Best Lens for photographing fireworks at Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom ?

[laurielozano]

I'm taking my family to Walt Disney World in March during Spring Break. I want to take some good pictures of the fireworks show at the Castle at Magic Kingdom - I've never shot fireworks before. Could you suggest which is the best lens to use? I currently have the Nifty 50 f/1.8, Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 and a Sigma 70-300mm F4-5.6 APO DG MACRO.
Any suggestions will be extremely helpful.

[august23]

the sigma should be fine. You might want something a little faster for fireworks. If it's just for this occasion, why not rent a lens?

[angryhampster]

Normally..you wouldn't want the fireworks to fill up the entire frame. You'd want to have some other point of interest in the photo as well. Will you be using a tripod? I'd say your 28-75 would work just fine.

[sugarzebra]

I agree with the 28-75, and think you will be using it on the wide side more often than not.

[Dilly]

We just came back from MK and now I wish I had brought a longer lens. The fireworks are behind the main castle, but if you sit close, you won't see 80% of them and only catch the larger ones. It seems that the better places to watch are from the main street or even further from the monorail station. If you're that far you'll need a longer lens. I'm not sure why a fast lens would be necessary since most firework shots are longer exposure. But just bring a tripod, a remote, and click away and hope you get a nice pic.

[laurielozano]

Thanks guys! I appreciate the feedback. I'll probably use the Tamron because its faster and it will be dark out, hopefully the pics will be less blurred with this one. Since the Castle gets all lit up and is very pretty I'll need a wide angle to get the castle and the fireworks all in the pic.

Thanks for the input!

[jfrancho]

Speed doesn't really matter for this, since you'll want to use a lot of DOF, like f/11. A wide FL will probably help, depending on the distance to fireworks I used the kit lens (EF-S18-55) for these.

[keitht]

General rule for fireworks is to use an f/stop about equal to the square root of the ISO speed. So f/8-11 for 100 ISO, f/11-16 for 200 ISO.

To get the castle exposed right, you will need a fairly long exposure, but that will suit the fireworks anyway.

[laurielozano]

Cool! Thanks guys!
JFranco, those are some really nice pics! Was it hand held or on a tripod?
I really dont want to lug the tripod around because we will be at MK all day and I'll have to ride some rides with my kiddo's, so it would be aukward to get on the rides with a tripod in tow. I have a Monopod that fits in my backpack I'll probably use.

Thanks for all of your input!

[jfrancho]

Bulb, f/16, ISO 100.

[ilovemycamera]

I took my canon 75-300 f4-5.6 with me back in november, and i wish i would have had a better setup. The extra reach was great though for illuminations and some of the rides, but my tamron 17-50 was what i kept on my camera 70% of the time. I found myself taking lots of pics on the safari ride in animal kingdom... u should try that one out while you're there.

As for the fireworks, i took several shots at epcot world showcase fireworks display, and used an exposure of at least 1 second on most of them... they turned out ok!
I didn't really know what to expect bc i didn't have much experience with shooting fireworks (with a camera ).

[dinobike]

I take some photos of fireworks in Valparaiso last new year with the kit lens 18-55. My settings were a litlle off...after some raw postprocessing i could bring out some detail from blown areas.
So now i know that i´ve should used f/9.0 , iso 100....instead iso 200 . So i recommend you similar settings and play with the long exposure...my best results were at two 2 secs. You can experiment with longer exposures if you like, but be aware of possible overexposure.

Here you can see some photos of that day:

http://s86.photobucket.com/albums/k1...%20Valparaiso/

Btw i use a canon 400d (thats why i wouldn't go beyond f/9.0 because difraction) I use a tripod, i think is a must!...besides mirror lockup and a remote rc-1.

[jfrancho]

I used a 300D at f/16, diffraction was a non issue.

[laurielozano]

I ended up and only took the Tamron 28-75 2.8 because it was lighter and smaller. I didnt get to shoot the fireworks at Magic Kingdom like I had hoped because it started pouring rain about 5 minutes before the scheduled time so we went back to the hotel. But here are some of the best shots I got while we were there. We had a blast!

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/laurie...?.dir=/fcb5re2

Thanks for all your tips. I will keep them handy, I'm sure we will be going back to WDW!

[TeamSpeed]

I took my 17-55 IS and 30D a few weeks ago during Easter week. I forgot my tripod/monopod, and had to hand-hold for 3-4 seconds at a time braced against a statue, sitting on a fence. Between people pushing on the railing and the guy sitting against the statue, I only ended up with like 3 or 4 decent pics. Don't go during Easter weekend, there is literally no place to stand or sit with good camera equipment.

I wish I had some of these tips beforehand, my aperture is way off. F4.5 at ISO 200, 3 sec.