Michael,
Very intuitive article. Now that I have reached my middle years I have found that I enjoy an event or artistic experience more when I have done some preparatory work before I view or participate in an event.

The question regarding whether to take a camcorder or camera lies largely in how a person prefers to percieve an image. I have seen some turn of the century real photo postcards that haunt my senses more than a current movie of the same view. But,I have noticed as I am aging that I enjoy looking back at the videos I took and how nicely it reminds me of sights and sounds I had forgotten.

This time around, I'm traveling light, so I'll be buying postcards and mailing them to myself of pretty sights, and an easy shoot rangefinder for the take home pictures of my son enjoying himself in Spain!

As a note, I also recommend reading The Art of Travel . It has very valuable information that all travelers should know, such as money issues, security issues, etc. As someone said before, it really does totally change your perspective on traveling out of your home country.

When deciding whether or not to take a camcorder, the amount of time spent traveling should also be considered. If you have alot of free time, you may want to use that time to take some footage. However, if you are only there for a few days, you may just want to enjoy yourself and save the camcorder for another trip.

[ 11-04-2001: Message edited by: zero262quick ]