Sony A6000. Like all mirrorless cameras it eats batteries. It's such a pain to carry four extra batteries for a daily shot. Then have to go back and recharge all of them for the next day. And yes, the camera is set up to be as frugal as possible with the battery usage. Part of the problem is most mirrorless cameras makers have poor firmware, that leads to excessive battery draw. I also have a Nikon D7000, which can go like the Eveready Rabbit. I took the Nikon to Ireland for 2 weeks, took over 8000 pictures and used only three batteries for the whole trip with power to spare. Carrying a D7000 all day is a pain, but not as big of a pain as it is to carry 4 spare batteries every day and still have to turn the camera off all the time to conserve power, then have to charge all those batteries every night, if you have time.

I have been struggling over the past few weeks to find a someplace to go so I can burn an "excess" of paid time-off. I've chased down some fabulous-looking deals, but when I go to tally up the cost, the fact that I travel solo makes the price go up -- almost double in some cases -- and that kills the deal. I'm talking about a $2,000-$3,000 package winding up costing $5,000-$6,000. Grrr, not for me!

So imagine my pleasure when one of the "bookmarked" deals I put aside a while back turned out to be available. Traveling solo, I will be going on a "Photography: Utah's National Parks" at the end of September. With airfare included, the cost comes to about $2,900, lodging and meals included.

I did a similar journey in 2012, before I'd gotten a good handle on digital photography and post-processing. Now, I have my D7500 and some lenses and filters, and will be going with an established photographer and a group of folks sharing the same interest, and going to more places than I did before (I did Bryce Canyon, Zion and the Grand Canyon North Rim). I'll be photographing Arches, Canyonlands, Monument Valley, Lake Powell, Antelope Canyon and more. It's still two months away, and already I'm excited about it. Watch this space for results.

I made a test of 4 lenses with images shot at about 100mm with the same (or almost the same) test image. All were shot on a tripod with a Nikon D610 with the same fine jpg mode in camera processing to eliminate possible differences I might have introduced with a RAW conversion. These images are posted. I have formed an opinion and would like to see what others think about the perceived image quality produced by the lenses.

I recommend downloading the full size images and review with your favorite post processing program; I use Photoshop Elements. I am ignoring any slight differences in focus, apparent exposure and color cast (the last 2 easily dealt with in a RAW image in post and any focus issue could have been my error). I have made my judgement based primarily on the histograms, especially the red and blue histogram information which shows the response of each lens to colors at the ends of the color spectrum. The test shot has significant red and blue colors. After some time I will reveal the identity of the lenses and my judgement, which is of course just my view with which others may disagree. There are two fixed focal length lenses and two zoom lenses in this test.

I am interested to see if others would make a similar judgement.
OK, you've got 3 pages of pixel-peeping speculation; now tell us the result.


Thanks in advance for those who participate for taking the time to do so.