DSLR or iPhone? Plus DSLR Strap Question.

What do you prefer to take to WDW?

  • DSLR

    Votes: 16 84.2%
  • iPhone (leave DSLR at home)

    Votes: 3 15.8%

  • Total voters
    19

NRW2016

Mouseketeer
Joined
Jul 25, 2016
What is your vote: Bring DSLR or stick with iPhone photos?

We will have Photopass and we go to WDW once per year. But I do love candid shots and preserving our trip memories. The iPhone does a decent job and is very conveinient to keep close. But the DSLR really amps up the quality of the photos but is bulky.

If you take your DSLR, what is your favorite way to carry it on you? The kit strap is a bit small on me.
 
I’ve pretty much ditched the SLR (and I’ve got a nice one with nice lenses) at this point for everything except portrait work. You’re at a theme park. Unless your main goal is Disney photography, ditch the bulk. The computational photography of the newer iPhones is shockingly good.
 
To me, the phone camera is the unit of last resort when all else has failed. My main issue is the sensor; remember 8mm movie film? A frame of that actually measures bigger than almost all iPhone sensors. And yes, size matters. I will say though, if that's the only camera you have, it's the best camera you have. If you only do 8x10 prints max, then leave the DSLR at home. If you're like me and print on metal at 3 foot on a side (or greater), you don't even think about the phone.

If you take the camera and you don't have an issue with bag check, get a holster-type bag. Or go bagless and stick with a singe lens. Either way, use a compression strap by Black Rapid, Op/Tech, or Zing. These are different than you average strap as they displace their suspended weight more evenly. Or, newer, something like the Spider Camera Holder.
 
Although I voted for DSLR, there are many days when I leave it behind. If I'm heading to the parks for serious photo taking, then its the DSLR for sure. If I'm heading to the parks just for fun the I make due with the iPhone. Being a local, I'm not concerned as much about missing that great shot if I leave my DSLR at home that day.
 


Ditto the Black Rapid. I have done two weekend trips with phone only, but in general, I always have my DSLR. I don’t care about the bulk—I always have my Hyrdoflask, so I always take a bag anyway.
 
Black Rapid Strap for sure. Makes my DSLR become not an issue. Not a bulk item at all. i don't even know it is on my hip.

I have had an iPhone for 10 years now. Not a single photo is one I have in my "keepers" file. Sure they are great for snap shots and texting. If I want a serious picture. They get taken on my DSLR and shared from there.
 
Technically, I don't have a proper selection in the poll to choose from, as I don't use my phone for anything except casual or informational snaps, but I also no longer bring a DSLR as I've converted over to a mirrorless interchangeable lens camera system, so I bring that, with a variety of lenses. I can fit the camera and 8-10 lenses in the same space that used to be required for my DSLR and 4 lenses - and I can bring lenses with much more focal reach in that collection. Phones, while always improving in quality and ability for basic photography needs of most people not as 'into' photography, still fall far short in way too many ways for me to have any interest in using mine as a photographic tool. Aside from awful ergonomics, difficult-to-see screen, touch controls rather than physical buttons, and fixed focal lengths with no telephoto ability, I find larger sensor cameras to be vastly preferable for maximum IQ and resolution, especially if cropping or viewing/printing large...for me at least. I've got a purportedly decent camera in my iPhone8, but it doesn't really impress me too much compared to large sensor cameras, and it's distinctly uncomfortable to use as a camera for this middle-aged guy who grew up with cameras.
 


What is your vote: Bring DSLR or stick with iPhone photos?

We will have Photopass and we go to WDW once per year. But I do love candid shots and preserving our trip memories. The iPhone does a decent job and is very conveinient to keep close. But the DSLR really amps up the quality of the photos but is bulky.
If you take your DSLR, what is your favorite way to carry it on you? The kit strap is a bit small on me.

I would also vote "none of the above"

I carry a small mirrorless camera and pancake len(s) in a waist pack
www.flickr.com/photos/mmirrorless
 
Depending on the type of pictures I want to take dictates whether I use a DSLR or cellphone camera. When I take my DSLR into the park, I use a sling style strap. The standard neck strap that most DSLR's come with are to short for me as well and I don't find them comfortable for long term carry/use.
 
I have a small arsenal to choose from, and honestly my parks camera is a Nikon Coolpix P7800 - much better than a camera phone, DSLR controls, but fits in a cargo pocket or small bag. One of the Canon G series 1" would be even better of course, but I already own the P7800, and since my primary cameras are Nikon DSLR, the control layout is very similar. And I use a standard DSLR neck strap for that, it really works well with a smaller but still substantial camera. Also on my good list: Nikon Coolpix A or Ricoh GR, which have DSLR sensors in compact bodies with fixed lenses.

By the time I'm lugging any interchangeable lens camera (doesn't matter DSLR or mirrorless) I'm at such a large bulk that I use a camera bag and either a modified BlackRapid or RRS strap, either of which sockets into a spot on my RRS camera plates. DSLRs don't really weigh more than mirrorless, they're just deeper because of the lens throat and mirror, and only wide angle lenses are meaningfully smaller and lighter - so for my purposes I consider them interchangeable for Disney where I'm not using extreme wide angle anyway.
 
I always take a good camera with me, sometimes a DSLR, sometimes a mirrorless and sometimes just a little P&S with manual controls. This year I plan on bringing my xt2 with 16mm and 35mm to the parks in a peak design 5L sling. Small and compact but great images. I love my iPhone, but the quality isn't the same. That said, I probably end up with 50% iPhone & 50% "good" camera images from our trips because sometimes it's easier/quicker to pull the iPhone out rather than get out my camera.
 
While I voted DSLR, I agree that you have to assess what types of photos you're after and how your DSLR compares to that the of the PhotoPass photographers.

I believe the park photographers are shooting Nikon D5100's now (D5000's?). These are crop sensor bodies that do a respectable job for taking character photos. My D750 in their hands, however, set with much automatic control so they only had to zoom to frame the picture, yielded better overall results for me at $0 cost and I got the RAW image to work with myself.

Are you going to Animal Kindgom and want some photos of animals that you can only get with the zoom on your DSLR? The iPhone won't compete. Do you want a selfie in front of Cinderella's Castle as you're crossing from Frontierland to Tomorrowland? Click. Done. Keep moving. The DSLR in that scenario is going to take you a little while because you'll have to enlist someone to take than picture for you.

How long will you be in the parks? PhotoPass is the duration of your reservation for one fee, ALL photos of everyone in your reservation, regardless of where they are in the parks... Tied to the Magic Band (in WDW). Can't get that from an iPhone.

Want high-quality photos of things OTHER than characters or you in front of certain locations in the park? You can't get that from PhotoPass and your iPhone is going to come up short.

In a nutshell, you need to be very honest with yourself about what kinds of photos you're looking for, what you're doing to do with them, what they will be of, and whether or not a phone will cut it for you or not. And, if it won't, would PhotoPass be a resonable cost to justify NOT taking a DSLR with you.

I just did a 7 night Caribbean Cruise on the Fantasy and I have tons of great photos from my DSLR, my Pixel 3 XL, and my girlfriend's iPhone X. She said she largely stopped taking pictures about halfway through the cruise because I was shooting the same stuff with my DSLR and the quality difference wasn't worth her duplicating the pictures on her phone. But, the candids, the characters that showed up unexpectedly, and the selfies are all things I could never have gotten with the DSLR anyhow. And my Pixel 3 XL took a few fantastic pictures at night that the DSLR wouldn't have been able to easily duplicate without a tripod.
 
I believe the park photographers are shooting Nikon D5100's now (D5000's?). These are crop sensor bodies that do a respectable job for taking character photos. My D750 in their hands, however, set with much automatic control so they only had to zoom to frame the picture, yielded better overall results for me at $0 cost and I got the RAW image to work with myself.
They use primarily D7200's, though some D7100's and even a few D90's are still kicking around during the busy season, and primarily 18-105 or 18-140 lenses. The big difference is in the lens: With a D7200 and 17-55 f/2.8, I can get identical images to your D750 with a 24-120 f/4. The pixel level integrity of them is very good, at low ISO better than a D750 because they don't have an AA filter, but they're really lens limited. Of course, they're usually at f/5.6 or f/8 anyway, so it doesn't matter and the lens performs very well for that amount of depth of field (equivalent to f/8 to f/11 on your D750). And as they're starting to move to the 16-80mm f/2.8-4 lens, which nets nano coating and an electronic aperture, any quality difference in the raw image compared to most full frame cameras is evaporating rapidly.

They also have the settings dialed in exactly for a good look, have plenty of fill flash for daylight, and a custom tethered shooting solution that gets them in front of photo editors and then to you very quickly and in bulk. They produce a high quality consistent product, the best I've seen out of any bulk photo operation, and the only downside is you don't have the NEFs afterwards. And even though I use a DSLR for nearly everything photo-wise, it often doesn't make it to the Disney parks because of size/weight and photo pass.

For my quick grab for candids, I use a Coolpix A, which grabs a much better image (with NEF raw as well) than a phone can, more quickly, and slips into a pocket. It has an 18.5mm f/2.8 lens, which is the full frame equivalent of a 28mm f/4 lens, and nice deep color in its photosites. The newest Ricoh GR III does even better.

I also have a, "Firehose," setting on my D500, that when I turn it on dumps 2 MP images of everything that I take directly to my phone over Bluetooth, so that I can share immediately to social media or text it to someone if I need to. You have to get everything right in camera, obviously, which is why I have a settings bank tuned for it, but it's very effective. I just attended a graduation where their fiancé couldn't be there, and used that extensively all day. I call it a firehose mode because, well, at 10 FPS it's like trying to drink from a firehose.
 
I couldn't remember the newer model, and even though I didn't think the D5x00 was right, I also wasn't confident it was the D7x00 either. So, I was guessing. :)

I do know that the old model was the D90. Like you, I am impressed with the consistency they get with the PhotoPass setup, and I know that much of that has to do with very meticulous settings they are required to shoot with based on time of day, date, weather, location, etc.

I will be buying an annual pass and likely buying into DVC as well in the very near future. So, for me, the need for the DSLR drops off significantly since PhotoPass cost drops to $0 for me. There's no substitute for it on the Safari, though.

My Pixel 3 XL takes great photos and dumps out RAW images as well. I will actually be pulling those RAW images shortly as I shot a bunch of stuff on my phone while on the cruise last week...
 
I couldn't remember the newer model, and even though I didn't think the D5x00 was right, I also wasn't confident it was the D7x00 either. So, I was guessing. :)

I do know that the old model was the D90. Like you, I am impressed with the consistency they get with the PhotoPass setup, and I know that much of that has to do with very meticulous settings they are required to shoot with based on time of day, date, weather, location, etc.
I will be buying an annual pass and likely buying into DVC as well in the very near future. So, for me, the need for the DSLR drops off significantly since PhotoPass cost drops to $0 for me. There's no substitute for it on the Safari, though.

My Pixel 3 XL takes great photos and dumps out RAW images as well. I will actually be pulling those RAW images shortly as I shot a bunch of stuff on my phone while on the cruise last week...

OK, if that works for you ... great ... eliminates all those straps!
www.flickr.com/photos/mmirrorless
 

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