Manuels are not particularly well written, and how to books for your camera will vary by author in quality and clarity. One series of classes in a classroom with a teacher on how to use your digital camera made a world a difference. All of a sudden the manuel made more sense as did the how to books. It definitely shortened the learning curve for me.

I just got back from Italy and Greece and took my 35mm Prime for low light situations and my Tamron 18-400 shooting with my D5500. I love the Tamron as it gives incredible range and I think very decent image quality. But on my trip I primarily used it on the wide end side. If you are going to be out and about for 8-10 hours each day as I was it might be a bit much to carry but doable. The 18-140 would be lighter and take care of 90% of your shots. Neither of the above will cover you for low light situations and for that you might want to take a prime.

I’ve had the TG5 for about a year. Takes surprisingly good underwater shots and has a cool Macro feature. Perfect camera for kayaking and hiking and for those circumstances where I don’t want to lug my DSLR. Takes good quality pics for a point and shot. It’s coming with me to Europe in two weeks. I like it a lot.

So what lens did you get??

Took my Tamron 18-400 on my D5500 and it was all I needed on that camera. Also took
Nikon b700 bridge which proved to be useful albeit without the image quality of the 5500.

I bought one for a trip tp Alaska in 2017 and it hasn’t been off my camera since. I paid full price and love it. I would grab it at that price

Recently bought the TG-5 for the type of activities which you outline. Took it to a recent trip to the Caribbean and got some very nice snorkeling and Kayaking shots, which I wouldn’t have been able to get with my other cameras. Wish I had it with me in Alaska last year. I like it a lot.

I took that cruise last summer and used the Tamron 18-400 on my D5500 and also took my B700. Got pretty much whatever I wanted with that combination. It’s an awesome cruise. The ship got very close to the glaciers in glacier bay as well as the Margery glacier. Enjoy your trip

I’ve had the Tamron 18-400 since just after it was released last year. I love it. It will loosen with regular usage. Enjoy it.

I bought the Tamron 18-400 for use with my D5500 for an Alaska trip last summer. You can’t beat the convenience of using one lense and the image quality is very good.

Positive experience with Nikon B700 and Vivitar aftermarket batteries. See little to no difference between Vivitar and Nikon with this camera.