Hello all,

I have been a serious hobbyist for several years, but I have never done any post processing. I have decided to try Photoshop Elements on the 5 years of pictures stored on my SD card. All of those images were shot with a Nikon D90 and a Nikon 18-105 VR kit lens.

All of these older images were shot in JPEG Fine. Going forward, do you recommend that I shoot one JPEG and one RAW so that I will have a RAW image for Elements instead of just a JPEG image? I am assuming that to fully use the capabilities of Elements that a RAW image would be the best choice.

Perhaps, I don't need a JPEG image at all. Your thoughts.

Thanks.

John T.

We are all getting older whether we like it or not. I find that my hands don't work as well as they used to and I am not using my DSLR. I need to decrease weight and decrease the need to make lens changes. I have looked at the mirrorless options and they either don't fit in my hand or when paired with a zoom lens with my most often used focal lengths, they are to heavy. I am thinking about going to a bridge camera. Although it is a move backwards in flexibility, sensor size and available megapixels, it is much better than a phone camera which is what I find myself using now. I am considering the Nikon P1000, the Canon SX70 and the Sony RX10 IV. I would appreciate your advise and any other options that I should consider. Money is not a consideration; being able to enjoy photography again is.

Thanks

Does your macro lens have a tripod mounting ring and do you use Arca-Swiss type quick release system?

If yes to both, a "poor man's" focusing rail is simply an extra long lens plate that allows you to slide everything forward and backward in a slightly loosened mounting platform.

Or, do you have a monopod? If so, put a monopod head on it (provides a tilt axis only), leave that loose so the camera can tip up and down as needed, then with everything on the monopod lean closer or farther from your subject to focus.

I've got two more advanced rack & pinion geared focusing stages: One is an old Minolta that probably dates back to the 1980s or 70s, bought used years, maybe off eBay but I forget exactly where. The other is a more modern Kirk. The old one didn't have quick release, so added them to it (plate on the bottom, platform on top) to work with all the Arca-type I've got on my cameras and lenses. So while the old rail was cheap to buy used, there was some add'l cost getting it set up to work with modern gear. The Kirk Photo rail was a lot more expensive, but included the quick release setup, top and bottom. Top mounting platform can be oriented in line (for lens plate mounting, lenses that have a tripod mounting ring) or tangentially (for camera plate mounting, with smaller lenses that don't have a t'pod ring).

I haven't used the Oben or Neewer . I think I'd have more faith in the Oben than the Neewer... As far as I can tell, the former is a more "serious" tripod and support manufacturer.... While the latter appears to be cheap-as-possible, made in China stuff that gets relabeled under a bunch of different brand names, Neewer just being one of them.

RRS is really good stuff (slight play on their name intended).... but also really EXPENSIVE stuff.

There are a lot of different choices, in addition to those you've mentioned. Narrow it down to a few specific ones, than search for reviews and ask online for feedback about them:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?setNs=p_PRICE_2%7c0&Ns=p_PRICE_2%7c0&ci=3067&fct=fct_accessory-type_3060%7cfocusing-rails&origSearch=macro+focusing+rail&srtclk=sort&ipp=48&N=4289360636