As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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Looking to replace my digital Canon, possibly to SLR...anyone out there with recommendations? Looks like I may also need to purchase additional lens for zoom as most I have looked at are 3x zoom...recently purchased small digital Sony and not happy with pics...trip end of march to DW and want to have great pics ...thanks for your suggestions.
I have all Canon digital cameras and have been very happy with the customer service and the product. I own a Digital Rebel model, a 30D and a 7D. The 7D is my favorite as far as quality goes, but it is heavy & I would hate to carry it around the parks all day. It also lacks the automatic modes of the rebel and 30D models so it is not as great for quick spur of the moment shots.
IF I were in your shoes, I would purchase a Canon Rebel (I have a much older model and it still works great) maybe not the newest model for cost savings. Then if I were going to buy a simgle lens to pack, it would be the 18-135mm IS lens. This is an all purpose lens, great for zoom, wide and close up shots. I didn't spend a ton on this lens to get a low aperature number for low light situations but these days you can just really crank up the iso on the cameras to compensate for low lighting. I did invest in the lens with Image Stabilization. That also helps in low lighting because of the blur associated with slow shutter speeds and movement.
I have shot Nikon SLR and Canon and personally prefer the Canon. I shop at www.BHPhotoVideo.com for all of my cameras and electronics. They are dependable and have GREAT prices. They also offer a accicdental mishandling warrenty which I have purchased but have never had to use. That way if you drop or in any way break your camera or lenses they are covered. Sometimes you can get a great package deal through them which includes a couple of lenses with the camera body. Don't forget to check the Canon website for current special offers such as mail in rebates.
Good luck and have fun shopping. Once you go SLR you will never go back.
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Planning a trip to WDW is like planning a wedding... If you expect things to be flawless, you will be sadly disappointed. If you know that there will be less than perfect times & decide to just laugh them off, then you will be excited when you find the magic all around you.
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I did a lot of research on this a few years back To me, the Nikon pics looked a slight bit sharper, but the Canon pics were more vibrant - we went with the rebel T1i and have been extremely happy! My parents have the T2i and it's even better! Part of what sold me on the Canon as well was the HD video capabilities (which I thought Canon blew Nikon out of the water on). The T2i takes beautiful video if you are looking for something that can handle both in a pinch. On our last trip to Disney, both my parents and I, only brought our Canons - we got some amazing shots and video! Was great not to have to drag both types of cameras around I find that the DSLR is the best way to snap pics of those "need it this instant!" moments...since we used to miss so many waiting for the regular digital camera to just take the pic! Screen on the back is great too for viewing. This is my first SLR type camera and I have a long way to go in learning how to adjust settings to take those more professional looking pics - the auto features on the Canon make it so easy - they look amazing every time!
I usually carry a Nikon D3 body with 17-35 f2.8 and 70-200 f2.8 lenses.
I like the different perspectives I get with these lenses and the D3 is great for night shots of the parades and fireworks. I can set the ISO to 6400 and get very clean photos although ISO 3200 is usually all I need. I know this system is heavy, but I am used to it and I like the quality I get.
So probably going with canon t2i, now to choose lens. First responder said 18-135 I think, but I can get great deal on 55-250 With image stabilization (150.00 off when purchased with camera, being new to SLR not sure what I need, I did do some research on the difference but still a bit
There's a new category of camera in the past few years that you may be interested in. These are interchangable lens cameras with high image quality (just barely less or equal in quality to "affordable" DSLRs), but without the complicated and expensive mirror systems found in SLRs and DSLRs. One term used for them is "Mirrorless Interchangeable." They are much smaller and lighter than SLRs, too. The category goes by a variety of names. Panasonic and Olympus build them using a common lens system - "Micro Four Thirds," so all lenses made to fit Panasonic fit Olympus, and vice verse. Sony is the other top maker in this category, marketed as the "NEX" system. There's a range of models offered by all these companies (and other companies are beginning to produce similar cameras as well). You can get an overview of what's available at Mirrorless Roundup 2011: Digital Photography Review
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Co-Author, PassPorter's Walt Disney World, PassPorter's Disney Cruise Line, and PassPorter's Disneyland and Southern California Attractions
That particular lens combination isn't at all unusual. Bear in mind that the 18-55 is equivalent to a 27-82 on a full-frame 35mm camera, and the 55-250 is equivalent to 82-375. That gives you as much reach as most folks ever need on the telephoto end, and as much wide angle as most folks routinely need. My dream lens lineup would include something wider, too - at least 24mm equiv., but you can't have everything. .
Personally, I'm not in love with having to change lenses around 82mm equiv. I'd rather have something closer to a 28-105 equivalent on the "kit" lens, but that would significantly raise the base price of the camera, and clearly the DSLR makers would rather keep the intro price low, and encourage the immediate purchase of a second lens.
For some kinds of theme park photography, I'd rather have at least a 28-200 equivalent (28-300 even better). Let's say you're shooting a parade and you want to get a long telephoto shot one moment, and a wide angle shot of a nearby float or performer the next. But sometimes that's life. A lens like that at DSLR quality can set you back quite a bit. There are times buying a second camera body and two lenses is cheaper than one camera body and one humongo zoom.
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Co-Author, PassPorter's Walt Disney World, PassPorter's Disney Cruise Line, and PassPorter's Disneyland and Southern California Attractions
In my opinion, to get started with your first DSLR, buy what you can afford and play with it and learn. IF you have time before your trip, you could play with your camera and lens and then purchase another lens if there is still time & it is in your busget. Again my very favorite (and not too expensive lens) for park and family photograph is the 18-135 IS lens. Then I only carry one camera and one lens.
Although you can carry around multiple lenses it's so hard to change them out and then you have to think about getting dirt in the sensor (not cheap to clean, trust me) everytime you change your lens. To add to that when a spur of the moment shot comes up you will never have the right lens for that situation on your camera. That is why I just use the good ol' all purpose that I mentioned earlier. Remember, as long as your picture is in good focus, you can always crop & zoom in later using Photoshop. The cameras these days have such high megapixels that you can crop & zoom & blow up without the loss of quality. Especailly with the use of Photoshop.
Now IF I were getting paid to shoot in WDW (HA HA HA don't we all dream of that? HA HA HA) I would probably bring at least 2 camera bodies and about 5 lenses from macro to telephoto with a low f stop for low lighting and depth of field. I would probably also add my favorite Quantum external flash. I like to be able to set all of my equipment manually.
Although, I do earn my disney vacation $$ through equine photography, I just HATE to pack around all of that equipment on VACATION. I want to capture my moments while enjoying the moment and not have a sore back at the end of day.
Best of luck and enjoy your new camera!
__________________
Planning a trip to WDW is like planning a wedding... If you expect things to be flawless, you will be sadly disappointed. If you know that there will be less than perfect times & decide to just laugh them off, then you will be excited when you find the magic all around you.
So I went and put my hands on the cameras tonight...deciding between t2i and 60d...60d felt much heavier and I did not like placement and control of the settings wheel, surprised how big the 18-135 lens is and heavy...if I go with SLR it wil be 18-135...just seems so big to carry around the parks..looked at Powershot sx40...just not sure I will be as happy with pics...you guys have offered great advice, thanks so much!
So I went and put my hands on the cameras tonight...deciding between t2i and 60d...60d felt much heavier and I did not like placement and control of the settings wheel, surprised how big the 18-135 lens is and heavy...if I go with SLR it wil be 18-135...just seems so big to carry around the parks..looked at Powershot sx40...just not sure I will be as happy with pics...you guys have offered great advice, thanks so much!
For what it's worth, I have had the Powershot SX40HS since December and have been very pleased with it. There is some loss in picture quality but the ease of use and portability were worth the trade-off for me.
I am so glad I found this thread! I too have scoured the net and the other boards for camera recommendations!! disneyorbustcolorado, thanks for your input--you inadvertently answered all my questions and explained what I have been wanting to know! I went to Best Buy yesterday to look at cameras,..everything I have read def puts it between Canon and Nikon,...I have had a Canon for years that my middle son inherited and it's still kicking!! My sony that i have now will go to my youngest,..they are both into pics and still-motion-movies!! They have a great time with it, and I am ready to move up the chain to a dSLR,..I always lean toward the Canon, but everyone i see with a GOOD camera at our local events has a Nikon, so that threw me a bit!! I will also be using it for video at the parks so we don't have to have 2 diff things to carry...thanks Ryans mom for mentioning that! It's a selling point for us!!!
I will go back today and look again,..really focusing on more handling of the Canon! So,...y'all recommend the T3i over the 60D for me? I am not a professional photographer,..but I want pro pictures! LOL!!
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Married to my best friend for 24 years & mom to 2 great young men and 1 sweet little lady!
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After all suggestions and hands on I went with t2i Canon. Took me about 3 weekends to get use to it, much larger than my point and shoot canon. Do not regret my purchase. Will be trying it over next 2 weeks at Disney ...woo hoo
yay for you!! I just need to really focus on what I need and see what the best camera will be for that! I hope you have a wonderful time trying it out at Disney!!! Aren't you relieved to not have to wonder about it anymore?!
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Married to my best friend for 24 years & mom to 2 great young men and 1 sweet little lady!
Registered Message Board Members Get Our Free Newsletter! When you register you'll have the option to sign up for our weekly PassPorter Newsletter. It's chock-full of feature articles; news; tips; contests; photos; and special offers in our online store.
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