Tips on taking laptop & camera please.
 

Another day another question :)

As I am going next month (yes I know) I am starting to think about the more practical aspects - packing etc.

I have 2 choices camera wise, phone or bridge camera. What do others do in the parks? We plan to go to US on our first full day to take lots of photos so I will take the big camera but what about the other days? Is it impractical to take a large camera all the time if we want to do rides?

My phone does take pretty good photos but there maybe a capacity issue. I think the capacity is good and I have a dx card or whatever it is installed too.

Planning to take the laptop to upload photos daily which should help with storage.

So my next question is can I still take a laptop what with all the security issues and what do I have to do with it going through security?

Was going to take camera & laptop in hand luggage case.

We will be doing Disney & US/IOA but no water parks.

Sorry about the long post and tia :)

There are currently no restrictions on taking laptops in your hand luggage to the USA. You will have to take the laptop out of your luggage for scanning when going through security to depart the UK (and in the USA if you don't have TSA Pre).

I've done the SLR and camcorder option which necessitates the laptop to back up to. Works quite well but the SLR bag can be a bind, plus I'm nervous I'll put it down and forget it. If you want print quality photos this is a good option.
If you're going to be looking at your holiday photos on screen when home, a phone would be fine. Get a decent sized micro SD card, 32 or 64GB, plus most phones back up to a cloud via Wifi overnight these days.

I take phone, DSLR (+lenses), iPad, GoPro and laptop, all in hand luggage.

I used to take a DSLR and a point and shoot camera.

now I only go with my phone (13mpix camera) especially when I go to US (since OP mentions it)
At US, for most rides, you can only ride with whatever fits in your pockets, the rest (including large cameras like DSLR or even bridges) will need to go inside lockers) that's a lot of time wasted (some rides will not allow anything in your pockets)

so when in Universal, I only have my phone, and that's more than enough

now it also depends on what you do with your photos and how important they are
the thing is that I used to take a lot of pictures with my DSLR (think over 1000 a day), only to realise that I never, ever, looked at them after we were back, be it only to show friends.
It was a pain to select pictures for Trip Reports or making calendars for the family. And that was basically all the purposes the photos served.

then I went with smartphone only. And that was more than enough.

So, unless you'll be making post processing of your pictures, enlarge, print and frame them, like you're taking RAWs and making HDRs , then take your DSLR

but if you're like the guests who record shows on their iPads (the dreaded iPad forest) ... and never watch them again once they're "on tape" ... don't overpack, if you have a smartphone that makes nice pictures, that will be enough.

Agree with the above. I sold all my DSLR equipment a few years ago, best thing I ever did. Having said that, I do have a G7X which was my compromise with myself for when I miss the larger sensor. But the only photos I've taken on that which I actually look at are the ones I transferred to my phone. :d: I didn't bother taking it on my last trip, and it may end up being sold too.

Similar to myself this trip. Having done all the photos before and not doing anything particularly different this time than the other times, I used my Samsung S8 for all my pics and vids.
I did take a Bridge camera, but it never left the villa. It felt good to not have to carry one around the parks and just get my phone out for pretty quick shots whenever I fancied. The optical zoom of a Bridge/DSLR would have been nice on occasion, but I survived without.
Oh, and took a waterproof camera to the couple of days when at a waterpark.

I always take my laptop and carry this through with my cabin luggage (in a rucksack). I use this for uploading all pics when back in the villa just as a backup.

I have been using a Sony wifi camera the last couple of year, and used the sony play memories app to transfer it all to ipad, and a usb portable drive via a verbatim mediaplayer. Worked great.

I take a dedicated camera. As good as phone cameras are, action shots need ISO control and I also want an optical zoom.

I use an SD card and back up via a RAV POWER portable drive to a portable hard drive and cloud. I don’t need the laptop. We do take an iPad to view the photos via the drive though...

I take DSLR with my travel lens (18-140) along with a video camera; I alternate between them but normally favour the camera. (I shoot Jpeg on hol to save space).

In terms of carrying around the park, best thing I ever did was get my waterproof camera bag. It’s an Agua 35 (they do a smaller one for mirrorless). You are limited to one lens but not an issue I guess in your case. The case strap is also the camera strap (attached inside) and it pops out with one hand. I swap the inner clip onto the video when I take that.

Never had an issue with it on any ride around the whole of Disney; with the locker thing at Universal, it makes no difference as my phone/ wallet goes in the locker anyway.