Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Do you take your video camera with you on vacation?

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So Monet was a neophyte in drawing so picture of the same Rouen Cathedral...

I prefer using my still digital camera when we travel. I can still capture the "mood" with this and then play my photos back on my computer as my screensaver. That way, I see my photos throughout my day and they're not stuck away on a shelf after we get back. Besides, for me, sharing photos with interested family and friends over the internet is one of the joys of travelling. I use our video camera for things like movies of our son growing up and parties.

I have taken my digital camera on vacation; I don't own a video camera. I have a practical question: if you spend all your time behind the lens of a video camera, just how many HOURS of recording will you accumulate? What will you ever do with this? Even editing it down to a 2 or 3 hr. travelogue would probably take you until the next vacation. I have found the quantity of pictures out of my digital camera increasing as I realize that digits are free. At least you can leaf thru pages of pics, or browse pages of thumbnails online, quite fast. It would seem that reviewing video much faster than realtime is not practical. And, what about long-term storage? I can fit about a vacation week's worth of photos on one CD-R. What do you do with video? Rack up the piles of cassettes? I can agree with the previous poster that for the trip of a lifetime, or the honeymoon (hmmm...?) video would be nice. As an accumulating record of annual travels, maybe not.

Madelyn If you like to watch video of your trip then take your video camera. Take some video for 30 - 60 seconds as has been pointed out and then live in the moment for the next hour! It IS possible to take video and still be an intelligent human being enjoying their trip. People who take video are not necessarily shallow and not as cultured as the next person. Why is a video seen as crass while spending an hour writing up a travel journal is profound? I can take 5 minutes of video a day and still emerge from my travels with a deeper understanding of the world, but then I can walk and chew gum at the same time. Lighten up people, it is a video camera. It is not wearing shorts into the Vatican! (BTW I wouldn't video in the Vatican!)

Leave your video camera at home. Instead watch Rick Steeves for the finest travel photography on PBS.

Bob - OK, so don't take your VC again, but are you saying that most people are like you who looked at a girl with a camera the whole time you were in Versailles? vida - you see people recording and there's no way they can enjoy the moment? Are you serious or is that remark hyperbole? Susan - so . . . your advice is don't own anything that someone might want to steal? Should we leave our money at home also? melisa - don't say 'gosh' on this forum. mary et al. - Welcome to the 21st Century! There's no longer any need to 'lug'. Modern vid-cams are smaller and more lightweight than most 35mm SLRs if you include extra lenses, etc. Susan (same as above?) - YOU DON'T OWN A MICROWAVE OR A CELL PHONE? DO YOU TRAVEL ON HORSEBACK? What other forms of modernity do you reject? Like one of the earlier posters commented: Is this some sort of philosophical profundity that you think you are projecting? Karen - Great for family gatherings but not for vacations? What is it about the family gathering that you'd want to see that you wouldn't want to see in a vacation video? StCirq - "neophyte's preoccupation" This has got to be the single most moronic statement I've ever read on a travel forum. It may be the most foolishly arrogant remark I've ever read related to travel. I especially like your frightened reference to "machines". Jet "take off" must really put you back in your seat. Or do you go on horseback with Susan? Maurice and Linda - Why do you assume that people who take videos go home and put them on a shelf? That seems a little odd? Are you simply trying to strengthen your argument against taking a video camera? Why? Inley - That's somewhat of an ironic statement. You don't want to take your own video camera, presumably because you don't think you can achieve the same quality that a professional can, but you will watch someone else's video of their trip. I apologize to all whom I've tried to insult. I read through these posts and laughed out loud at the wild exaggerations stated as if the commentor was trying to win a high-school debate. I don't think I'll ever forget: "I once again felt like I had to video everything and it affected my enjoyment of the trip" ". . . there is no way that they can enjoy the moment. What's the point? In my opinion, it is best to enjoy the present by being there, not recording it to show in the future" "You will have a better trip and not look so stupid as the girl I saw walking through Versailles with a video camera in her eye for the entire time. The poor girl never actually stopped the video and looked at the real thing" (So . . . if this is not exaggeration, Bob, what do you have to say about your experience at Versailles?) "after lugging it for many trips and then not wanting to ruin the enjoyment by being behind the camera - for me, I just don't enjoy it while I am videoing" "Over many years, I have developed a theory that there are those who like to enjoy an experience as it happens and those who like to "capture it on film"" "The more I travel, the less I worry about preserving the memories, anyway. I think it's a neophyte's preoccupation" Again, please believe that I'm sincere when I say that I am sorry for poking fun at theses posts. Perhaps speaking face to face would reveal that there was a lot more depth intended than the posts reveal. SusanR

This is a personal decision. Simply stated, if you enjoy taking photographs and using a video camera, then take both with you and use them. If not, leave them at home.

Take your camcorder!!!!!...We never regret doing it!! on the contrary, after a few years of your trip (or even after a few weeks!) it helps to remember and revive some very special moments of your trip, on top of the other moments that your have for ever in your heart! And it is nothing like your are "glue" to the camera all the time!!, for instance, on a week cruise to Alaska, 8 days, lets count about 16 hours that you are awake, that will be about 128 hours!! and of those hours, only 2 hours we taped, so the rest, 126 hours, we "really" enjoyed(as some people think that when you are recording you are missing so much!) and even those 2 hours my husband enjoyed doing it, and I am glad he does the recording and carry the camcorder, but even if I had to do it , I think it is worthwile!! We even regret not taking it on short trips to places that we have been before!! Take it and enjoy your trip!!!!! Don't worry about what other people think, if they think that you are all the time "glue " to the camera, that is their problem!!!!!

To SusanR~ for your longwinded recap a couple answers since you asked... No obviously "we shouldn't leave our money at home" but no sense in flashing expensive items (cameras, jewelry, lots of cash). I am a reasonably normal person and own a car but just don't like a lot of sh*t in my life (i.e., cell phone, microwave, DVD, camcorders, etc.) sorry no major philosophical statement here.

What a hilarious thread! What passionate and funny creatures we can be about things. Madelyn, don't worry about looking like a crazy tourist, you will anyway, along with the rest of us, no matter what you do or do not do. : - ) However, only you know best how you feel about carrying things around, whether it is a video camera or the still variety or both. This past trip we left behind our much loved SLR camera and took along a simpler, but still good, 35 mm point-and-shoot. For lately we have found that when traveling, the earth's mass increases steadily throughout the day, such that a greater gravitational force is exerted on any object we happen to be carrying. Thus the need to reduce the mass of any carried object. You may or may not be a victim of this astounding geophysical pheonomenon, which has baffled the experts. : - )

Susan [email protected] - thanks for having a sense of humor. You are quite right that there's a time and place that it would be imprudent to stand out like a sore thumb as an American tourist. And I respect your feeling (non-philosophical) about not having gadgetry. Despite the argumentative impression I may have left, I don't go around looking for fights but I'm not afraid of one either. But I'm dam*ed if I'm going to be afraid to take pictures during my vacation for fear of being robbed. I won't go flashing my money or my camera ANYWHERE within Russia, for example . . . but the bulk of Western Europe is no more or less dangerous than anywhere else in the world if you use common sense. Madelyn, WHO CARES if you look like a crazy tourist? Take pictures if you want, and all of the people like Susan [email protected] who would be embarrassed by your desire and RIGHT to take pictures any dang way you please can just dang well be embarrassed. To heck with 'em.

Susan: Re your comment about me watching the girl in Versailles taping. If you have ever been there you know how crowded the place is. She was walking right in front of us the entire time. Never took the video from her face and hard to miss the fact that she was doing this. Really got to be humorous at times. If anyone does take a video I would recommend the Canon Elura 20. It is smaller than most 35mm and takes not only digital video but digital still photos on a separate card. Plus you can easily make still photos from any of the video scenes you have captured. Best of both worlds and small to carry anywhere. I was given this camera as a gift and it is great. Now, will I take it on my next trip overseas?.....probably not. But the conversation above has been interesting. Bottom line: Do what you want to and ......the rest.

Yes, Bob, I just couldn't resist the cheap shot. I am acutely aware of how some people can act when they are on vacation. I'm just not so quick to judge that they are vacationing "wrong" or that they are not enjoying themselves.

I took a camcorder of my Father's to Italy for 2 weeks and am so glad I did. I didn't spend the vacation looking through it either. I "lived in the moment" and then if I felt it was something I wanted to capture on video, I did. I liked sitting by the water's edge, not saying a word and just capturing the sound of the water and the scene around me. Now when I see it, it transports me back to that beautiful place. We recently bought a small Sony digital camcorder (took it to Paris) w/ still image capability, now we have both options and only need the one camera. It's small enough to slip down into a larger purse and never leaves my side. Take it and enjoy-

I've got to disagree with Sue's answer for Madelyn that reads <don't worry about looking like a crazy tourist, you will anyway, along with the rest of us, no matter what you do or do not do.> You don't have to look like a tourist, *really*. Wear some decent clothes, put the dang map and camera(s) away, find a sidewalk cafe, drink wine and smoke cigarettes before noon. Voila! You'll be mistaken for a local ;-)

Voila, my *ss - say wa la, and stop the punctilious posting! Does this remind anybody of "I Am A Camera" - ?

Does Pup carry a camera or care about what people think when he's shooting?

Waitress What, does nobody in Europe own a camera, or take vacations in their own countries? Do they never need to consult a map, even in a city as large as Paris? Are they never junkies, homeless, poor, employed as casual labourers, or otherwise not in a position to own what you call decent clothes? Are they all in a position to spend their days in sidewalk cafes drinking wine (interesting occupation, wonder how much it pays.. : - ) )

If you are or want to be poor, homeless, a junkie, unemployed, then you probably wouldn't look like a tourist either (which was what I was responding to). You'd have to ask all those Parisians doing it how they can afford to sit in cafes all day. No I don't stand on a street corner looking at a map or taking photographs and I do live in a major urban area.

Of course if you are at a tourist site with a camera, everyone will assume you are a tourist. What I find interesting is that people necessarily associate a camera (I am talking about a 35mm still camera) with being a tourist. I am sure there are hundreds of amateur and professional photographers living in Paris who love having so many subjects around them. Looking and acting like a tourist, since so many think that is a bad thing, is not a matter of whether or not you have a camera.