Thanks, now I have a new way up! ...except that the D750 t is still 24mp too. I would want a full frame with more mp than the D5200...probably coming soon, a 36mp Full Frame with articulated screen. Right now the only reason though would be the low light superiority, but I am really geared to trying to capture low light situations, the twilight hours, night time exposures, so the noise problem is a BIG reason to go Full Frame.

Ok I have 2 big thick different books on Lightroom. I really want to understand this first stumbling block or I can't get on. Sources say that lightroom doesn't use the master file in cataloging...says some photographers deleted master files after importing to lightroom and lost all their originals. On the other hand says use an external hard drive instead of using the default "My Pictures" folder on the computer hard drive as it can quickly exceed 100 gigabytes. Also says to change where you download your camera pictures, because when you plug it in for download, Lightroom will send them automatically to "My Pictures"
So how can I tell what I am dealing with here? Are there "thumbtack" image files being used instead of real master files? Do these abbreviated versions have separate file extensions instead of jpg, nef, cr2, etc? The deeper I get the more confusing it all becomes and generates more questions, more different pages in books explaining. So far all I get from lightroom is insanity.

I've had a D5200 for over a year now and love it to death. After years of film, canon dslr's, it is my holy grail. I can crop to my hearts delight and still have detail. I can tilt the screen for all kinds of previousl neck bending or impossible shots. I gave it back button focusing. It can take 3 auto bracketed shots for HDR. In low light shots like night skylines when autofocus fails, you can go to live view, zoom in, focus manually, zoom back out and bingo! The only way to go up now is full frame, but correct me if I am wrong, they don't have articulated screens. This is the top of the line for me.

I had a problem because my software would not read new RAW formats like NEF. I HAD to convert to DNG because it was universally recognized. Now I am trying out Lightroom, the instruction book notes a capabality of converting all RAW files to DNG when first importing. It recommends it, especially if you have storage space problems. Supposesdly there is no down grading of information or IQ, but takes up significantly less storage space. I had to get an external hard drive because my computer, as they all will if you are a serious RAW photographer, got full of photographs. If you don't have that problem now, you will. I used to have have 3 different folders, one for the jpgs, one for nefs, and one for dngs. As my computer hard drive was full and I had to delete something, I noticed the nef folders were significantly bigger than the dng. Off to the recycle bin went the nefs.

That first one is almost a work of art composition wise and the range of tones; there seems to be a cylinder or something dangling near the center of the picture. Was it taken with a telephoto lens or cropped extensively or did you really get that close?

I have a D5200 and for over a year have used the Sunpak PZ42X successfully. Has manual and TTL, 1-1/64 power, etc., has controls on a digital screen, have used it with wizards at studios, I think I paid $125 for it new. It lit up a whole dark church once! And can be used as a weak fill flash outside. It rates as powerful as most others.

Yes I have a Nikon D5200, not sure how it would mount, but I think it is a sister camera to the 5200 and the 3200, so it should work. I thought I needed an AFS prefix or else it would just manually focus?

Your pictures are exquisite! I have been researching Macro lenses, it is the next thing on my wishlist. Thought I had a good range from 14mm to 300mm. But still don't have a good closeup lens. Can you tell me what lens you used on these photos, and what is the minimum focus distance on it?

I have used it successfully when using email to transfer a large batch of photos was not really possible. I haven't used it recently, I do remember uploading large batches of files from photoshoots to get to customers, but I seem to remember that it took like a whole day and longer to complete the transfer.

Anybody have the skinny on this world changing news? At first I pictured my self making nice prints on my 1430 printer without having to spend $120 every other week on new cartridges; hey, God does listen! Then I googled and saw a selection of what looks like letter size document printers. Are these a flash in the pan gimmick or will it be meaningfull to us photographers?

Thank you for your response. I have completed the free trial download and give it a shot!

I saw an ad for a free 30 trial...has anyone tried this? I mean is it a bona fide company like Topaz, etc, no malware? Also does it really accomplish much? I have a lot of experience but admit I am a little in the dark on this one about lens aberration/movement...I am downloading the trial now, how do you set it up? Any tricks to know?

XMP files? I never heard of them...I have been editing for many years now, I use Photoshop full edition and have been working with RAW but I don't think I have ever seen the .xmp in a processed image I made or stored. Where does it appear? Is Lightroom that has a separate system that shows .xmp? I have Lightroom with the new CC but it so alien to anything I have ever used it has been useless for me, I don't have hours to relearn and so far do perfectly well with just keeping folders.

I notice Nikon seems to use Micro and Macro interchangably. What most photographers call a "Macro Lens" for taking extreme closeups of small objects Nikon puts the "Micro" label on.

I have a Nikon D5200, a standard DSLR camera. I just checked a photo in Photoshop by clicking "view in Browser" which brings up a window that looks at photos in given file folder on your computer. All the exif data is displayed in a column on the right. It took a little searching, but it looks like there is an indicator that says "Exposure Mode", on mine it said Auto on the first one and subsequently I did some bracketed exposures for HDR and the indicator changed to "Manual" so I think the info you are searching for is accessible in the data.
As far as enlarging, you can enlarge to any size you want, despite what anybody else says. I had an early DSLR, the Canon 5 megapixel D60, and I too came up with a "money shot" that people were buying. One customer wanted a large print to hang over his sofa, meaning like 48"x60" a real whopper! I used a special enlarging program called "Genuine Fractals", at the time it was like $100 and enlarged it to that size, the digital file was like 360 megbytes, I put in on a CD and took it to a commercial printer, who for a fee, at that time it was less than $100, made a print at the required size. I was amazed to find it perfect, no pixelation whatever. The customer was happy and I made a nice profit in the end.
As far as cropping goes, that is a judgement call, I almost aways do a little cropping to make a balanced composition, there may be an unwanted object on the side that can be removed that way, or too much sky can be fixed, or it you want to center the area of interest more. Just be sure to keep a high resolution setting on the cropping tool.
Tip for enlarging, (if you don't use a special enlarging program) try only 10% at a time. If it is 8x10, the first enlargement should only add .8 to the width, so make it 8.8 inches, then 9.6, 10.2 etc untill you get to the preferred size. I tried that and then compared to one I enlarged in one shot, and sure enough, when I zoomed in closely with the magnifying tool the 10% method did have superior detail.
The huge 24 megapixels the D5200 has makes superior cropping and enlarging possible even more so than a camera that has fewer megapixels.