Cellphone cams are a lot better than they used to be a few years ago. For typical snapshooting, they are great, and as good as, or better than, the typical Point & Shoot pocket / purse cameras of the recent past. However, the phones do not give you much control over the: Aperture, Shutter Speed, ISO, Zoom, DOF, etc, and so are not as good for Serious Photography as are more serious cameras. If you are a snapshooter, stick with the cellphone. If you want to become a more serious amateur, or a professional, photographer get a camera which allows you more control over the image making process.

Way to be. Great shot. Great Wife.

It depends upon where you live. If you live east of The Mississippi River, your v**e counts. Some big e******ns were decided by less than 300 v**es. If you live west of the Mississippi, your v**e does not count in national (P**********l) e******ns as enough E*******l College v**es are amassed in the east before polls even close in the west.

There is no overall 'Best'. Each camera / system is best for your needs, or not. What is best for portraits will not be best for sports images. What is best for studio work will not be best for travel photos. Decide what you want to make images of, and get a system which will allow it. Landscape images are best done with deep Depth Of Field, and thus a smaller sensor...DX, One Inch, or Micro Four Thirds, etc. Portraits look best with shallow Depth Of Field, and so a larger sensor...Full Frame. Wildlife, and Sports / Action photos require a fast Shutter Speed, and fast Burst Rate, for best effect. For night shots, you need a high numbered ISO capability. If you don't have a photo editor-like Photoshop-you may want a camera which can do editing / special effects-like Multiple Exposure, Panorama, etc-in camera. The more Megapixels you have, the better it will be. Whether to go DSLR, Mirrorless, or whatever, is a matter of personal taste. Canon, and Nikon, have the largest lens / accessory selections, but Pentax, Sony, etc, have great products...just not so many lenses, or such. Still...how many accessories do you need? Depending upon what sort of images you want to make, you will probably be best served with either a higher end DX, or smaller, format camera, or an entry level Full Frame camera. Since you are not now a working Pro photographer you do not now need a Top Of The Line Pro type camera / system. By the time you become a Pro-if you do-the then current Top Of The Line items will make today's gear seem amateurish....so buy your Pro gear then...not now. The Nikon D7200, 0r Nikon D610, would be good choices...for some people...perhaps for you, too, or perhaps not for you. Shop around, and see what fits your needs.

Too large a discount suggests either a Grey Market dealer, hawking wares with no warranty, or one selling used / refurbished goods as if new. Beware. Go to the manufacturer-Nikon. etc-for good refurbished items at discounted prices. I have, and have never regretted it.

Chivalry was just Male Chauvinism's way of keeping women "in their place"...suggesting that women are too feeble bodied / minded to: work, open doors for themselves, discuss things, have opinions, etc. It was intended to keep M'Lady: barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen, while M'Lord went out a-warring, pillaging, and raping, with The Boys.

The Tokina should work well. Let us know how it performs.

There is no such thing. What is "best" under one circumstance, or for one person, won't be "best" for another person under other circumstances.

I use a Nikon D3300, and a Nikon 1 S1. Both are good. I have heard good things about the Nikon D7000, D7200, and others. The D5600 seems good. Any brand name item-Canon, Nikon, Fuji, etc-should be fine. It is a matter of personal preference, and whether the system has the lenses, etc, you want. I prefer the controls (aperture, shutter speed, etc) on Nikons over those on Canons. They just feel more intuitive to me. You may feel otherwise. There is no one always best for everything under all circumstances item-camera, lens, etc-and never will be. Whether you need faster shutter speeds for sports photos, or wider apertures for low light photos, or whatever, only you can say. Figure out what you want to shoot, what features you need to shoot it, and find a make / model system which offers what you need. You may like a mirrorless system-such as the Nikon 1-or you may not. If you shoot videos, a high frame rate-such as the Nikon 1 system offers-might be useful. Fuji, and other, lines are good enough, but Canon, and Nikon, have the wider range of accessory (lens, flash, etc) selections. If money is no object, get a Nikon D810, or such. If cost will be a consideration, then stick with a DX model, such as the D3300, D7200, etc. Consider buying used, and even refurbished. I get my refurbs from nikonusa.com mostly. I have had good luck getting such from adorama.com, and bhphotovideo.com, too. Let us know what you decide on.

For real close-ups, get a Macro (micro) lens. Nikon makes several...a 40mm, 60mm, and 105mm, I believe. Try the 60mm...the AFS-Micro Nikkor 60mm f/2.8G ED. It has 9 diaphragm blades, Nano-Crystal coating, Extra low Dispersion Glass, Aspherical elements, Super Integrated Coating, Auto Focus, Silent Wave Motor, and Internal Focusing. It takes 62mm screw on filters, weighs 15 oz, and has Auto, Manual, and Auto/Manual modes. Apertures range from f/2.8 to f/32. It will work well on DX, and FX, bodies. Shoot in color in RAW, and then you can play as much as you want in editing.

NYIP is a good distance educator, and has a great photo course. Any school which is worthwhile will be approved for Veteran's Educational Benefits.

The trick to getting good is to be able to challenge yourself.

I never carry unprocessed film on a plane, or in an airport. Today's X-Ray units will fry film even through 'protective envelopes'....which do not block all X-Rays, but only reduce the intensity of the X-Rays which get through. Buy your film in the cities you visit, process them there, and send copies of the prints, and negatives, through the mail to your home address even if you carry a copy with you on the plane in your carry on bag. Also keep your camera batteries out of the camera while in airports. Before becoming cautious, I carried a camera with film, and battery, through an airport checkpoint. The X-Rays cooked the film, and caused the batteries to explode-shedding acid all over the camera's interior.

Generally, yes.

If I am shooting for the heck of it, for myself-as when walking around, and scouting a location for a future shoot-I may use my Sigma 18-250mm, as it is convenient as an "all in one" lens. If I am shooting for a contest, a sale, or something to hang on my walls, I skip convenience, and carry a series of Prime lenses, and use the one most suited to the image I seek. The earlier scouting shoot would give me a good idea of which primes to carry to the site.