In my new quest to go from street photographer to grand-daughter photographer I'm about to throw in the towel. I did the research on the Nikon 50mm 1.8 and 1.4 on our site and on Google etc. The main concern was, is the 1.4 worth an extra two hundred bucks. Most said not really but I also read a few articles that said yes. My thought was I wanted to take a lot of natural light shots of a baby so why not get all the light I can? After about a few hundred pictures out of focus to my eye, which means 99% of the viewing world say, oh what a great picture, the 1%, you and I, say, hey that's out of focus! So after re-reading the manual and trying every possible combination humanly possible and getting nowhere I came across "focus shift and spherical aberration". Well there's some information I could have used earlier! OK so I get it now, I think, the lens is weak wide open. Very frustrating process. I just want to be able to take a picture from two feet away and have both eyes in focus without having to go back to college. Now the question becomes when if ever will I shoot wide open, knowing in the back of my mind there will probably be issues? Attached are two pictures, both taken on a tripod with Nikon D610 for your analysis. Photo #1 1.4 ISO 220 #2 5.6 ISO 2800. Thank you for any and all input. Marty

Well - the heat here in Spain has been around 100f this month. My 64 bit HP Compaq lap-top got fried last week (graphics) which is really a motherboard prob. So that is the end. Luckily the hard drive is ok and I also have most of it backed up anyway. So until I sort out the problems of finding an English Computer here in Spain I am using my old Sony Vaio.
I went looking for a cooler tray / fan but wasn't impressed - so the point of this is to share what I did to prevent another (expensive) fry-up.
I bought a couple of freezer bricks - the ones that go in cool-boxes - and found a large flat biscuit tin ( about 3" deep) and placed a frozen freezer brick in it, dispensed with the lid and placed the lap-top on top. After a couple of hours swap the brick for a newly frozen one. Keeps my computer properly cool for $3.00.

My girlfriend has 'stolen' my D7100, two zoom lenses, one flash and a few other odds and ends. She went with her girlfriends this weekend and we loaded up my gadget bag with her gear to keep it safe while they had more than several drinks. She told me, with a huge, adorable smile, that I probably need to buy myself a bigger camera bag... ;-)
The bag that she has 'stolen' is pictured below. It came with my D3200 kit and is (was) my only bag. I think I may want another Nikon bag, not sure yet, but not another one of these because my D610 was a little too wide for this narrow bag. I could use some advice and would love to hear what bag you own. I don't want a huge bag, maybe something that is a little bigger than this kit bag with lots of pockets and can accommodate a D610's width and several accessories and lenses. Thank you.
Norman