For those of you who have taken and used a camcorder to Europe, did you find that it was worth it?

It seems to me the drawback is carrying around an expensive item that could be lost, damaged, or stolen. As well as feeling compelled to video tape my every move. But the plus is that you can capture motion and sounds that a camera cannot. In your experience was it worth the trouble?

Video cameras are for capturing action. If that's your goal, there's definitely no substitute.

But I see a lot of videographers simply panning across a static landscape or piece of architecture - a function that a still camera can accomplish handily. If that's all you need, it hardly makes schlepping it around worth the effort.

A handheld recorder can capture the ambiance of a scene that you've filmed.

Having said all that, I <u>did</u> switch my still camera to &quot;movie mode&quot; to capture the Stonehenge bus driver feeding the birds from his hand (they flew up and perched as the bus approached!) and the dynamic sculpture in the F&uuml;ssen town square.

We have a really small Elura video cam that we sometimes take and sometimes don't. Some digital cameras also take mini videos, which aren't great quality, but do the trick in a pinch, like when we were in Rome this summer.

I would say, yes, if it's small, take it and use it -- not all the time, but when you think there's a memory that might not be well captured on camera.

Let me say this: my grandparents had an old Bell &amp; Howell movie camera years and years ago, taking moving pictures (without sound, of course) of my mother growing up and playing on the Miami seashore with her grandparents. They also took movies of their adventures in Europe. Before my grandparents passed away, I transferred the movies to video and played it for them (hours and hours, reels and reels). I got to see real moving pictures of four generations growing up and old -- of places the way they once were. In some of those pictures, we were falling down laughing as my grandparents kept pointing to people and pronouncing: &quot;He's dead. She's dead.&quot; But being able to see my mom running around at 7 years old (she's 77 now) playing cowboy with my great-grandfather in a full indian headress on the Miami beach was worth every second my grandpa lost looking through the lens and taking the pictures.

Edward,

In a word, YES. It's well worth it to take a videocam. Especially the new smaller ones that take still pictures too. They're not much more expensive than regular still digicams.

I love the photographs I took on our trip, but the videos with sound really bring it home. And many of the still shots I got by hitting the STILL button on the videocam would have eluded my regular camera.

My only regret is that I ran my battery dead at the end of the day in Montreux and couldn't tape the accordion player in the Lausanne train station who was banging out a virtuoso reading of Bach's Brandenberg, complete with church-like acoustics.

We also have a Elura digital video camcorder and recently I have been playing with the transfer to DVD. I will have to tell you that video captures the essence of our travels much more than our still photography. It is a pain to carry both camera and camcorder and use them but the video results bring back memories that still pictures do not.

I may give in and take the small video camera that my daughter owns with me this time.
I like to be free and dont like to carry too much when I go sightseeing , although, that there were many times in which I wished that I had one with me to capture special moments of our journey.
I may take it this time, my relatives are not getting any younger and my French cousin that lives in Avignon ,will be a young 77 years old.
When I was a teen I spent so many happy summers at her house..
It seems like yesterday ..

This is just my experience and opinion about taking a videocamera on trips. My wife and I are retired and in good health--but one never knows when active travel days will end. We traveled extensively for 20 years taking slides and photos.

Then 4 years ago, I purchased a pocket-sized JVC video camera. We have taken memorable events and scenes in our travels since--from the Palio in Siena to parasailing in the Swiss Alps to the Edinburgh Tattoo. When our active traveling is curtailed, we will have these treasures to enjoy again and again. And we have hundreds of &quot;stills&quot; taken with the same camera.

I have invented and made a &quot;snatcher-proof&quot; protector for the small videocam so I don't have to worry so much in certain higher-risk areas.

So in our case, the benefits far outweigh the slight inconvenience.

surfergirl-we just did the same thing...my grandfather who passed away at the early age of 51 back in the 70's, used to record everything on his little Kodak film camera back in the 50's and 60's...we just had it transferred to 3 DVDs...their trips to Japan and Mexico City in the late 60's and all the family vacations are PRICELESS...It was so neat to see my 10 year old Mother standing in front of the Cathedral in the Center of Mexico City where I stood myself over 30 years later !...so I guess even if it seems they may not mean much now, just wait !....talk about a moment with tears in your eyes !

It is very worth taking a video camera if it is a small version, such as a mini-DV.

I always take mine. I put it in a small camera case, with enough room for a couple one-hour tapes and a spare battery, then it hooks onto my belt. It goes where I go.

However, set some up some rules for yourself BEFORE you go. For example, vow to enjoy the scenery first, then tape second. Also, give yourself limits. The limit I give myself is I want to return home with no more than approximately two hours of tape. If I am on a trip for 14 days, I allow myself an average of 9 minutes per day of taping. If a day is especially interesting, then I exceed it, but then I MUST make it up on another day to ensure not going over that average. Do NOT tape everything.

Also, don't forget to shut it off!! I guy I heard about had his video camera strapped around his n

geez! hit a wrong key and the message posted before I was ready!!

Anyway...

He had his video camera around his neck, so when not in use, it hung pointed down. Yup, you got it....he fogot to shut it off, then used a urinal. He didn't review the tape before showing it to his entire family after getting home.

In addition, when we travel, I do the video taping, and my wife handles the still camera. I disagree that a video camera should only be used for action shots. To do a pan of a cathedral ceiling, for example, gives the viewer a much better indication of the size and height. A slow pan can work wonders.

--Marv

I might also add (an after thought here) that if you can do some editing after getting home, to cut out some scenes that are not interesting, cut out mistakes, add LOCAL music, etc., can really enhanse the tape. By local music, I mean, for Italy, music that is traditionally Italian. For Spain, Spanish guitar or Flamenco, etc.

--Marv

We always take our digital video camera when we travel and cannot imagine not taking it. We end up with 2 or 3 tapes that my DB edits into a kind of vacation journal with music matching the place, titles, and a slideshow of our still pictures. We treasure these for the vivid memories of our trips, but we also burn DVDs to ship to our families and close friends back home. They give us reviews and comments on the things they liked, and ask questions about the places we visited. Since they can't come over to see our pictures and hear the stories, the videos allows us to share our experiences with them. They are so used to them by now that they call and ask &quot;When's the video from [insert place] coming?&quot;

mjs -- are you doing the transfer to dvd yourself? If so, I didn't know that was an option! I really need to start reading that manual again!

The story about the urinal was hilarious!

I learned this last weekend, when I shot the inside of my travel bag (tight squeeze getting the camera in tripped the on switch) to take OFF the battery before packing it in tight places, as small as it is.