Yet another Disney thread...

Sorry for not seeing this sooner. Been to disney twice and returning for a third trip.

FF equivalent 18mm-50mm is your sweet spot for 90% of the time. 24mm on FF isn't really wide enough but 20mm puts you OK. I shot a 7D and 12-24 Tokina and did alot of 12mm shots and never really felt like I needed wider but returned a second time with a 15-30 Tamron on 5D3 and felt like that was just right. It was just a heavy lens.

I'm going back again in Nov and now have the 16-35 F4 IS I can possibly take but not sure if I'll even go with Canon. I'd rather pick up another XT20 or XE2 for myself and just take the wifes camera bag and possibly pickup the 10-24 for my camera. Will be plenty of a kit

And yes... speedlight is very important.

Did you do a princess meal or something? Or, were these opportunities chance encounters at the princess themed rides and such?

Hrm... I hadn't even considered bringing my speedlight... It's small enough to take with... Can you give some examples where it might be necessary?

I'd have to dig up some samples but yes we did the Royal Castle meal which is inside the castle at disneyworld. We will be doing that again this next time also. The character meets and such... All could use a good flash. This next time I'll be a bit more prepared... I've learned alot since. Especially the need for gelling to match the room lighting.

Talley wrote in post #18438194
Sorry for not seeing this sooner. Been to disney twice and returning for a third trip.

FF equivalent 18mm-50mm is your sweet spot for 90% of the time. 24mm on FF isn't really wide enough but 20mm puts you OK. I shot a 7D and 12-24 Tokina and did alot of 12mm shots and never really felt like I needed wider but returned a second time with a 15-30 Tamron on 5D3 and felt like that was just right. It was just a heavy lens.

I'm going back again in Nov and now have the 16-35 F4 IS I can possibly take but not sure if I'll even go with Canon. I'd rather pick up another XT20 or XE2 for myself and just take the wifes camera bag and possibly pickup the 10-24 for my camera. Will be plenty of a kit

And yes... speedlight is very important.

Currently waiting at the airport on my way home from WDW. 1 thing I will add is that about 60% of what I shot was with the Sony 16-35 f4 and another 20-25% was shot using a Sigma 35mm f1.4.
What I have missed is a fast wide angle lens (<24mm). The reason being that for exhibits such as Pandora (at night) and also a lot of the indoor rides I needed to sub f4 to keep the ISO below 12800!
Until I get back home, I'm not sure how using the f4 at high ISO (in some cases up to 25600) has effected the IQ also how the 35mm f1.4 DOF is at infinity. The suspense is killing me. Unfortunately although I love my IPad Pro for editing on the go, I just cant quite tell on a 13" screen

Yup... first time for me was crop F4 (19-38mm equal), then second visit was 5D3 and 2.8 15-30 and now will be returning with 16-35 F4 but will also carry a 24 F1.4 for night time

So important to have 1.4 for night time. 2.8 doesn't cut it.. nor does F4. I'm excited this go around but really need to keep the camera gear to a minimum. 12mm FE, 16-35 and perhaps the 24 if I decide to take the 5D4 which I should due to it's low light performance.

Moonshiner wrote in post #18438302
Did you do a princess meal or something? Or, were these opportunities chance encounters at the princess themed rides and such?

We did a couple of character meals, but also met several characters at their locations. Meeting princesses is like a ride; you'll wait in line (get a fast pass if you can) for a little and then meet them.

If you have the time left to plan, I highly recommend using Touring Plans (https://touringplans.c​om) and pre-planning your days. The app has the capability to reorganize your day based on current wait times and your location in the park. Pre-planning made a huge difference for us on the visit and we didn't wait in any line longer than 20 minutes our entire visit thanks to fast passes and pre-planning. I thought the planning and and optimizing abilities of touring plans made it well worth the $15. I gave my wife a lot of crap about how much she pre-planned and spending $15 on the Touring Plans subscription, but I was wrong and admitted it.

For example, we "rope dropped" Animal Kingdom, but instead of running to Avatar with the masses, we went to Expedition Everest and rode that two times with no wait other than the time it took us to walk through the empty queue.

Talley wrote in post #18438323
I'd have to dig up some samples but yes we did the Royal Castle meal which is inside the castle at disneyworld. We will be doing that again this next time also. The character meets and such... All could use a good flash. This next time I'll be a bit more prepared... I've learned alot since. Especially the need for gelling to match the room lighting.

Gelling is a great idea, I just underexposed ambient heavily and used flash, hence my desire for a battery pack. Your idea is better.

I just can't see bringing a flash with me to the parks unless it was to specifically get a shot I had planned out like a character meal or princess encounter of some sort... And it was a hit and run, as a season/year pass holder.

Otherwise, Doing the parks with little kids is such a spontaneous and all-consuming undertaking even when you plan out the trip to the minute. Worrying about a big or elaborate kit with my four and six-year-old doesn't work for me, but then again it is quite possible that I am a little jaded as someone who has lived and worked on Disney property.

Go wide and go light--if you can afford it, go fast. If you can't afford fast, there are plenty of daylight opportunities to nail down spectacular shots. Getting shots in Pirates of the Caribbean is fun and everything, but it is the shot in front of the castle or Spaceship Earth that will go on the wall.

Thanks all for the great insight... We are a couple weeks out and making the final planning..

mickeyb105 wrote in post #18444281
I just can't see bringing a flash with me to the parks unless it was to specifically get a shot I had planned out like a character meal or princess encounter of some sort... And it was a hit and run, as a season/year pass holder.

Otherwise, Doing the parks with little kids is such a spontaneous and all-consuming undertaking even when you plan out the trip to the minute. Worrying about a big or elaborate kit with my four and six-year-old doesn't work for me, but then again it is quite possible that I am a little jaded as someone who has lived and worked on Disney property.

Go wide and go light--if you can afford it, go fast. If you can't afford fast, there are plenty of daylight opportunities to nail down spectacular shots. Getting shots in Pirates of the Caribbean is fun and everything, but it is the shot in front of the castle or Spaceship Earth that will go on the wall.

I'll have to disagree. If you're doing any of the princess meet and greets or character meals, you need a flash. The ambient is terrible. There's a reason the rooms all have built in strobes for the Disney photogs. A 430ex II and Demb Flip it or similar don't take up much space.

I could have done my entire trip with my 24-105 and flash. The addition of the 30 1.4 and UWA were definitely nice though. I'm already looking forward to our next trip in 3-5 years when my (now) 2 year old can ride all the rides with her sisters!

At least this thread is not a zombie yet....

For me, the 15-85 was good for Disney. Low light isn't that great but I didn't take many indoor shots. I had a photo pass so all the princess shots were done by the Disney folks. That way, I could actually be in some pictures. If they made the 15-85 in a larger aperture lens, like F2.8 or F2.0, it would have been perfect. I don't think flash was necessary but again, I didn't take many shots from the rides. I did end up taking my 7D and my grip. I just dismantled it for flight.

What I ended up taking was:

Sigma 30mm
Canon 15-85
Canon 70-200
7D..

I think the 30mm was not really necessary. I took a few pics with this lens but I could have left it at home. None of the pictures were at the parks. I decided on a whim to bring the 70-200 and I am glad I did... Came in quite handy for things outside of Disney and it's light.

I came back with about 1700 photos and videos with about a 25% keeper rate. This is actually pretty darn good for me.

Thanks to all for your advice....

Bump....

Going to Disney in June and wanting to pack light(ish). I just picked up a Tamron 15-30/2.8 and was thinking about taking it by itself. On FF, is this going to be too wide to use 100% of the time? Should I toss in a 50 too?

nrowensby wrote in post #19369772
Bump....

Going to Disney in June and wanting to pack light(ish). I just picked up a Tamron 15-30/2.8 and was thinking about taking it by itself. On FF, is this going to be too wide to use 100% of the time? Should I toss in a 50 too?

I just recently went to Universal Studios in Orlando. I had my Tammy 45mm 1.8 on there 100% of the time on my 5D4. There were only a few instances where I wished I had more reach but I had left my 70-200 and 90mm back at the hotel. I guess it depends on how you shoot. I should think that the 15-30 would be great during the parade and castle shots. If you are going to see characters, you will be limited to how close you can approach since there will be a photographer there as well. The 50 may be better in that instance. YMMV.

Moonshiner wrote in post #19371518
I just recently went to Universal Studios in Orlando. I had my Tammy 45mm 1.8 on there 100% of the time on my 5D4. There were only a few instances where I wished I had more reach but I had left my 70-200 and 90mm back at the hotel. I guess it depends on how you shoot. I should think that the 15-30 would be great during the parade and castle shots. If you are going to see characters, you will be limited to how close you can approach since there will be a photographer there as well. The 50 may be better in that instance. YMMV.

Yeah, last time we went, I took a 40/2.8 on a 7D and found it too long a good bit of the time. I ended up picking up a 24-70/2.8 locally... So I'll take that with me, just not sure which one will make it to the park. We're going for a week, so I may swap back and forth, if I decide not to take both. We shall see...