The Ken Rockwell, tripods are passe, article makes some interesting points but one thing he does not mention is shooting still lifes. Please tell me of one current top drawer still life shooter who does not use a tripod or a camera stand?
This whole nonsense of sharpness is getting boring. It's the image that counts. Would the picture of the Vietnamese being executed with a pistol to the head be more memorable if it were sharper? Should it be rejected because it's not pin sharp? And what about the shot of Kennedy taking the bullet to the head, not sharp at all, a frame from movie film?Should those images be rejected?
Where is the photo that gets people get excited and exclaim........"that picture is brilliant, amazing, it so very sharp!" I'd venture a guess, that photo was crap.

If sharpness is that important, like others have have stated, use a tripod...........or...........take a page out of the great
Henri Cartier-Bresson's book..........."sharpness is a bourgeois concept".

I belong in another section?............could that section be '8'?..........get lost, but before that, get stuffed!

Bingo!.......You got it in one. The 'option' key was the culprit. Many years ago I stupidly shot half my left hand pinky finger off leaving just a stub. As a two finger typist with arthritic hands, there's a tendency for that stub to sometimes engage that option key. Thank you so much for your short, sweet answer.

Let me take this opportunity to apologize for having placed this query in the wrong section, mea culpa, what's the punishment, 20 lashes, death? Isn't 'sorry' enough?

I am beyond crazy with this situation, it now seems normal.
1. My computer is a mac-mini, mid 2010, 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 8 gigs ram, NVIDIA GeForce 320M 256 MB
2. The problem is this, every 4th or 5th time I hit the 'U' key I get an umlaut. I hit the 'Y' and sometimes that becomes the icon for
Japanese yen. The 'H' key sometimes gives me a quote symbal
3. First thing I thought of was the keyboard, I changed keyboards, same problem.
4. My OS system was 'Sierra', I upgraded to 'High Sierra', same problem. (now I'm back to 'Sierra', same problem)
5. I'm reluctant to go to an Apple Store because basically I'm lazy and do not type that much.

Is there anyone in our group who can solve this problem? I am not suicidal, just annoyed.

I use a Sony RX100 M3..........short end of zoom, 24mm. f:1.8..........long end, 70mm. f:2.8 Seems to meet all your parameters.........sadly this model has been superseded by 2 newer ones that have a longer zoom therefore slower
f: stop, I would imagine a used one would be readily available. I love mine. Lens is amazingly sharp, a zeiss .vario-sonnar. The one drawback,.........the camera does too much, a bit of overkill for me. Strongly advise the purchase of
Alex S. White's guide book to the camera. It's really the Bible.

Me? I'm less kind, see no reason to have taken this picture.

Nice shot. For me, the guy on the right should be cropped out, adds nothing.

Sorry ol' boy, color is the one. You say bkgrd. is distracting, yes, but............the big hat frames the face so well.
For me busy bkgrd. means zilch. Nice photo!

I preface this 'hikers hint' with...........I've never tried it, but it sounds like it could work. A piece of string looped around your foot the other end
attached to hook or ring in the tripod socket, apply upward pressure and it's equal to a Gitzo! I invite people tell me I'm an idiot.

For me (a pro for more than 50 years) there is only one brand of quick release, the Sachtler (the small one) I have 5, on all my tripods and devices. Still have and use the first one I bought over 50 years ago. My love affair with Sachtler.

You present two (2) problems.........I have the answers for both, I'm old and wise
1. Photography in NYC........anyone that thinks that they can take pictures in NY from a car is a fool. NY is for walking! I'll say it again, Walking.

2. Pictures while hiking with a group, like my Grandmother used to say......"He who travels alone. travels fastest and furthest"

Abide and enjoy.

Kilroy should learn at the start what is and what is not, and I did tell him how achieve bokeh, aperture, longish lens and distance to subject. I didn't say execute hm, just a little slap on the tush. Lighten up my friend..

For me, the thing of beauty was the curve of the fuselage

Bokeh?.............All of you who do nothing but talk about "improving bokeh", trying for better bokeh, anyone that makes bokeh their prime reason for shooting, all of you, and you know who you are,
should be taken behind the woodshed and be given a good spanking and also have their mouthes washed out with soap. If you get up in the morning, full of energy, creative juices flowing and say to yourself "today I'm going to shoot some fabulous bokeh!"............the woodshed for you. Think of what goes on in FRONT of the bokeh first and foremost. If the subject interests you but the background is crap think "perhaps I'd better shoot wide open rather than f:16? Maybe the 85 rather than the 35, perhaps move in tighter. All these will throw the background out of focus. Think of bokeh a bonus, a gift, if it's there and looks interesting AND the subject is dynamite, consider yourself a very, very talented photographer. I cannot think of a single photographer whose legacy was bokeh. Ernst Haas did beautiful stuff, the subject came 1st, bull fighter, blur, bokeh. Tell me of a photographer whose legacy is bokeh. Am I wrong?