Went to Disney with only my Phone camera. Wanted to kill myself!

Just thought I'd toss this out there...for the photographers among us. In the 2nd week of June, I went to Disney World, staying at a lovely Boardwalk-view 1-bedroom villa in Boardwalk. Yeah, it's hot in the summer, but I live in S. Florida, so it's hot anyway...might as well be hot at Disney. Due to a complete and utter failure in planning due to too many things happening at once before I left (I got Covid and was constantly running tests to get negative results, my big screen TV died the night before I was leaving)...I somehow managed in the morning to toss everything in my car and drive up to Disney, drop off everything to the baggage porter, check in, then head to my room to have my luggage delivered - 4 pieces as written on the baggage claim check. Suitcase, cooler, bag with food, and camera bag...sounded correct. Then the man arrived and delivered 3 pieces. I noted that there were 4 - he agreed the receipt said 4, and proceeded to search their entire luggage area, valet area, etc. I sat in the room stressing that my camera bag with all my equipment had gone missing...and as I sat there thinking...I just couldn't remember seeing the bag in my car trunk. Yet the receipt said '4'. I decided out of abundance of caution to have my sister-in-law go to my house and take a look...they live 2 miles away. The baggage dept called fretting over not finding the bag, but were still searching. Then my sister called and said there was a fat, stuffed camera bag sitting on my desk in my office...with all my gear in it.

I was relieved...yet also upset. I informed the baggage dept that the item was never here, found at home, and of the astounding coincidence that I WOULD have had exactly 4 items, and they mis-wrote '4' on the tag, so it really was an honest mistake by all in thinking it had gotten lost. So no lost camera equipment...yay! So I'm on a 4 day trip to Disney with nothing but an iPhone 8 camera...ugh!

But so many people are happy snapping photos with phones, maybe it wouldn't be so bad. Maybe I'd discover the phone was so magnificent that I wouldn't even want to bring my camera in the future! Yeah, no.

I know there are far better phone cameras than the 8...I'm many generations behind. But stick 3 lenses on it, amp up the computational power and stacking power, and I'm still holding a skinny rectangle up in he air, lining up shots on a screen a few feet from my face, and awkwardly finding how to either press the screen or an alternate button to take shots. Focus is a guess by the camera, or me trying to tap something on the screen. I can make minute adjustments on the screen to 'brightness' and such by tapping and sliding and such, all of which were so awkward for me to use that I didn't bother. In the end, I found myself not really wanting to take very many photos...I so disliked the form factor, interaction, and ergonomics that I'd only snap a few shots here or there, and certainly not really putting in the effort like I would with a camera - I was content to mostly just 'point and shoot' at the occasional scene as if I felt obligated to come home with some photos.

From now on, the camera bag is loaded and goes into the car the night before...I shall never, ever forget it again! That strange week continued when I got back from Disney, and had to go buy a few big-screen TV, as well as replace my AC in my house which died the day I got back.

After sorting through the 47 shots, I ended up with a grand total of 17 'keeper' photos taken on the 4 day trip. By far the least photos I've ever returned from Disney with, and that goes back to film camera days in the 70s! Here are a few:

 

Still was painful - I'm going to try to make sure this stuff doesn't happen again. I felt like a soldier without a gun.

 

The ergonomics was honestly the worst past of it all for me. I think when you start to add on grips, lenses, etc, it would get more comfortable to shoot with...but I don't even use a case on mine, so handling the skinny slippery little rectangle, and seeing the screen in the bright sun with polarized glasses on, made it very uncomfortable and I just didn't want to use it too often.

Your setup definitely looks more like a P&S, from what I remember...as you had more of a case, a grip, addon lenses, etc. I've been mulling upgrading my iPhone mostly just because it's getting old and the battery isn't quite as fresh as it used to be at holding charge, and I get tempted by the supposed improvements in the camera functionality, but it would still be very hard for me to adapt to using the screen instead of a viewfinder, and I still struggle with the ergo, so if I were going to use it as a camera, I'd really need to look at some kind of grip case. The phone for me mostly serves as an emergency camera when I don't have a camera with me. Usually it's just at a restaurant or on a drive or business, not a whole 4-day Disney trip!

 

I have hopes that a phone camera can replace what I used to use my pocket cams for - just having a camera on me that I can enjoy taking some photos with on occasion when I don't have my bigger cameras with me. I used to just take random shots with my U20, L1, T100, or TX10 pocket cams at the beach, out fishing, on a drive along the coastal road, etc - just times when I didn't want to plan bringing the bigger camera but might still see something interesting or fun to shoot. Since getting a decent phone with the iPhone8, I thought it would fit the bill - I think not including this Disney trip I can almost count the total photos I've taken over several years on two hands...mostly because I just don't like shooting with it ergonomically. Some kind of optional grip and shutter system I can keep in my glove box or something could solve that issue...though likely at some point soon I'll probably be upgrading the current phone, so I'll wait until I do that to look around for such a case.