Is this the 24-105mm L first edition? It has a ribbon cable connector that can go bad, a known issue.

When travelling, I may bring a laptop but usually just an 8" tablet for movies and book reading.
I back up my cards two ways, one using a WD My Passport Pro with a 2tb drive and the other is a RavPower file hub with a ssd and older hd. Both are 4 tb. The ssd is a Sandisk and the HD could be one of a few I have. The RavPower is also a power bank so it powers the hard drive connected to it.
My cameras use CF and SD cards, so the sd cards are saved as original files and the cf cards are reused if I start to run low on reserve CD cards. Mainly because SD cards are cheaper to keep in bag.

I have an older Japanese model, gets lots of use in my garden. Lots of knockoffs now

There are a lot of courses and only you can decide if they are relevant to your needs. Some are great, some (especially by Scott himself) are a little too comedic in presentation for me. Even so, there are gems of info and I can slog through for them if need be. I don't reference it as much as I used to, but it's still worth it for me.

His discounts on participating vendors are hit and miss, but better than no discount. Used to have a great discount section on B&H, but nowadays, the discount is pretty miniscule.

https://www.amazon.com/Edward-Tools-Cultivator-Hand-Tiller/dp/B01MTDMUCI/ref=sr_1_7?crid=MH9KQI68SPOE&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.oJ1RR93ytOeKHi3WRvJCZhha_w8zt2Ep8rAhio9lH1o7T_UWH7yVPr_ryI0XhscJMM9v1bZccansYTbabo9qUuwwSXE15r35AUo6wf5pJu7GTAeZQKU4mIXng1xIhkxV6ulPobUDuAyp8JH4FHMiwq862FldPXreM1HQ8p9oHDoMMTanAmvTWydQAJiLwzMi3QiOARlrY_4Ua8gWXdYeNiKaro8C-H9d1AdtJ6DsxzMy-65635HvloSp9LfPe0iyGDnwn2UmzGLQ7RRCslaILxhubWJURQpTALy6tYN4WLA.YzJ9ktYm4c-deMYMcpCL1XwrsZ3-L-rph03ySwXESHQ&dib_tag=se&keywords=garden+aerator+cultivator+pick+mattock&qid=1710121232&sprefix=garden+mattock%2Caps%2C156&sr=8-7

Look under garden mattock or cultivator, many variations

I just played chauffeur for my wife's cousins to San Francisco so they could take phone photos of the city. Since I was driving, I didn't bring any equipment and actually used my phone for the first time as my primary camera. We took them up via 19th Ave to Golden Gate Park and the Academy of Science, etc., the Presidio, Golden Gate Bridge and back through to the Embarcadero and Fisherman's Wharf for dinner. Even at the Marin headlands, I wouldn't imagine needing a long focal length. Possibly to shoot Alcatraz, but you are pretty close to it from the Wharf.

That said, when I am in the city shooting, I go wider than longer. Usually 16-35mm and 24-105 are my choices. When I have taken another lens in my pack, it's a TSe. As others have said, your shooting style will be the deciding factor.

I have done these exact same steps when doing old photo restorations of oversized prints for people. Much easier than setting up lighting and camera stand.

It could also be done using the clone stamp tool with the mode set to lighten color. Resample often and the only affected pixels will be anything darker than your target sample, anything lighter or the same value won't be changed.

You can still download whatever version you have paid for to any new PC you may have in the future. I agree by the time any windows operating system is incompatible with Windows 10 or 11 software, the software would be sorely antiquated anyway.

I don't mind and I do pay for upgrades, but Topaz went from a group upgrade of all software to that same approximate price now charged for each single program.

I usually save as a tiff because I can see a thumbnail of the photo in Windows Explorer when I'm browsing the folder. A psd is just a logo which I need to view in bridge or PS.

DxO PureRAW fixes lens flaws such as optical distortion, chromatic aberration, lens sharpness, aliasing, vignetting for supported images. In terms of geometric correction, DxO PureRAW is only going to correct distortion.

The best software for geometric corrections are DxO ViewPoint or Perspective Efex from the Nik Collection.

I use Viewpoint for architectural shooting. If I use PureRAW, I deselect lens correction and run it through Viewpoint. I should have been clearer on that.

Thanks

I usually produce an end file as a highest quality jpeg or srgb jpeg for web, depending on the end use. Sometimes both. But I always edit, save and store my working files as 16bit Tiff or PSDs. The main reason I do is because my work for others involves working with PS layers, masks and adjustments. If I need to go back and fine tune anything, I only have to go to the relevant layer or adjustment. Any work done previously is still there and I don't need to start from scratch.

Because of that, I do all my personal work in the same manner because that workflow is my standard.

I have not upgraded either Photo AI or Gigapixel because of the pricing structure they have in place now. I like Topaz software and did the price for 1 year updates for all the individual products, but not now with this price model. I usually run through DXO softwares in conjunction with PS. I run PureRAW to get great results on raw files and Viewpoint for lens/camera corrections.

It depends on what you are most interested in capturing in Europe. I took a 16-35mm 2.8 and a 24-105mm f4 to shoot church interiors and everything else, respectively. I also took a 50mm 1.4 but never really used it. This is Ste.-Cecile cathedral in Albi, France at 16mm. I never missed a longer lens.

I recently updated my Wacom Intuos tablet from 15 years ago. I remember taking the time to learn and co-ordinate tablet to screen... have never looked back and find it still indispensable, for me, working with layers and masks.