Don't lose the chance of going to the Bethel area in Maine... specially during Autumn. Amazing area with plenty of lakes and rivers. It isn't that far and is a must.

https://www.bethelmaine.com/

Cheers and enjoy.

It is not necessary to have a GPU (graphics processing unit) to use photoshop and lightroom but it will help to speed up many functions, especially sky replacement, super-resolution and others that rely heavily in pixel editing.

Problem now is to find a good NVidia or AMD gpu as all are heavilly allocated due to production issues and the usage for bitcoins prospecting. Prices are in the 3x MSRP for the 30XX cards (Nvidea) and 68xx cards (AMD)

You can read more about here: https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop/faq-what-features-use-the-gpu-and-how-do-i-troubleshoot-gpu-issues/m-p/4041050

Hope it helps, cheers

Speed

Go for Macrium Reflect... faster, simpler and very good software. I have been using it on my company for years with no issues.

www.macrium.com

Their home version is free with very few restrictions, notably it won't send email messages when the job is completed and allow only one job instead of multiple jobs for different backups (although you can do them manually if you want). Using the workstation version (59.00) you will have messaging, unlimited jobs and a protection against ramsonware.

Cheers
Speed

For Z50 users (and many other cameras) with an Android you can try the Open Camera app for focus stacking and some other features. It is free !

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.sourceforge.opencamera

Easy but very capable software is Photoscape X (free) or Pro version (39.90). It is not a Photoshop but whatever you learn with it you can use later in Photoshop. Download the free version and if you like it pay for the PRO.

Cheers

A soft cooler, inside a closed trunk should account for 30 to 40F difference. When I left my gear inside them the vehicle was so hot you can't even touch it but the gear was just warm even after hours left there. But I do encourage anyone to test it before, there are many different cooler sizes and material and they may vary a lot.

How large are the compartments under the floor board? If they are big sufficient to fit some coolers (where you can place your gear) then you are ok. I used to to this for externals back in Brazil where temperatures can reach 110, 120 inside a closed vehicle. Using the coolers (dry, of course, no ice...kkk) kept temperatures around 80 and this won't be a problem for the gear. Always remove the batteries from the equipment. By the way you can use those cheap market coolers, they work great. If you have good plastic ones, better yet.

Cheers

Sure but it is great to move to a new hard drive using an image. It is easy and safe and as you said a backup strategy is a must and having it for free and from a great software better yet.

With an image it would be just a matter to connect the new HD and restore the image made.

If you can get two for the price (and effort) of one, why not?

Cheers

A good addition is to have a software that allows you to make a full image of your drive. The image can be restored at any time to another drive as well as allow access individuals files and directories. I suggest you download Macrium Reflect Home (free, from www.macrium.com ). Do a full weekly copy and on the days you download a lot of content and disconnect the external drive when finished to prevent a possible ramsonware to block access to your files.

Cheers

You can also try Darktable www.darktable.org
Pros: fully capable post processing software, FREE
Cons: if you are a beginner it will be a steep learning curve

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zexDfsC5GMQ

Cheers and good luck

Yep, there are some Z mount manual lens. I do have a Laowa 100mm Macro. I'm most interested in some good quality lens (Sigma/Tamron/Tokina/Rokinon, etc.) and auto focus/auto exposure. I would think that it would be in the best interest to the manufacturers a wide availability of lens since their products are really $$$$ most of the time.

Have you guys heard any recent news regarding Sigma, Tamron, Tokina, etc AF DX lens for Z mount? Not talking about using the Nikon adapter but a lens with a real Z mount.
It is a while I don't hear anything about it.
Last thing I "heard" was https://www.dpreview.com/news/5000050197/sigma-ceo-confirms-rf-z-mount-possibility-estimates-camera-industry-stabilize
Cheers

Fill flash will deal with small and close subjects. When you are dealing with farther or large subjects fill flash won't cover you. Try for instance a backlit rock about 20, 30 meters from the camera.

Bracketing is a very good way to solve the issue.