ABSOLUTELY!

OOPS!

I buy from my local shop, Gary Photo, here in NW Indiana when convenient and they have EXACTLY what I want at a competitive price; my favorite store in the whole world, Unique Photo in Fairfield, NJ when I'm in town; B&H when neither of those work out; and KEH for used gear. And I only consider a difference in price when it is pretty substantial!

What I would never consider doing is ask anyone of the them to match the price of another. I find this practice very unethical, both for the purchaser and the price matching seller! If a company has determined the price they feel comfortable selling that item, and you are uncomfortable paying that amount and find it at a price you are willing to pay elsewhere, then, unless you have reservations about purchasing from that seller, buy it there.

If you have reason to not trust a particular source enough to purchase from them when they have the low price, you probably have a very good idea why their price is so low. High end camera gear is a very competitive market, you don't need to squeeze the last penny out of every seller. (I spent enough time in the business world to develop a very large dislike for customers who would shop my price to my competitors.)

Frame rate also indicates shutter lag time! A faster frame rate is associated with less lag time, and a longer shutter lag means more missed shots. When I was a boy, adults trying to teach sports used to point to a famous photo of Ted Williams swinging at a pitch, the ball just coming into the zone, the bat coming in from the other direction, "See", they would say, "his eyes are on the ball!" (No one ever seemed to notice what a remarkable photo this was, considering the equipment of the day.)

I attempted to duplicate that shot with a D100 and a D70 for several years as a sports photographer. Finally when I moved up to a D200, with its much better frame rate, I was able to get photos with the ball and bat coming together (occasionally). I no longer shoot for others, but I am looking forward to getting my hands on a D500 to see if that doesn't improve my capture rate.

Of course there are some who use the multiple shot sequencing more often, and I've used it on occasion. It makes an interesting sequence, which I like to use, when photographing someone's golf swing.

Actually, Sharpshooter, if you crop the D8xx to match the D500, you only get 16 Megapixels; the D500 gives you 25% more. Most likely, with either camera you're going to have to crawl through the mud on your belly to get that killer wildlife shot!

I haven't shot much wildlife in years, but I'm fairly accomplished as a Sports photographer, and I'm anxious to get my hands on the D500,less for the 10fps, than for the decreased shutter lag time that infers.

Your description of the problem leads me to suspect lens flare, for which any filter would be counter productive. But when I see your image of the Silver River in the UP, I see a two stop over exposure (corrected by the ND filter). The problem is overexposure! I don't know what camera you are using or what mode you are in so I cannot determine why you have a 2 stop over exposure.

The cure is not a filter, but correct exposure! Determine why you are over exposing (wrong setting in manual exposure, exposure compensation set to +2, camera error, etc.), and stop doing that.

In any event, it is pretty difficult to get pictures without flare taken into a bright sun with a wide angle lens!

Depends on how long you're going to be out, where, and what you'll be shooting. Your Sinar based kit will be great for scenics, but sucks for wildlife. And it is a load to lug into the wild, particularly if you're going for an extended period. Everyone's needs are a little different.

The Peanuts work great, as long as you are the only one flashing!

btbg's response brings back great memories (and some not so great). My last backpacking trip was along the Hoh River Trail, taking a left at the Ranger station and then five miles up to Hoh Lake. That five miles nearly did me in as it included very near a mile in elevation gain and I was overburdened and under conditioned! Over burdened by too much around my middle, and too much gear. That upward stretch was really tough on my knees - I thought there might be permanent damage, but after about three months they slowly got better.

Fortunately, I had raised my backpacking partner, and he, my son, was recently discharged from the army and in great shape. He ended up carrying much more than his share of the load.

Getting back to the OP's question, a photo/backpacking trip can be extremely rewarding, and very taxing! First, spend the time and effort to be physically prepared for the hiking. And that means some hiking over rough terrain; sidewalks or groomed park paths won't do it! Make sure you are wearing good solid boots WELL BROKEN IN!

I had a camera and multiple lenses on all my trips, but would advise being very judicious about what you bring. I usually had a flash, but can't remember one picture it was useful for. (Would have been great for that Kangaroo mouse in Maine, but every time I turned it on the whine scared the little guy off. Today's units are quieter, but ...). If your doing wildlife a telephoto is an absolute necessity, but you don't want to carry a large aperture lens, or a really long one. For scenery, you will need at least a modest wide angle and a decent zoom covering the mid-range. And you will want a tripod, but don't carry any but the smallest, like a MeFoto.

Your photo equipment will use up a substantial portion of your weight budget, and that puts you in the expensive section of the camping store for your kit. A light weight tent (except maybe in the Southwest), three season sleeping bag plus pad, cooking gear, small stove, change of clothing, cold and bad weather gear, food for your entire trip, water filter and carrier (you need to carry a days supply), first aid and sundries, all in a solid back pack; you're carrying 50, 60, maybe more pounds. And that golf cart thingy someone suggested, it won't work on any trail I've ever hiked!

Now that I've discouraged you, don't let me! Properly prepared, this can be one of the great adventures of your life. A true joy.

One more thing, for camping gear on a budget, check out Campmor in New Jersey. Get their catalog and you can shop comfortably, even from in hiding!

I bought an extended warranty/insurance once. (Don't remember the Guarantor, it was a quarter century ago.) I then fell on the ice carrying my polycarbonate bodied Nikon 8008, I was OK but the polycarbonate body had a crack. I contacted the warranty provider, as I thought this was covered, but they assured me it was only "cosmetic", and, therefor not covered.

Down the road, my son and I are on a once-in-a-lifetime backpacking trip in Olympic National Park, and the ever present moisture penetrated the camera innards, and shut it down! (Fortunately, we had my sons waterproof point and shoot as a backup, so we still got a few pictures.) I sent the camera in to Nikon (on my dime) and they replaced the cracked body. I used that repaired camera extensively until I replaced it with an F100 six or eight years later!

No, I do not favor these third party Warranties, Guarantees, Equipment Insurance Programs, except real theft or loss insurance policies from real Insurance companies. I remember my parents paying for such an appliance insurance program year after year. They had paid enough to have repurchased the appliances when, due to an untenable rate increase (the appliances had reached an age when problems were expected to occur) they dropped the insurance! Of course, one of the appliances failed shortly afterward.

The problem is different with digital cameras! They are pretty reliable, and even if they due fail after say a half dozen years, technology has marched on to the point that an identical replacement can be had for pennies on the dollar.

Buy authorized (non-grey market), maintain reputable theft/loss insurance, and take care of your equipment!

This looked to be pretty tight quarters, but the photographer was well within throwing distance downrange. Got to pay attention!

I've been chased half way across the width of a football field by a javelin caught in the wind, and I had a friend who lost a son to an errant hammer thrown at a high school meet half a century ago. A track meet, or any sporting event, is not a place to let your attention wander!

I have been doing this for some time. I was mentored by a number of excellent portrait photographers. Not one of them, and certainly not me, would ever consider doing this assignment without flash!

Did I say USE FLASH??? USE FLASH!!! Bounce it, or shoot it through an umbrella!!!

USE FLASH!!!

There is one condition which may push normal White Balance or post processing capability. That is when two different light sources, say a fluorescent and a window with daylight coming through are visible in the same image. They will be distinctly different colors. The area in between shading from one to the other. In this case it would probably be easiest to shut off the room lights and fill with bounced strobes.

I was taught that a "normal" lens focal length should be equal to the diagonal of the image format. That equates to 43 mm for 35 mm film or "full frame" digital. (I had a 35 mm Olympus rangefinder with a 43 mm fixed focal length lens - worked good.) But, as I understood things, the first 35 mm Single Lens Reflex camera designs required about a 50 mm focal length to get the mating flanges on the camera body and back of the lens out far enough for the reflex mirror to swing freely up out of the way. A wider angle lens allowing this clearance (retrofocus) was more expensive to produce. Thus, the 50 mm lens became the norm! The "kit lens" of its time.

So, using the diagonal criteria, the "normal" lens for your DX camera would be the elusive 28 or 29 mm lens. Extrapolating from the 35 mm experience, it would be about 35 mm; but, as pointed out above, it really depends on your usage. When I last walked around with prime lenses mounted on my 35 mm, it was most often a 105 mm macro lens. But today, I eschew prime lenses 95% of the time, I love my zooms! And the quality attained with today's zoom lenses is outstanding! Good enough that you don't miss prime lenses.

But, is there still an advantage using prime lenses? Only two from my perspective: 1) large f/ stops for depth of field; and 2) macro lenses! So figure out what you need for your photography and enjoy.

View Camera "Normal" Lenses:
8" x 10": +/- 12" or 300 mm
4" x 5": +/- 6" or 150 mm

Medium Format "Normal" Lenses:
6 x 7 mm: 90 mm (but my RB initially came with a 127 mm)
6 x 6 mm: 85 mm (but I believe most were 80 mm)
6 x 4.5 mm: 75 mm

I shot a number of high school and college events, including quite a few dances. I had the advantage of using flash, but sometimes the dance floors were so dim I couldn't tell which way the dancers were facing through the viewfinder. So I'd be out there on the floor with them, with my camera held chest high facing them and firing off the shot without being able to view it, for composition or focus, through the finder. I was totally at the mercy of the Nikon auto-focus system as it worked in conjunction with the flash. Shooting "blind" that way, there were misses, but very few due to focus error.