A rangefinder, whether laser or not, can help here, but my question is why you want to go manual with your flash? Today's flash automation probably will do a better job than you can in manual.

Maybe a little cautiously applied graphite? Use a Q-Tip and try to follow the rotating seam around the circumference. You might get lucky.

I'm betting, however, that the metal in your ring is aluminium; they jam easily. I'd replace it with one made of brass.

Amen on the 'too cold.' Being born and raised in Montana, I used to love the cold. Today, my unstable angina prevents moving back home.

This is really taking off in a poor direction. The A99 II, when used with APS-C lenses, will crop--it just won't be full frame... resulting in an APS-C sized frame. The resulting file will be 18mp.

I don't know if it's auto or a menu choice (I don't have the camera in question), but your lenses should be perfectly useful until you build up a set of full-frame lenses. Like others here, I recommend some of the better, older Minolta lenses.

Like it or not, and just like when a writer becomes a professional 'author,' when someone other than a photographer's family and friends circle think highly enough of the shooter's results to pay them.

Doesn't mean the photographer's any good; it just means that, by hook or by crook, that shooter produced a saleable photo.

You had the camera set to shutter priority.

Welcome to the Ugly Hedgehog, Postal! And thanks for the quick update. I don't shoot Canon, but for near-new, it seems a great price.

My favorites that sell new cameras, so far, are Roberts (when I lived in Indianapolis), Tempe Camera Repair (when I lived in North Phoenix), and for used gear, The Camera Connection in Redford Township, MI north of Detroit.

There's also a new shop--opened just a couple of months ago--Camera Exchange in Waterford, MI about 5 blocks from my place of work. I haven't been there yet, but plan to do so this week.

And only one post... my my my. You should at least introduce yourself so we can get to know you a little.

I let it slide; being a grammar Nazi here is the same as being a grammar Nazi and correcting someone while having a conversation in person. In both cases, it is CASUAL conversation.

Still, clarity and accuracy are positives we all should strive for (yeah, a trailing preposition).

After all, one of the best texts for precision in writing is "On Writing Well," not "On Writing Good."

(former grammar Nazi, who has edited over 100 books)

Agreed. Graphite should be the weapon of choice.

GOOD advice? Watch the weather forecasts, and choose 3 or 4 possible locations, if you want to incorporate the eclipse into a scene. Pick the one that offers the best chance of success.

When I shot my only eclipse, I brought two cameras and two tripods; a 50mm for a landscape and a 400mm and teleconverter, the longest lens I could get my hands on. I choose the Montana state capitol building as the foreground with the eclipse hanging over it. Midway through, I removed the teleconverter and got most of the capitol dome in frame with the spectacle. The luckiest part was that I was only about two miles from the exact center of totallity.

Get there, at the appointed time, but a day ahead of the eclipse to select your exact position for the next day. While there, I met only one other person doing the same thing. He was an AP photographer.

And during the eclipse, take a few moments to just take in this celestial experience.

I've been shooting seriously since 1975, and I've never suffered a lens failure, not even oily diaphragms. Knock on wood.