I sold a number of Nikon related items about 2+ months ago. Got quotes from B&H, MPB, and KEH. I was somewhat surprised that B&H beat both KEH and MPB by more than 20%. They accepted everything except for a very old EF and a really old fixed lens. This cut their offer by about $200 but still above the other two's unseen equipment offers by quite a bit. From what I read, every offer stands differently so you must get multiple quotes.
If you are doing a major land tour as part of the trip, I would agree with most of the advice, but if it is mostly the cruise with shore excursions, I will be the contrarian. I do a lot of worldwide cruising. I take whatever I think I might use, put it in the plane overhead then to the cruise stateroom. On the Hawaii cruise there are a number of places where a long telephoto allows some neat shots from the ship. I look at each shore excursion and decide which 1 or 2 lenses would be best for it, take them, leaving the rest in the cabin. Same for the next excursion, but very likely a different set or combo. Do what makes you happy and what fulfills your photo aspirations. There may be a regret, but we will always have "what if's." The cruise offers not only the advantage of not having to pack/unpack, but of covering a lot of distance while you are sleeping giving time for seeing the different islands. I have done both and there are individual advantages. If I had to choose just one, I would opt for the cruise.
I do only nature photography and have severe vision problems. I read a good bit of evaluation material on large monitors for post processing. As a result I purchased the Sony Bravia XR OLED Master A90K a few months back. This is a 49 inch screen. I was using the BenQ 32 inch monitor until I required something larger. While visually impaired, I am very happy with the Sony, and for my type photography I think it compares favorably with the BenQ which I recommend highly. It even comes with a calibration certificate and is not OLED. Remember my initial caveat that I do not do skin tone post processing. OLED's can have a burn-in problem so use a screen saver or auto-off if you go that route.
SailAway wrote:
Taking a European Christmas Market Cruise on the Rhine with Viking, and then spending a few days in Amsterdam. My question is which lenses to take?
Own the following lenses: Rokinon RF 85mm F1.4, Rokinon RF 14mm F2.8, Canon RF 24-105mm f4.0 (all are weather sealed);
Canon RF 50mm f1.8, Canon RF 100-400mm variable aperature (these are non weather sealed).
I definitely plan on taking the Canon RF 24-105 F4.0 because it gives a great deal of flexibility and it is weather sealed. I am thinking I should take the Canon RF 100-400 for shots of castles while cruising along the Rhine. I am also thinking I should take the RF 85mm F1.4 for night photography and possible some daytime photography or indoor in lower light situations.
I also will take a flat stabilizer and ball head mount in place of a tripod on which I can mount my camera for stabilization if I desire to take a longer exposure or some night shots.
I am wondering what other photographers think of these choices, and am I missing anything? Keeping in mind weight, wet weather, walking in Europe, and carry on bag limits for air travel are all considerations. Thanks for all suggestions.
Taking a European Christmas Market Cruise on the R... (
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I have and R5 and R3 with an assortment of lenses so can sympathize with your concerns. I bought the Canon 24-240 and have used it very successfully in such situations as you mention. Did the European Christmas Markets two years ago and found with Auto ISO I could get by fine without the tripod for what I wanted to do. Also have the 85 and believe, as someone noted, you can get along without it for sure. The most important suggestion I read was to get the steel reinforced straps. There are even little Gypsy kids running around in some cities who are unbelievable in the speed they can cut a strap and run with purse, camera or whatever.
I would say opt for two if at all possible. the 24-105 and the 100-500. I shoot 90+% wildlife and so opted for yhe 24-240 which I have found to be entirely satisfactory, in general situations which gives a lot of flexibility. However, I also have the 100-500, the 600 f/11, the 85 and 100 macros and an off brand 14MM so as already said, I leave home with the selection that fits what I am doing. As also said, the 100-500 is just a superb lens. I found it to have a bit of a learning curve to get consistent results with all the autofocus features enabled. I would suggest some practice with it before going on a major trip. I switched about a year ago from a rather comprehensive outfit of Nikon D500, which to me was much more of take out of the box and shoot!
As I understand, there is a big advantage in the stabilization one gains using the R lenses with the R bodies. I do use the adapter with one of the EF macros that is not yet offered in the R lens fitting and have had no problems
Same here. I think it is friendly and I have paid for only one upgrade over the past three years
I travel a good bit and decided on the very lightweight LG 17 inch laptop. Just under 3 pounds and excellent screen on a large screen for something you carry. Easily fits in overhead if you are not using it while flying. I use thumbbrives for BU:LG Gram 17Z95P Laptop 17" Ultra-Lightweight, IPS, (2560 x 1600), Intel Evo 11th gen CORE i7 , 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD, Windows 11 Home, 80Wh Battery, Alexa Built-in, 2X USB-C, HDMI, USB-A – Black
I have two of them. They only run hot with the CF Card in them for me. I do not leave the cards in once I have finished the transfer or view of perhaps 200-300 shots though I am talking typical not some magic limit. It gets very warm but certainly not too hot to touch for me. My Canon R5 also gets warm when on for longer periods and part of that is in the vicinity of the card slot.
I merely wanted to commiserate, having gone through the same evolution minus the Olympus--have a good friend who did even the Olympus you did. We loved the original Nikon approach but found the Z7 not to be what we needed for wildlife, our predominant interest. I gave my Z7 system to my grandson who used it satisfactorily for an African safari. I simply took the full plunge with Canon RF 24-240, 100-500, 85 portrait and 100 Macro. Love the whole setup although at age 85, I did have a learning curve with 60 years of Nikon under the belt. I find the eye tracking simply remarkable. I even have the R3 on order as a second body as it is supposed to have even better animal autofocus. I.e., I abandoned all the older lenses and took the economic lumps. I realize that is not possible for everyone--but take consolation, it will make a few folks even sadder at you funeral! :)
Sorry I cannot help on that particular BenQ. I have the BenQ PD3200U and have used it for more than a year with excellent results on a PC. Have used several different editors with it and all did very well in color trueness. Before purchasing I talked to the B&H monitor guy. He was extremely knowledgeable and helpful so you might give that a try, also.
I went when I was 79 also. Took a Nikon D500 APS-c with Tamron 16-300 and Nikor 80-400--gave me a capability from 24-600 equivalent with the crop format. It worked out very well. Now have Canon R5 with 24-240 and 100-500 R lenses plus 2X R teleconverter. My son is leaving Thursday for South Africa and has borrowed the 100-500 and teleconverter to take which is really a lightweight system. The R5 is 45MP so lots of crop flexibility.
That is always a possibility, but I was referring to the simple factor that the sun like objects have finite lives which even if we are totally peaceful and conservation conscious will still happen in the astronomical distant future and could have happened to many civilizations long before earth even existed
Somehow the matter of time never gets factored in either. An advanced civilization might have existed e.g, six billion years ago, prospered, explored but never figured out how to escape from their planetary system before it was destroyed simply by the "death" of its sun. The earth nor our sun would have been a factor because they did not even exist. At best, we have only been able to detect extra-terrestrial life for about half a century unless they actually visited here. So not only does it become a matter of water, magnetism, etc., but when?
I think you have received some excellent advice already. I went another direction and got an LG 17 inch. It supports memory and storage and weighs under 3 lb. It is pricey but is nice to have large high quality monitor in such a low weight package. I agree with trying to get 16GB memory and an ssd, but as pointed out these features are not cheap in a lightweight laptop. I had a Surface and it did a good job but again pricey and I did not care for the small screen, having poor eyesight.