focal length, its bright sunshineso you dont have to worry about the f stop being too high, etc. Plus you can get the castle show pretty good (you do need to be about midway through the crowd for that, about 10 feet in from the curb) but still be wide enough to get that shot of Big Thunder from the rope bridge on Tom Sawyer's Island as well as some fireworks on a time exposure.

(I still like walking around with a 50 on my camera, but thats just me an my ideas.)

Others that ive heard mentioned.....

17-55 / 17-85 /28-70 .... definetlyt short, compact telephoto that is good for shooting your kids 10 feet away, but not much else.

12-24 / 17-35 ..... too wide unless youre going to be on top of your subject and have the lens wide open.

70-200 / 70-300 ..... too tight unless your shooting your kids 10 feet over there, and that castle show way over there and Albert Puljos guarding the line over at first.... Too much lens.

100-400 - If you have this lens, you can afford to pay someone to carry it for you. Not practical for much unless you're say shooting the castle show from the contemporary.....

 

[mousermerf]

I'm with Ron. I've actually seen people destroy a few nice SLR's at the parks, so i'm extremely wary of bringing one in aside from a special event.

 

[PhotoDave219]

It can happen anywhere. I know a guy who works for AP who fried a Canon Mk2 during the super bowl. Ive seen 400mm lenses come apart on the sidelines of a football game as if you were stepping on a child's toy. Ever see what a baseball does to a camera?

There's inherent risk in anywhere you take your camera. Whether you're willing to risk it is your decision.

WDW is generally safe for a DSLR assuming your willing to take care of it and pay attention to where on your body you carry it. When i work, ive got one body around the neck and one around the shoulder, always in front of my body. You just have to be mindful of your surroundings, thats all.

I was at MK yesterday, crowds were heavy for this time of year - regular for the summertime - and saw countless DSLRs, usually going in and out of people's bags. I've yet to see someone's get destroyed at MK.

 

[wdwmagic]

Jeez, tough question.

The 18-200s or the 28-200s make for good, general purpose, DAYTIME lenses. Good focal length, its bright sunshineso you dont have to worry about the f stop being too high, etc. Plus you can get the castle show pretty good (you do need to be about midway through the crowd for that, about 10 feet in from the curb) but still be wide enough to get that shot of Big Thunder from the rope bridge on Tom Sawyer's Island as well as some fireworks on a time exposure.

(I still like walking around with a 50 on my camera, but thats just me an my ideas.)

Others that ive heard mentioned.....

17-55 / 17-85 /28-70 .... definetlyt short, compact telephoto that is good for shooting your kids 10 feet away, but not much else.

12-24 / 17-35 ..... too wide unless youre going to be on top of your subject and have the lens wide open.

70-200 / 70-300 ..... too tight unless your shooting your kids 10 feet over there, and that castle show way over there and Albert Puljos guarding the line over at first.... Too much lens.

100-400 - If you have this lens, you can afford to pay someone to carry it for you. Not practical for much unless you're say shooting the castle show from the contemporary.....

Interesting comments, thanks. I've read a lot of people liking the 50mm, espeically the 1.4 1.7 versions.

What are your thoughts on a 30mm f1.4 on a cropped sensor?

 

[PhotoDave219]

Interesting comments, thanks. I've read a lot of people liking the 50mm, espeically the 1.4 1.7 versions.

What are your thoughts on a 30mm f1.4 on a cropped sensor?

Sounds perfect. (And sounds expensive!) A friend of mine who does weddings gets some amazing things out of a 24/1.4

Super fast lens, great for street photography, probably phenominal at night. Great for portraiture with such a narrow depth of field.

Should equate to the old standard 50mm on a film camera which is about the same field of view a human eye sees. On a dSLR that would be between a 30-35mm lens, depending on the crop factor of the chip in the back. All of Nikon uses a 1.5x crop (same size of film APS) whereas the Canons can range from 1.4x-1.7x crop depending on which model you have from a MkII to a older Digital Rebel. Although a 5D has a full frame CCD, meaning a 17mm lens is a 17mm lens, film or digital.

A friend of mine who just got a job in Georgia loves the look of a wide angle lens with no flash. Using a 1.4 lens sound great. IF you can afford it, it should be fun......

 

[Laura]

I would think the most versatile lens would be a wide angle zoom. That way you can pick from different focal lengths for different situations, and the cheap little one I have is great for night photography (with a tripod/garbage can/etc). Then to make up for the limited aperture you could mess around with ISO.

The last "major" Disney vacation I took (11 days) I ended up breaking my 50/1.8 on the first day of the trip. After that happened I decided to just throw my telephoto lens in the glove box and used my wide angle zoom exclusively the whole trip and it served me well.

Lately though, I've been resorting to a teeny point and shoot when I'm out and about because it gets to be exhausting carrying around so much equipment.

 

[JROK]

I go to WDW probably 30-40 days a year and I've been bringing my DSLR since Fall of 2004 and I've never had an issue. As long as you bring a nice small backpack and pack with one lens you'll be good.

My WDW DSLR Setup:
-Tamrac Expedition 3 Backpack
-(2) SanDisk 2GB Ultra II CF Cards
-Canon 20D with Battery Grip
-Canon 24-70 f/2.8L (with or without hood depending on if I plan on shooting parades or shows outdoors)
-Canon 420EX Flash
-Lens cloth

That's it, and it works fine. Plus there's still room in the backpack to throw some candy snacks, maps, and even pins for pin trading.

BUT, the 24-70 is a large and heavy lens. My friend has a 50 f/1.4 he brought once and while it was very light and made for great photos, it's definitely not wide enough. I would say use the Canon 20mm up to the Canon 35mm prime lenses, and if you want a zoom, the 17-55mm or something in the range of my lens, 24-70.

The thing about Disney is there's all sorts of photos to take. I've seen people at Animal Kingdom with their 70-200 f/2.8L taking photos of the animals, or that same lens at Magic Kingdom shooting the castle shows, but I figure they're only there to shoot that specific thing. If you're with your family at the parks, you definitely want WIDE so you can get photos of your kids in queue lines, at Character Dinners eatting, or on the monorail. My 24mm is wide enough to cover that, and the 70mm is pretty nice stretch to get something a little further away.

I would also suggest you get something with a nice big f-stop (low f/number)so you won't need to use your flash as often, and to get better bokeh in the background. Having a fast lens is never a bad thing

So it all depends on what you want to shoot. If you want to shoot it all, then bring two lenses. One for shows/animals, and one for walk around. Just remember to have fun and enjoy yourself. Don't be a camera slave and miss out on the experience because you're fumbling with your camera.

 

[Laura]

The thing about Disney is there's all sorts of photos to take.

Exactly. What I tend to do these days, now that I have thousands of photos of WDW, is carry around all the lenses the first few days to get my nice photos that I can show off, and then switch to the little point and shoot for the rest of the week to capture the family moments that only I will care about. It's really difficult for me to settle on just 1 lens when there's so many subjects.

 

[PhotoDave219]

BUT, the 24-70 is a large and heavy lens. My friend has a 50 f/1.4 he brought once and while it was very light and made for great photos, it's definitely not wide enough. I would say use the Canon 20mm up to the Canon 35mm prime lenses, and if you want a zoom, the 17-55mm or something in the range of my lens, 24-70.

Totally agree to a point. If the 50 1.4 isnt wide enough, back up 10 feet. Mid range zooms are nice if you have a full frame ccd. But the 24-70 just isn't close enough for a stage show, it really isnt.

Don't be a camera slave and miss out on the experience because you're fumbling with your camera.

Well said.

 

[e4ymod]

I personally don't think you can manage with only one lens. There are so many different possible subjects at WDW. I usually take 3 lenses...

50mm 1.4 for streetmosohere, portraits, and low light situations where you can't use flash (inside the rides or shows)

70-200mm f4 mostly for wildlife photography at Animal Kingdom

17-85mm f4-5.6 can usually take care of everything else even macro (not great macro, but it works)

 

[JROK]

Totally agree to a point. If the 50 1.4 isnt wide enough, back up 10 feet. Mid range zooms are nice if you have a full frame ccd. But the 24-70 just isn't close enough for a stage show, it really isnt.

But sometimes you can't backup, like if you want to capture your child's smile as the parade rolls down Main St. If you're sitting next to them, it's hard to step out into the parade route or move down the road to capture the shot. This is where a nice wide angle would come in handy, especially if you're not full frame like a 5D or something. I'm all about zooming with your feet.

 

[PhotoDave219]

70-200mm f4 mostly for wildlife photography at Animal Kingdom

If you can get a 1.4 teleconverter to put on the 70-200, you've got it made for DAK. 200 just isn't close enough for my liking, and the 300 w/ a converter is just too much lens (not to mention the number of times the safari has busted by lip open because the bump has sent a camera into my jaw) but soemthing ending around 300mm seems to be perfect for the safari.

 

[wdwmagic]

If you can get a 1.4 teleconverter to put on the 70-200, you've got it made for DAK. 200 just isn't close enough for my liking, and the 300 w/ a converter is just too much lens (not to mention the number of times the safari has busted by lip open because the bump has sent a camera into my jaw) but soemthing ending around 300mm seems to be perfect for the safari.

There is a new Tamron 18-250mm that looks quite interesting, it gives around a 28-400mm 35mm equiv. http://www.phototestcenter.com/html/tamron_18-250.html

 

[JROK]

Don't forget that PMA starts in two weeks and there'll be pleanty of announcements made concerning DSLRs and lenses. Especially look for some new cameras from Canon (Canon 40D?).

 

[PhotoDave219]

There is a new Tamron 18-250mm that looks quite interesting, it gives around a 28-400mm 35mm equiv. http://www.phototestcenter.com/html/tamron_18-250.html

That sounds cool, but I would avoid Tameron and all the other third-party vendors. Think of them as Store brand Sodas..... They do the job but it's not quite right and at the end of the day you end up feeling all yuckie.

Canon should have out (or soon should have out) something that goes from 18-200 or 18-300 like Nikon does at the moment. Great dalylight lenses.

At the end, its all about how you want your photos to look. If you want that nice tight feel, aim for something that goes in tight. Like the airy feel of wide open, stick with something wide. Want good night shots? Stick with something fast. There's nothing there that accomidates EVERYTHING you could possibly want in a lens.

 

[JROK]

That sounds cool, but I would avoid Tameron and all the other third-party vendors. Think of them as Store brand Sodas..... They do the job but it's not quite right and at the end of the day you end up feeling all yuckie.

Canon should have out (or soon should have out) something that goes from 18-200 or 18-300 like Nikon does at the moment. Great dalylight lenses.

At the end, its all about how you want your photos to look. If you want that nice tight feel, aim for something that goes in tight. Like the airy feel of wide open, stick with something wide. Want good night shots? Stick with something fast. There's nothing there that accomidates EVERYTHING you could possibly want in a lens.

All I want is a Canon 16-300 f/1.4L . I don't see why that's so hard to make :drevil: Oh yea, and I want it to be easily handheld.

 

[e4ymod]

All I want is a Canon 16-300 f/1.4L . I don't see why that's so hard to make :drevil: Oh yea, and I want it to be easily handheld.

At the low, low price of $16,899. :lol:

 

[sillyspook13]

I personally don't think you can manage with only one lens. There are so many different possible subjects at WDW. I usually take 3 lenses...

50mm 1.4 for streetmosohere, portraits, and low light situations where you can't use flash (inside the rides or shows)

70-200mm f4 mostly for wildlife photography at Animal Kingdom

17-85mm f4-5.6 can usually take care of everything else even macro (not great macro, but it works)

That's almost identical to what I take, the only difference being a 70-300 (and sometimes a fisheye depending on my mood)!