I digitized my hundreds of CD's many years ago and they all fit in a 128GB flash drive that I use in our cars. Isn't technology great? Sure beats carrying 10 CD's at a time in those awful cases.

I was just listening to this concerto a couple of days ago in the car satellite radio. I also love his third piano concerto, a more technical and difficult concerto to play for the soloist.

Thanks for sharing.

Shutter speed is crucial for photographing small and very fast birds such as swallows. I would suggest 1/3200 or faster.

If you think you don't need to AF Fine-Tune your lenses, you are not optimizing the capability of your lenses.

I just spent days going through my 15 Nikon F-mount lenses with FoCal, a semi-automatic program to calibrate the AF Fine-Tune of lenses with my 3 FF Nikon bodies - D5, D850 and Z7.

Even though the Z7 does have an AF Fine-Tune feature available, I found none of the F-mount lenses required any adjustments, as they all fall within +- 2.

On the D5 and D850 however, the adjustments ranged from -17 to +5. FoCal gives up a before and after picture comparison and I could clearly see a difference when the adjustment is 3 or higher.

And the issue is more complicated than that. The Fine-Tune adjustment is just one number which applies to all distances and focal lengths (if it's a zoom lens). With Sigma and Tamron lenses that are attached to a dock, there are multiple AF adjustments to the lens. On my Tamron 35-150, there are 18 adjustment points - 6 on focal lengths (35, 50, 85, 105, 135 and 150) and 3 distances (3', 6' and infinity). Those 18 adjustments were not consistent. They ranged from -4 to +2. But on my Nikkor 24-70 F/2.8G, they ranged from -3 and -14 at 6' at focal lengths of 28, 35, 50 and 70mm.

So with just 1 setting (or 2 with the new D780), it is just a setting premised on 1 focal length and 1 shooting distance. It's no wonder why many F-mount lenses become sharper when used with a Z camera.

Many people are perfectly happy without performing any AF Fine-Tune, but they are not getting the best images that the lenses could provide.

The day will come when the Z cameras could auto focus as well as the D850 or D5/6. That's when I will be thinking about selling my D5 and D850.

[quote=whitehall]As always your opinions based on your experience will be much welcome:

Do lenses (300 PF) need to be adjusted for back or front focus?

IGW[/quote

With a few exceptions, I happened to have done a AF fine-tune with my many lenses (yeah, I know) and my 3 bodies (D5, D850 and Z7). The lenses are mostly Nikkors, with a few Sigma and Tamrons. With the DSLR bodies, the AF fine-tune numbers ranges from -17 to +5, but with the Z7, there were all either 0, -1 or -2 (just 1 lens). So I can say that you don't really need to AF fine-tune the lenses with Z camera bodies.

Attached is a pdf file of a spreadsheet showing the AF fine-tune numbers with each of the camera bodies. As you can see, with the Z7, the numbers are so small that it's irrelevant. So there is really no need to AF fine-tune lenses with the Z camera bodies.

Attached file:
(Download)

It is a very good price with such low shutter actuation count. Good luck with sale.

Combo tripod/monopod sticks pretty much give you mediocre performances for both. Your setup is not that heavy. You don't need a huge tripod to support the weight. In your price range, you can certainly get a decent carbon fiber tripod from Neewer or one of the better Chinese manufacturers, and still have money left to get a Sirui monopod.

Here's one from Amazon:

https://smile.amazon.com/Neewer-Inches-Monopod-Camcorder-Work%EF%BC%8CLoad/dp/B08BJ2DH59/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?dchild=1&keywords=neewer+tripod&qid=1598373007&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUExOERQV0NZTkYwTlVOJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwNjA5OTA5MzlLOEdFN1NNSjJBWiZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwNTc1ODc5MVM0SlhRSEtMMEFSUiZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2F0ZiZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=

It is a combo tripod/monopod where one of the legs could be detached and used as a monopod. But as someone else responded, it's a pain in the ass. You are much better off getting separate pods. I bought his tripod for my wife's setup, which is very similar to yours. Just don't bother with the monopod feature and get a separate monopod.

I think there were firmware issues with early EN-EL15 batteries when used with the D850. Other manufacturers also had the same problem. Later versions seemed to work fine.

I had both and sold the 200-500 after getting the 500PF. There is no comparison in quality at the long end of the range.

Frankly, I find pretty much all of the times that even 500mm is not long enough for wildlife. I also have the Tamron 70-200 2.8 G2 if I am fortunate enough to be closer to my subject.

Perfect study in B&W.