My wife and I are planning to visit Great Smoky Mountains NP this summer and I am interested in some advice regarding where to stay and more importantly, great photo locations and the best times to view them. We are flying into Atlanta and will be heading to the park from the North Carolina side. From there we will head to the coast and Charleston. Having never visited the southeast, any advice would be most appreciated. Thanks.

I have the Hyperfocal Pro app on my phone and it works great!

I have been using the LowePro Flipside 400 AW for about a year and love it. I have a D750 along with the 14-24 F/2.8, 24-70 F/2.8, and 70-200 F/4. Along with those are a couple of ziploc bags with extra batteries, self timers, etc. I might be able to squeeze a second camera body in, but when the D850 comes out (hopefully) I may upgrade to the 500 AW. There is also a sleeve on the back for a tripod and I carry my Slik U212 which is fairly large. The pack is quite comfortable on hikes of several miles through the sierras.

Phil

I bracket shots routinely if the range of light is great. Memory cards are relatively inexpensive, less than the cost of gas to get to the location I am shooting. I can then select the best exposure to work with and delete the rest.

Now for your actual question. With my old Canon T4i and now the D750, if you use the self timer the camera will automatically take the series of bracketed shots. Without the timer you have to press the shutter for each shot. I suspect that the 610 works the same.

Since I shoot landscapes and am in no rush I routinely use the timer and a tripod anyway to avoid camera shake.

Any news on a D810 replacement Steve? I have been wanting an 810 but keep hearing that Nikon will be coming out with a camera to match the Canon 5DS.

Phil

Thanks for the opinions everyone. I can't be certain either and wanted to get some other eyes on it. It is still under warranty and sending it in for a check seems to be the best solution.

Phil

Hi everyone,

Last May I purchased the 14-24 F/2.8 lens and tested it with my D750 and found the sharpness to be excellent from edge to edge as one would expect. Recently I have become concerned that it is not as sharp at the sides of the frame and was interested in getting opinions form those of you who use this lens. I am attaching a variety of images which are the best I have for comparison. I am just looking for honest assessments as to whether my concerns are warranted. The first two images are from a wall I like to use to check sharpness since it has a lot of detail. Yes, I know that the distance was not quite the same 8 months later and the light is different but it is the best I have at the moment. The more recent image was taken right after I had my D750 cleaned at Nikon last month. When I zoom in to 100% the pipe on the left side of the frame seems fuzzy in the newer image.

A few days ago I was taking some pictures in the Sierras and when I examined the images there was a decided lack of sharpness on the sides. I am attaching the original image along with crops from the left and right. The trees toward the center seem much sharper than those at the sides, even though the distance was about the same. The image was taken at 14mm F/8 and 1/1600.

I look forward to any constructive assessments of my images and whether you feel that there is an issue or not. I should mention that all of the images were taken on a tripod with a 2 sec delay. Thanks.

Phil

14mm F/8 Feb 2017

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14mm F/8 June 2016

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14mm F/8 1/1600

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Right side crop

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Left side crop

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I tested both of those lenses last year before buying the Nikon 14-24. I had earlier purchased the Tamron 24-70 F/2.8 for my D750 and it is mostly an excellent lens. The problem I found with it was softness at the edges and even after sending it back to Tamron twice for adjustment and exchanging it for another copy, they eventually told me that it was in spec and could not perform better.

Because of this experience, even with the glowing reviews of the Tamron 15-30, I decided to test both before choosing a wide angle zoom. I must admit that it was nearly impossible to detect any differences in the sharpness of the two lenses and this lens exhibited no loss of sharpness at the edges. The Tamron lens does have vibration reduction (not usually an issue with a wide angle). It is however, noticeably heavier than the Nikon. In the end, I went with the Nikon as it has a long standing reputation as a superb lens and I have not been disappointed. However, if cost is a concern, then the Tamron gave a nearly identical performance in terms of image sharpness.

Phil

I have used Photomatix for quite a while and really like it. I have found that the HDR function in Photoshop does not give nearly as nice results. Since I got my Nikon D750 last year I have found that the dynamic range is so good that I usually just tonemap a single image rather than bothering to merge several images and still get the same results.

I have used both Canon and Nikon cameras and both have excellent quality. On glaring difference I have found is in the tech support if your camera is having any issues. I guess I was spoiled with Canon because whenever I called I found the support staff to be fully versed in their cameras and could answer questions quickly and professionally. My Nikon D750, which I bought last year, has needed warranty service a couple of times, and while the customer service personnel at Nikon are friendly, their technical knowledge is vastly inferior to Canon. Any question I asked resulted in a hold while they looked up the answer on their computer.

As a couple of Canon reps told me, they were both professional photographers and thoroughly understood the equipment Canon manufactured. At Nikon I am reminded of the overseas support we often get for electronics in which the answer to every question has to be looked up. Other than that, I love the D750.

That is what I am hoping to do, but don't know how to do that.

I make calendars for a few friends each year and normally use Snapfish. On their site one can place multiple images on each month, so I often use two vertical images side by side to fill the horizontal calendar page. This year I am using Costco for the first time and it appears that you can only have one image on each page. I know how to use photomerge in Photoshop to make panoramas, but in this case I just want to place two images side by side with a small space in between. I thought one of you might know an easy way to do this. Thanks.

Phil

I went through that decision process earlier this year. I had been a Canon guy since the 70's and they are excellent cameras as are Nikons. I decided to upgrade my Canon T4i to a FF camera and spent several months poring over every review and comparison I could find. In the end, the Nikon D750 had the features I wanted and was somewhat less expensive than a comparable Canon. Since my cropped sensor Canon lenses wouldn't work on a Canon FF anyway, my old lenses couldn't be used either way.

I have been very pleased with the image quality of the D750 and probably would have been equally happy with a Canon 5D MarkIII. In the end, read the reviews, examine the features you most want to have, and if possible, handle both cameras.

Phil

I am a longtime Amazon Prime member and recently learned that they are offering unlimited photo storage for members. The one problem I have encountered is that if you upload Nikon raw files it shrinks them to about 2% of the original file size, even though the data on prime shows the original size. If I download one of these photos back to my computer the original 25 MB file is now about 50 kB. Oddly enough, this does not happen with Canon raw files. The techs at Amazon have been working on this for the past week and still don't know why it is happening. I was just curious to know if anyone else has run into this problem.

Phil

Although I am a fly fisherman, I wasn't actually fishing that day. Over the past two years I find myself spending more time taking fishing pictures than actually fishing. I brought all of my gear for props as I had an idea for a shot that might make a good cover photo. I am new to night photography, but the D750 and Nikon 14-24 are a great combo for that. I usually have a friend that comes along to pose for me, but no one was free so I just used a 10 second delay and ran over to the chair and sat still for 30 seconds.