I use and love 'SetMyCameraMX - Depth of Field Calculator'

I have had my D750 since Feb. of '15 and love it - great bang for the buck. My S/N was included in the shutter recall (it was promptly returned...with all my custom settings having been wiped out by being reset to factory settings) but I never had the flair problem.

I have to say that after an initial couple of trial runs to see what the big deal was all about, I do not use the tilt monitor 'feature' that you mention...it just never seemed to be worth the trouble of deploying in the types of photography I do (sports, landscape and macro). It is fully functional in live view though should you think it is worthwhile.

B+W brand. The bodies are brass (as opposed to aluminum or other alloys whose threads can become 'sticky' as you try to remove them) and their coatings are better than most. They ARE at the top of the price scale but as others have already said, there is a strong 'you get what you pay for' element at work here.

...and protect us from things that go bump in the night.

For a 'Photography 101' class, I REALLY like John Greengo's "Fundamentals of Photography" class at www.creativelive.com

His use of illustrative graphics is without equal in my experience.

Greengo also offers a 'Fast Start' class that is D3300 specific at https://www.creativelive.com/courses/nikon-d3100-dslr-fast-start?via=class-list-collection_4. I purchased his Fast Start class for my D750 and it it wonderful.

Enjoy!

Mike, thanks for the follow-up. LR 5.7 is what I am using so based on what you are reporting, I will try it.

Victoria Bampton, 'The LR Queen' posted the following in an email to her subscribers yesterday:

"The Sierra operating system has now been available for about 3 weeks and it's looking pretty good.

Lightroom CC and Lightroom 6 users are not reporting any significant issues with the latest 2015.7/6.7 update, other than Edit in Photoshop isn't working properly unless Photoshop is already open.

Users of Lightroom 5 and earlier are seeing some known issues, including the Import panels going missing and tethering doesn't work.

I'm keeping my Sierra compatibility blog post updated with all of the confirmed issues and any workarounds as they're reported."

I still use LR 5 since I 'own' a stand-alone copy of that and refuse to buy into Adobe's rent-the-cloud approach. Given that there are documented problems with LR versions older than 6 combined with upgrading to Sierra, this is a show stopper for me.

Right there with you, Bill...love these two shots. Grandkids sports is a large part of all my photography at this stage of life. I REALLY like the soccer photo as it illustrates the emotion involved in the fight for the ball. For soccer, I put myself down at the backline of the goal my team is attacking. To get the type of shot at midfield as above, I've got the 'reach' with the Tamron 70-200 f/2.8 but I can go down to 70mm when the action gets close to the goal. I use my D4s (on a monopod to lessen fatigue) with the shutter set to CH to increase the chance of getting the money shot...lots of 'culling' later on in LR though.

As to baseball, I am finding it increasingly more challenging to find a place to stand that isn't obstructed by the nets that all the fields seem to be adopting. One of the last secret spots I've found is to get to the gate by the dugout and open up a crack just big enough to get my lens through.

Lone Ranger,

I have had my Df since June of '15. The one thing that tipped my buying decision to the plus side was this review at DP Review: https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikon-df and that should answer all the questions you might have.

I have seen the all black version but one of the main reasons for having this retro jewell is to show off all those beautiful top side knobs and controls and the silver version does that in spades!

One of the useful features of the Df is that you can use all the top side manual controls completely 'manually' like we were used to with our old film cameras but you can also integrate that method of control with the underlying 'digital' menu system to set floors and boundaries for the various parameters (shutter speed, exposure, ISO, etc) because under the hood, it is a most capable, modern digital SLR. The review I listed covers all that quite well.

I get stopped all the time by curious folks wanting to ask questions about that 'old looking / new thing'...it's a great conversation starter.

Keywording.

Could we please get the basic EXIF data?

Tuck, a little over a year ago, I was searching for the best software for the purpose of cataloging/key wording my growing collection coupled with non-destructive editing and became convinced that LR was the answer. At the time, LR 5 was just giving way to version 6. But then, I ran up against Adobe's 'cloud' institution with its monthly subscription business model and the (then) new LR 6 was only available thru their subscription cloud. I was reluctant to be tied to a subscription based service (though the promise of upgrades was appealing) and at the same time was goosey about having anything of mine in their 'cloud'. So, the solution for me was to purchase a CD ROM copy of LR 5 (which I believe is still available). Yes, I am frozen in time but it's mine, I own it and I have not found anything I need or want to do that's only available in later versions of LR.

I have a story very similar to yours...very active in 35mm and 4x5 B&W photography in the 70's ('souped' my own negatives in my own dark room setup) but then, went to sleep on photography for a lot of reasons until 2014. I felt like Rip Van Winkle waking up after a many year sleep only to find that 'digital had happened'.

I started w/ a Nikon D750 and read a few things I could find about digital basics but I found that the single thing that helped me the most was John Greengo's 'Fundamentals of Photography' at www.creativelive.com. It cost a bit of money but the content is comprehensive and the graphical way of presenting it that John has developed makes learning interesting and entertaining. I REALLY commend that course for your consideration.

I have learned also that some way of cataloging your growing collection of digital photos so that you can find any one by certain criteria is a necessity. After a good deal of research, I settled on LightRoom. The 'post' photography 'work-flow' is a whole new and entertaining aspect of the digital photography world today.

One last hint that I gleaned from two different presenters at a local photo expo last Fall was that not NEARLY all of your photos are worth keeping much less spending time in 'post' to key word and tweak. Culling is a necessary part of the post photography process and the similar remark by two of the presenters that 'I only keep about 10% of what I shoot' took away a lot of the guilt I first experienced as I did my initial culling sessions.

Speaking of D750 'shutter count', where in the menu system do you find that data? I've searched the .pdf version of the manual for 'shutter count' and don't find anything. Thanks for any help.

I too have a D750 which I have had since Feb. of last year and I often go on zoo photo shoots with a Tamron 70-300 - a fairly heavy rig for carrying on the kit neck strap for any length of time. I go with a friend that I will be forever indebted to for introducing me to the BlackRapid RS-7 Curve Camera Strap that carries all the weight on your shoulder in a well distributed way. I have carried it all day in comfort on several occasions. A link to it is http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/661579-REG/Black_Rapid_RS7_1BB_RS_7_Camera_Strap.html. My friend also introduced me to a neat little 'insurance' device called a 'Joby Camera Tether for Pro Sling Strap' which will take over in the event the threaded BlackRapid retaining device comes loose. You can see that at http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1032335-REG/joby_jb01307_camera_tether_charcoal.html. I have gotten this combo for both of my other camera bodies (D4s and Df).