Speaking of discounts, have you seen the Canon EOS 5D sr at B&H Photo? Purchase price now $1,499 having applied over $2,000 in discount! I’m guessing the high resolution (50 mega pixels) and DSLR vs. newer mirrorless is fueling such a massive discount?

I have several Black Rapid straps. Like them all. They can be configured as a single or double to hold one or two cameras. These are better than typical neck straps, but your shoulders can feel the cameras’ weight after a few hours. One issue is that while your cameras hang at hip height and at the ready, they will swing a bit if you do a lot of bending down, etc. Overall, still a great system. The other system which I have grown to like even better is the Spider Holster belt. It too can handle one or two cameras. They attach via a bracket system at hip height, but are secured by a very comfortable belt. Cameras are easily obtained to shoot and do not swing around when you bend over or reposition yourself. Best of all, the weight of the cameras are supported at your waist. I shoot sports and go all day without feeling fatigue from their positioning. If cost is an issue, start with the single bracket and add the second a bit latter. Good luck!

The concept of BBF does apply to many serious cameras and brands. I notice you shoot Nikon and Sony. To activate back button focus, the cameras may have a different set up to separate the focus and exposure functions from the shutter button. But this set up is only a small part of understanding the utility and usefulness of a back button focus choice. WARNING: if back button focus is something you might want to try and activate on your cameras, you will likely need to initially read an instruction manual. That might consume minutes of your time, as opposed to the maybe ten seconds it took you to read two lines of text in that post.....which, by the way, seemed to be very helpful to the sender. Isn’t that what this forum is all about? Have a great day, sir.

When I first began my journey into a more serious brand of photography, (amateur to enthusiast, I believe was the term), a very good photographer told me, “if you are debating getting a new camera body vs. a new camera lens, invest your hard-earned money in an ungraded lens. What great advice! I bit the bullet and purchased Canon’s L-series 70-200mm f/2.8 zoom. (f/4 is considerably less expensive if you don’t need the additional stop). This lens was weather sealed and built like a tank....plus the change in the sharpness and overall quality of my photographs was remarkable! Since then, Canon released an upgraded version iii. This means, the version ii, (and I now own both) is considerably less expensive. Go to the B&H site and search for this lens. If you can get over the hump, and try what such a quality lens can bring to the table, I am fairly certain, you will not be sorry. Good luck!

Adobe offers a relatively inexpensive subscription plan that couples Lightroom and Photoshop. I believe it’s about $10.00/month. Any upgrades to either program are included, and upgrades seem to occur multiple times a years. Lightroom is by far the easiest to learn and use. You will likely make 80% of your edits there. Photoshop is much more robust and does have a higher learning curve, but simple things like removing an object from your photograph can be accomplished with remarkable speed and simplicity. I am fairly sure that you can begin the subscription and cancel any time thereafter if it’s not working for you. Best of luck and success. Have fun!

DROBO

Please consider any warranty you may have as well. Though expensive, I always use Canon batteries. I am fairly certain that use of knock-off batteries can void your warranty.

I hate to be a downer, and perhaps someone will disagree here, but you have chosen to shoot one of the most expensive areas of photography on the planet. Most camera bodies can do a wonderful job shooting regular portraits or flowers, etc. and the lens is the better investment to increase photo quality. Sports, however and especially low light sports, pretty much require fast glass AND a camera body that can ramp up the ISO setting without creating too much noise (grainy photographs). These bodies are expensive. I know of no solution except to perhaps get editing software that can reduce the noise of photos taken, post processing. I wish you the very best in your efforts.

Platypod Max and Ultra. Oben BE-117 ballhead.

I use two devices that, from your post, might be exactly what you would like. The Playpod Max and the Platypod Ultra. Each are used with the same ball head mount - the Oben BE-117. Other ball heads work too but I’ve found this one to be light and sturdy. The Max is larger and holds a longer lens set up. The Ultra is the smaller and works well with anything 200mm or less. They are simply metal plates, very light, nd easily portable. Good luck!

For me, the Wacom tablet has become an absolute necessity. I think the answer to your question really lies in just how much you plan to learn Lightroom and especially Photoshop. (Or some similar programs for editing). If you want to get better at editing photos, you will be extremely glad you kept that tablet. Absent wanting to do that, I’m not sure why I would buy or keep one. Try to get a bit more in to editing. I have found it very satisfying and it takes your photographs to a whole new level. Best of luck and success!

Just shot in Bermuda. Covered Southampton, Hamilton and St. George. Used two cameras and chose my 24-70mm f/2.8 and 70-200mm f/28. I found the number of expansive beaches where a wide or super wide angle lens might have been nice was minimal. The 24mm was just fine. I was also surprised at the number of times I used the 200mm zoom to capture items of interest. Good luck. If this is your first time to Bermuda, you’re in for a great experience!

Photo Rule 1 - the lens that’s on the single camera you have, is rarely the lens you’d prefer. Take both cameras (so long as you are comfortable carrying the equipment.). Have fun!

I found membership in KelbyOne, Scott Kelby’s video tutorials, to be most helpful. A ton of different subjects are broken down in simple and easy to understand terms. Try it!

For those of us who shoot both portraits and sports, RAW and JPEG may offer advantages. Portraits benefit from the enhanced editing capabilities of a data rich file. Sports benefit from a faster capture rate (JPEG files are much smaller allowing buffers to handle without hanging up), and the edits are generally much less intense making a larger RAW file unnecessary (although I do shoot RAW at times even in Sports).