My wife and I travel a good bit and I have evolved over the last few years concerning cameras. I used to take my Nikon D7000 with a collection of lenses however that is changing. The problem as with others here is carrying it around and then not being able to get the shots you really want to take. If you are going on a trip or cruise where the emphasis is photography and getting the opportunity to take good shots then by all means take your gear.

However, most of the cruises that we go on (and can afford) are simply tourist trips where you simply do not have the time or opportunity to properly set up and take photos. You will be getting on and off crowded buses with lots of other people and then you will be in competition for space and time to get that good shot at your appointed stops on your excursions off the ship.

I downsized. I traded my Nikon for a Sony A6400 and also purchased a used Sony RX100III. Best thing I ever did. The Sony RX100 fits perfectly in a jacket pocket and can be deployed in an instant. I just returned from a cruise over Christmas and the shots were excellent. We are going on a river cruise in Europe this fall and I think I will take the A6400 and a longer zoom lens that I plan to purchase this year. My wife carries her iphone and between the two of us we have some great shots.

No regrets and we have great memories. Also, the Sony A6400 is a great camera, better than the Nikon I had. I use it for both macro and landscape photography here in East Tenn.

Be very careful with craigslist. I was the target of a recent scam on craigslist. The buyer of my items sent a cashiers check drawn on an out of state bank. However, I told the buyer that I wanted to have the check clear the bank BEFORE he picked the item up.

Turns out the check was fake. It was caught by my credit union teller. She noted that the check looked odd and called the bank to check it out. The noted that they had been having trouble with people copying their cashier checks. I sent the "buyer" an email and he never responded back.

So, I agree get cash whenever possible. Not sure about Paypal, I am not sure if those can be faked or not or if possibly the money can be pulled back by the buyers.

[quote=billnikon]Many here have posted on the death of the DSLR. Well, according to Canon and Nikon, that statement may be a bit of an exaggeration?
Canon just released the 1DX MarkIII and Nikon the D780. Nikon also introduced the new Nikon 120-300 2.8 zoom.
Mark Twain said it best, “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.”[/quo


Means nothing. Film is still being made and shot but overall its presence and use in the marketplace is barely noticeable, much like people desiring to hear their music on vinyl records. The same will be true of DLSRs in a decade, someone will still make them but only a few diehards will still have the desire (or money) to have and use them.

While the future may or may not be mirrorless, it definitely will not be DSLRs unless there is some revolutionary development happens. My prediction is that like computers, cellphones etc, photography will take a direction that nobody even sees coming. Maybe resolutions will get so high that only one standardized lens is needed, any photo taken can be cropped and enlarged as needed without any loss of detail. Software internal to the camera will "assemble" the image and modify it as required for use.

I use a card reader, download my photos after each event, holiday, trip etc., to my computer and then return the SD card to the camera for formatting. The computer files are then backed up to a second external hard drive. So far, the process has worked well with no problems. I never use a card for more than one "event". It gets downloaded and reformatted after each photo shoot, even if I shoot only a few dozen images.

As far as the expense of SD cards, why are you using 128 GB cards? These are expensive at the speeds needed and that size. I use the 32 GB cards and shooting raw and jpgs with my Sony 20 megapixel camera, I still get over 800 shots per card. With a 128 GB card that would be over 3000 images on one card. I recently went on a 12 day cruise in Europe and barely filled it to half capacity. The 32 GB cards are very cheap and readily available. I have purchased several lens and other accessories at B&H and 32 GB cards were part of the deal.

Besides, the capacity of a 128 GB card must be in the thousands. Do you really want ALL you photos on one SD card? I usually carry 2-3 extra cards and put no more than a couple hundred photos per card. I feel it is a big risk to put everything on one card that could fail at any time.

As a beginner I started off with Lightroom and Photoshop on the subscription plan. Great deal, great software and reasonably priced. However, the learning curves are steep and you spend a lot of time diddling with catalogs and file structure to properly organize you images.

These are powerful software packages that take effort to learn and use properly and unless you are a very serious hobbyist or pro, they are overkill.

Being a causal photographer I decided to switch over to Adobe Elements 2020. It has an image organizer, Adobe Camera Raw, and a Lite version of Photoshop. So far it has been able to do everything I needed. In addition it has guided modes that will help you through some of the Photoshop techniques. You can purchase it for a one time cost of around $80, which is less that a year's worth of subscription to Lightroom/Photoshop. An added benefit is that the Elements version of Photoshop is very close to the full version, so everything you learn in Elements is transportable to the full version should you decide to upgrade.

I think it is worth a look. You can save some money and still learn.

Technically today's camera's can take very good images with the subject focused and exposed properly. However, like any other robot or computer controlled automation it has no emotions or feelings to put into the image to make a brilliant and stunning photograph. Photographers MUST still properly compose a shot to capture this emotion and feeling.

As example; I met a photographer a few years ago that took some of the most moving and emotional packed images I have ever seen. His photos would leave people stunned and moved. Having the opportunity to speak with him and possibly learn something of his techniques, I was surprised to find out that he knew very little about the technical aspects of photography. He used his cameras in mostly automatic or programmed modes and did very little actual fiddling with the camera controls. However, he may spend hours or even days to compose the right shot.

Today's automated cameras can take great images more often than not and probably more reliably than humans. But they lack the emotional ability to compose even basic content. Maybe this will change but I think that will take a while.

I agree completely. I worked as an electronics manufacturing engineer for a company and many, if not most, of our parts came from China. However, the quality of these parts could vary widely if not monitored. High quality parts are readily available but you must have purchasers or agents that track and follow these parts from start to finish. Once we learned how best to do this we had few problems with our China sourced parts.

We learned that very large plants will often manufacture different grades of the same item, all on the same assembly line. The higher graded (higher quality parts) may go to a more expensive name brand and the lower grade products will sell as discounted or generic named products. Many of these are identical and may carry only a slightly different part number or date code. These parts may be graded by testing methods and/or inspection criteria. Those that pass the most stringent tests and inspections will be the higher graded items. Those that fall into lower or wider specs will be sold under different names or part numbers. High end purchasers of these parts (Canon, Nikon, etc) will have agents/inspectors working in the plants to ensure they are receiving the quality level they want and need. That is what you are paying for when you buy the brand name item.

Another thing that happens is that the company will change ownership with little or no notice. The new owners, hoping to improve their profits, will not put in the efforts to maintain the quality of their products and defective product will start to show up. It just shows that quality takes constant work to maintain.

I have almost the exact same setup and it works great, no problems.

I used to buy and sell a lot on ebay years ago. I had good experiences and bad. But over the last 5 years the bad experiences started to outnumber the good AND ebay fees have gotten expensive.

I have found it easier, quicker and stress free to just deal with the camera dealers like B&H, KEH etc. Yes, they will offer you a lower price than you MAY get on ebay but there is no risk and no hassle. After they quote your item they will send you a label to ship it to them at their expense. This will also cover its loss if lost in shipping. With ebay you will have to pay the ebay fees, shipping and insurance. And if it is lost then you will need to follow up with the carrier with all the insurance details. I lost several items through ebay and was unable to collect any compensation through ebay or the carrier. Yes, you may get a few dollars more on ebay, craigslist etc. but you will work for those few dollars.

I have traded and purchased a good deal of gear over the last few years with B&H and KEH and it was very easy and satisfying. All done online and everything handled for you. Basically, I decided one weekend to trade my Nikon gear for the equivalent Sony kit. By the next weekend, all my Nikon gear was gone and I was out shooting with my new Sony gear. No headaches, no regrets.

I did purchase Adobe Elements 2020 and am very happy with it. I had been using Adobe's LR/PS subscription and was very happy with it but wanted to cut costs and monthly subscriptions. Also I think the full LR/PS was overkill for my needs. I calculated that if I needed to do so, I could update Elements every 2-3 years and still be under the costs for the Adobe LR/PS subscription.

Since I am a hobbyist photographer, Elements 2020 appears to do everything I need so far. Should you switch? I am unfamiliar with earlier versions of Elements but I do agree with the philosophy that if it is still working and doing what you need it to do then why spend the extra money. But I will say that the new Elements 2020 guided mode is great for some of the PS operations as it guides you through some of the trickier steps.

It is Economics 101. If there is enough demand for equipment to take photos of birds at 100 yards, someone will build and sell it. It may not look and feel like a dslr and you may not like the cost, but it will be available. Photography, just like many other industries, is going through a lot of changes. Some we like, others we do not.

Considering all the areas that photography is heavily utilized such as sports, entertainment, wildlife documentaries, fashion and art, photography is not going to be extinct any time soon. It is changing rapidly and may not look the same in the next decade with new or different equipment providers, but it will still be here in some form.

I think the most valuable nugget of information came from CHG CANON when he said that changing all your inbound raw files to DNG could prevent you from migrating to non-Adobe post processing software. This alone should give one pause in using DNG.

IF everyone had adopted DNG as Adobe hoped they would then this would not be an issue. However, it does not appear that any of the camera manufacturers are adopting or has plans to incorporate DNG as their "raw" format.

As it stands now, all the post-processing software I have used, seen or read about will accept all the major camera raw formats and have no plans to change in the near future. So I see no need to add another step in the process that offers no advantages.

The weekly raw vs jpg debate again but with a twist. Are you referring to the amount of time to download the jpgs? Or the time it takes to separate the jpgs from the file containing both the raw and jpgs? Whether you are shooting with 2 memory cards or just 1, I cannot see the transfer process taking longer than a couple of minutes. When I download my files into my computer I use separate files for raw and jpg. Windows 10 file directories will separate the files for you by file type so it is an easy quick task to just transfer either raw or jpg files into their separate files on the hard drive. Looking into the memory card, whether it is in the camera or a card reader, transfer one file type and then the other. The transfer time itself is longer than the process you take to transfer both file types.

I do not see any downside to shooting both. Memory is cheap and most cards can carry hundreds of images and more than I would ever shoot in a normal situation. The only disadvantage I can see is that it will slow the camera down slightly while it writes both raw and jpg files to the memory card(s). But this has never been an issue with me. After the shoot, compare the two images, and if you do not like the jpg then you have the raw to work with.

As an ex-film person, I view the raw images as the negatives I used to get after processing my film. I never disposed of them in case I ever wanted to make copies or change something. Same with raw and jpgs. If the jpgs are what I need or want, I am done. If not then the raw images are there for adjustment, cropping etc in LR/PS.

If you are trying to do macro, I think Nikon makes an exceptional 105 mm macro lens. But it carries a hefty price tag.

If you want to do macro on a budget, look into a reason 50 mm lens along with an extender set. The 50 mm lens on your cropped sensor along with the extender set will give you some great macro. These extender sets are usually around $100 from third party vendors at B&H or Adorama. A used Nikon 50 mm lens should also be available at a reasonable cost. Check at KEH for used lens.

Hope this helps.

I have never been on a safari but I have traveled a good bit and taken a lot of excursions. Here is a little of what I have learned. Speed and convenience is very important. To get any kind of memorable shot, you will need to be able to compose and take your shot as quickly as possible.

On many of these excursions, UNLESS they are specifically set up as a PHOTOGRAPHY excursion, you have very little time to get yourself situated, get your equipment ready, and then compose and take the shot. Most often about the time you are ready to take the image, the vehicle or the subject is moving again. It is even worse when you are in a crowded vehicle and others are taking shots also. I cannot tell you how many times my wife, with her iphone, has returned with remarkable shots that I was unable to get because I was unable to get my camera and lens into position and compose a shot. With her iphone, the set up time is mere seconds and completely automatic, she gets shots that are sometimes simply amazing. She has her share of bad shots, but she always gets some that are great.

Along these lines, I took a lesson from iphone photography and simplified my photography and equipment to prime lens only and simply do not deal with big heavy lens. There is a whole world in the wide and medium focal length world that the big long lens or zooms do not see. In addition they are much quicker to use. Using a good lens, I can crop and retain enough detail to make worthwhile shots.

My point is that you need to have equipment that you are intimately familiar with, is quick to deploy and use and portable to wield in less than spacious surroundings. I came to grips many years ago that photos I take on my trips were not going to be "National Geographic" quality. Those guys spend days setting up their best shots with equipment worth more than my house. So for me, a quick shot to show my friends what I saw is sufficient.

This mindset also allows me to enjoy the trip and share the experience with my wife and friends on the trip, rather than have my whole trip condensed down into a viewfinder and ignoring those around me while I try to take photos.