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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Check my photos on FB, the ones from 7/14 in the afternoon and from 7/15 were taken with this camera...
I'm going to try to get out to Destin for the Thursday night fireworks and see how it does there. So far, there are a couple of things to watch, but it's a good camera overall...
Finally got a new P&S (back at Christmas lol) after years of not having one!
MAKE: Canon MODEL: Powershot S90 # of Megapixels or film size: 10 Optical Zoom: 3.8x Wide Angle IS Zoom Type of recording media: SDHC Normal recording Mode (jpg, tiff, raw, other): JPEG and MOV and RAW What do you like most: I like that there are functions to make it manual, and I love the fish eye function! What do you dislike: Like with any P&S the lag time between shots... somethings just cannot make up for the quickness of an SLR...
Bought this one a few months ago, used it the most on my recent trip to WDW. A nice little camera for anyone...
MAKE: Nikon
MODEL: Coolpix P-510
# of Megapixels or film size: 16MP
Optical Zoom: 42X (24-1000mm 35mm equivalent)
Type of recording media: SD/SDHC/SDXC
Normal recording Mode (jpg, tiff, raw, other): JPEG
What do you like most: Small, easy to use, wide angle to long zoom in one camera. Pretty good photos when using high ISO (1600-6400) settings.
What do you dislike: Slow zoom
This camera is much smaller than a regular DSLR but has most all of the features. You can get different lenses, manually zoom, and manually focus if desired. The picture quality is great. The is a good selection of lenses and you can get adapters to use your older Olympus lenses if you want. So far I am very pleased with this camera, and it just might be the one to replace my older Olympus DSLR's.
MAKE: Olympus
MODEL: PEN E-PM1
# of Megapixels or film size: 12MP
Optical Zoom: 14-42mm F3.5-5.6 (28-84mm 35mm equivalent)
Type of recording media: SD/SDHC/SDXC, Eye-FI
Normal recording Mode (jpg, tiff, raw, other): JPEG, RAW
What do you like most: Small, easy to use, manual zoom control. Pretty good photos when using high ISO (1600-6400) settings.
What do you dislike: No built in viewfinder, screen display only without optional adapter (I found an optical eye-cup type viewfinder for it, LOVE IT).
Here is the first of three posts detailing new cameras I have purchased this past year. Before our annual trip to our time-share resort in VA, I bought a new waterproof camera so I could take pix of our grand-children at the waterpark at our resort. I was able to get some nice shots in and around the water. Another reason I wanted a waterproof camera was to use at WDW. The last family trip to the parks, we were met with a tropical storm. Not having a waterproof camera caused us to miss some great experiences. I would have loved to have gotten pix of the "Rainy Day Character Calvacade" parade at MK.
MAKE: PENTAX
MODEL: Optio WG-2
# of Megapixels or film size: 16MP
Optical Zoom: 5X; 5-25 mm F3.5-5.5 (28-140 mm)
Type of recording media: SD/SDHC/SDXC
Normal recording Mode (jpg, tiff, raw, other): JPEG, MPEG-4
What do you like most: Small, easy to use, Waterproof, Ruggedized, ISO 125-6400
What do you dislike: No viewfinder, large for a P&S camera
Worked great in July. Took it to MK in September for MNSSHP in the rain. Tried to use it but found that I had made a dumb mistake. The battery was not fully charged and I had left the spare in the room. Only got a few shots before it completely died. My night shots were NOT very good. With only limited battery, I was not able to do much experimenting.
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Last edited by rhinohunter; 01-14-2013 at 12:50 AM..
Between the trip in July and the trip in September, I decided to upgrade my DSLR from a Nikon D40 to the Nikon D5100. I had about two weeks before the trip to try it out. I also wanted to try out the Nikon 18-300 lens. So I rented it and had it delivered to our resort the same day we arrived. (Great lens but heavy). Here is the spec sheet for this new camera.
MAKE: Nikon
MODEL: D5100 DSLR
# of Megapixels or film size: 16.2 MP
Optical Zoom: 18-55 mm, F3.5-5.6G VR (27-82.5 mm)
55-200 mm, F4-5.6 G VR II (82-300 mm)
35 mm, F1.8 G (50 mm) {will purchase before next trip to WDW}
Type of recording media: SD/SDHC/SDXC
Normal recording Mode (jpg, tiff, raw, other): JPEG, RAW, MPEG-4
What do you like most: in camera HDR, ISO 100-6400 with Hi range to 25,600
What do you dislike: Weight of camera and accessories, need to have multiple lenses
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Last edited by rhinohunter; 01-14-2013 at 01:41 AM..
Reason: Change font size and add color
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After the trip in September, I was visited my dentist and saw some pix the hygienist had taken on a trip to Yellowstone. She was using a Nikon P510. Her pix of the animals were really great and was close like I had tried to get with the big lens in September. I finally found a good deal on a camera with a lot of extra stuff from a dealer in NJ and got the camera just before Christmas. I have been playing with it a little but find I need to do more practicing before out next trip in March 2013. Here is the list for the new camera.
MAKE: Nikon
MODEL: Coolpix P-510
# of Megapixels or film size: 16MP
Optical Zoom: 42X 4.3-180 mm (24-1000mm 35mm equiv.)
Type of recording media: SD/SDHC/SDXC
Normal recording Mode (jpg, tiff, raw, other): JPEG, MPO, MPEG-4
What do you like most: Small, easy to use, Extreme wide angle to zoom, ISO 100-6400, light
What do you dislike: Slow zoom, lag time
An excellent camera, I've been using it as a walk around camera for a while. All of the photos taken on my Nov-Dec 2012 trip were taken with it, and they were great!My complaint with the camera is the same as yours, as well as not being able to shoot multiple shots in single shot mode until it writes the file, but I have other cameras I use for fast action events...
Quote:
Originally Posted by rhinohunter
After the trip in September, I was visited my dentist and saw some pix the hygienist had taken on a trip to Yellowstone. She was using a Nikon P510. Her pix of the animals were really great and was close like I had tried to get with the big lens in September. I finally found a good deal on a camera with a lot of extra stuff from a dealer in NJ and got the camera just before Christmas. I have been playing with it a little but find I need to do more practicing before out next trip in March 2013. Here is the list for the new camera.
MAKE: Nikon
MODEL: Coolpix P-510
# of Megapixels or film size: 16MP
Optical Zoom: 42X 4.3-180 mm (24-1000mm 35mm equiv.)
Type of recording media: SD/SDHC/SDXC
Normal recording Mode (jpg, tiff, raw, other): JPEG, MPO, MPEG-4
What do you like most: Small, easy to use, Extreme wide angle to zoom, ISO 100-6400, light
What do you dislike: Slow zoom, lag time
Since I posted the list before, I have made a few changes. Here is the current list for the D5100 camera.
MAKE: Nikon
MODEL: D5100 DSLR
# of Megapixels or film size: 16.2 MP
Optical Zoom: {18-55 mm, F3.5-5.6G VR (27-82.5 mm)
55-200 mm, F4-5.6 G VR II (82-300 mm)} These two lenses have been shelved for now. I have added the following to the list:
18-200 F3.5-5.6 VRII (27-300mm)
35 mm, F1.8 G (50mm)
Other options include several filters including an ND8. I have also added a flash, a Gorillapod GP-3 flexible tripod and several ultra high speed SD cards.
Type of recording media: SD/SDHC/SDXC
Normal recording Mode (jpg, tiff, raw, other): JPEG, RAW, MPEG-4
What do you like most: in camera HDR, ISO 100-6400 with Hi range to 25,600
What do you dislike: Weight of camera and accessories, need to have multiple lenses
The addition of the 35 lens should allow me to take pix on the dark rides as well as the after dark parades without having to use the flash. The 18-200 should give me the range I need for everything else. I will be taking the other Nikon (P510) on the safari and when I need to really reach out. I have not had the time to practice with any of these new cameras and lenses and now we are leaving on Thursday (2 days from now) for the parks. I guess I will be practicing while there.
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Last edited by rhinohunter; 03-12-2013 at 02:44 PM..
Reason: left out the model # of the GP
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An excellent camera, I've been using it as a walk around camera for a while. All of the photos taken on my Nov-Dec 2012 trip were taken with it, and they were great!My complaint with the camera is the same as yours, as well as not being able to shoot multiple shots in single shot mode until it writes the file, but I have other cameras I use for fast action events...
I have bought a new SD card with the fastest write time I could find. Thought that might help but still slow. I guess I will have to anticipate what I am going to shoot before it happens. (CONFUSED) You can imagine how that will work. Like you said, I do have the other camera for faster moving subjects.
MAKE: Nikon
MODEL: CoolPix L-26
# of Megapixels or film size: 16.1 MP
Optical Zoom: 5X 4.6-23.0 mm (35mm equivalent: 26-130mm)
Type of recording media: SD/SDHC/SDXC
What do you like most: Small, easy to use, large screen, easy video recording (with separate button)
What do you dislike: Nothing!
I paired it with a nice, fast card (C10 / U4, 32GB, cost me about 1/3 as much as the bloody camera did).
I picked this out, based on observing DGF's experiences with an L22, then an L24. It's a nice, tidy little point-and-shoot camera, easily slipped into a pocket, with a nice large LCD screen.
I have bought a new SD card with the fastest write time I could find. Thought that might help but still slow. I guess I will have to anticipate what I am going to shoot before it happens. (CONFUSED) You can imagine how that will work. Like you said, I do have the other camera for faster moving subjects.
There are several factors that affect this kind of slowness, the speed of the memory card is just one. Generally (though not always), the amount and speed of the buffer memory built into the camera and the speed of the camera's microprocessor are the real bottlenecks. Generally, the ultra-fast cards are only beneficial when shooting video or high still-frame burst rates using a fast camera, everyone else could drop down a notch in speed without noticing the difference.
Of course, considering the price of large capacity ultra-fast cards is as low as it is (about $1 per gigabyte), anything slower is a false economy.
Right now, a 32gb ultra-fast SD card (Class 10, UHS-1) can be had for about $35. A 32gb "bargain" card (Class 4) runs about $20. A camera with 16mp sensor, set for highest-quality JPEG can put about 4000 shots on a 32gb card. So, that's either $0.00875 per frame for the expensive card, $0.005 for the cheap card. That's right, in both cases, less than a penny a frame. I paid a penny a frame for b&w film (purchased in bulk) back in the early 1970s. Today? 5 36-exposure rolls of 35mm color negative film cost about $37 - $0.205 per exposure, and processing (no prints) about $0.25 per exposure - $0.455 total, more than 50 times the cost!
(For those shooting RAW + JPEG, about 1200 shots, $0.029 per frame - film's still 15 times more expensive).
Of course, the cost per frame drops each time you erase and reuse the memory card.
You could use an ultra-fast memory card just once and archive it and still be so far ahead of film photographers... 4000 exposures at $0.455 = $1,820. You could buy a really good DSLR or compact interchangeable lens camera and several lenses every 4000 exposures and still come out ahead.
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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 2001, DGF and I made our first trip to WDW as adults. We both had inexpensive, no-frills point-and-shoot cameras ... but, they were film cameras. We took something like thirty or forty rolls of film between us.
... and then never got them developed, because for over a year we just couldn't afford it - the trip itself had been a gift. (Also, I had no idea that my fancy "advantix" film would cost FIFTEEN BUCKS PER ROLL of 36 exposures ... highway robbery, I tell you!!)
...
The next year, DGF's father gave us his old Olympus digital camera. It was old enough not to have ANY external memory capability (other than offloading to a computer via a cable), and could only hold 40-ish pictures.
But it opened my eyes to what digital photography meant: FREE FILM. No longer would we need to carefully consider whether or not to take X or Y picture. "Eh, take it, if it's bad we'll just not print it".
For our '09 trip, DGF and I between us took something over six thousand pictures. And we'll take even more on our upcoming trip, in January of 2014.
In 2001, DGF and I made our first trip to WDW as adults. We both had inexpensive, no-frills point-and-shoot cameras ... but, they were film cameras. We took something like thirty or forty rolls of film between us.
... and then never got them developed, because for over a year we just couldn't afford it - the trip itself had been a gift. (Also, I had no idea that my fancy "advantix" film would cost FIFTEEN BUCKS PER ROLL of 36 exposures ... highway robbery, I tell you!!)
...
The next year, DGF's father gave us his old Olympus digital camera. It was old enough not to have ANY external memory capability (other than offloading to a computer via a cable), and could only hold 40-ish pictures.
But it opened my eyes to what digital photography meant: FREE FILM. No longer would we need to carefully consider whether or not to take X or Y picture. "Eh, take it, if it's bad we'll just not print it".
For our '09 trip, DGF and I between us took something over six thousand pictures. And we'll take even more on our upcoming trip, in January of 2014.
I absolutely <3 <3 <3digital cameras ...!!
You NEVER got them developed, Sean? I sure hope you still have them!
If you do, start developing them one or two at a time. Once a month. For the next 15-30 months, you'll have the most incredible time machine, looking back on that special first trip together as if the pics were new - because they will be new to you!
I've developed old rolls before, years after they were forgotten, and the experience can be truly exhilarating.
You NEVER got them developed, Sean? I sure hope you still have them!
Nope. For one thing, that was 12 years ago. For another, the film ... well, we TRIED developing a couple rolls. The pictures were all completely trashed; given the ludicrous cost for developing my half of the film lot, it just wasn't a gamble we could afford to take.
So we threw them out, rather than prolong the pain of loss.