if u mean levels adjustments yes other than that idk what u mean

no, LR5 has a better brush tools and some more gradient tools and a few other minor improvements. The cataloging is the same. no worth the upgrade to me.

my go to lens is the 16-80 Carl Ziess

"pop up flash be sufficient? I do have an SB 700"

sry I thought u said u had a strobe.

I don't totally agree with the statements above although they have some value. its a learning experience and if you get out there and realize FRAP I couda woulda shoulda it is a lesson learned.

As it happens I made a visit to the Ice Caves in the Mt Adams Wilderness Area (Washington, USA) just yesterday.
Take your strobe and I see no mention of a tripod (very useful). Temp was about 12F no issues.

With a stable camera u can use lower shutter spds and fire the strobe manually from different angles including from behind the ice.

I would not comment on this subject except to say I nether confirm nor deny.

That's not right unless you are using a "drug store" printing service that generally wants a jpeg in sRGB. If your doing your own printing or going to a custom printer then you want tiff and AbobeRGB or even better if going to an Epson printer ProRGB. ProRGB was designed to take the best advantage of the Epson K3 inkset or so the Epson rep in Seattle told me.

http://www.amandajacksonphoto.com/2014/01/13/pro-prints-vs-drugstore-prints-it-does-matter/

I think he means Adobe RGB

I have one of those, been looking for an underwater housing.

two unusual things I carry in my bag are black electrical tape and green dental floss

"I can resist anything except temptation"

Oscar Wilde

DNG or "digital negative" is Adobes camera independent raw file format. Just about every camera including different models from the same manufacture have their own proprietary raw format. Archiving as DNG helps to insure your file will be readable well into the future.

Light Rooms raw converter must be up to date with support for your camera to make the conversion, otherwise you will have to use the software that came with your camera to open and edit to tiff.

As time moves on it is possible that you camera raw format may no longer be supported. By converting to DNG this potential problem can be avoided and is recommended. All information is retained and Light Room editing is the same.

My only concern is the possibility of Adobe moving the converter to the "cloud", forcing us to pay a fee to open a DNG.

its true that a Photograph can be manipulated (ie. retouched)but this must be done by the hand, in the digital domain the eye and the Mind exist. you can see and think but you can not touch, it is the hand that is missing.

"I am thinking of digital display frames that now reside in folks desks"

well now, that's a little bit gray lol, I stand on my original assertion that a Photograph does not exist until it leaves the virtual world. until it is printed an image remains subject to manipulation.

a slide or a film negative is a physical object and has the status of artifact