Thank you everyone for your input. Between all of these comments and all I read on the internet I was more confused then ever!! I think it is pretty obvious all of the ultra-wides are pretty good. If I was a real-estate photographer I think I would have splurged for the Nikon lens but I ended up getting the Sigma 10-20 3.5 lens. I ran across some reviews on the internet where getting a grey market lens on Amazon did not turn out well so I passed on the Tokina's (I had my finger on the one step purchase button for the 11-20!!! I was so close!!!). Thanks again for the always valuable Hog input!!!

It takes a short period to get used to it but once you do, you will never go back. If you leave your camera in continuous servo mode, you are always ready to focus on moving or stationary objects. Getting your exposure and focus on separate buttons is a wonderful thing!! The only scenario you won't have at your fingertips is exposure lock but you can set that in your personal menu button for easy access.

You will love this camera. I have had mine for a little over a year and I still learn more every day. Learn as you go. I recommend either Daryl Young or David Busch's books. They are both great and much better than learning from the manual.

I have $350 of Amazon credit and I want to use it on a wide angle lens. All of the Tokina lenses (11-16 mm (old and newer version), 11-20 mm) on Amazon do not come with the USA 3 year warranty, however, they are "fulfilled by Amazon". I contacted Tokina and they said these are grey market and would not service them under warranty.

The Sigma 10-20 f/3.5 is sold by Sigma on Amazon so that does come with a US warranty.

Any thoughts on which way to go by those that have used these lenses??
In addition, can you use the Sigma Dock with this Sigma lens??

My research, for what it is worth, leads me to the Tokina but not having the USA warranty scares me

I have been keywording for 3 years or so (18,000 photos). I had the exact question when I first started. You can look at all the Lightroom "experts" suggestions you want but ultimately you will end up with your own unique keywording system. That is the beauty of Lightroom. What is cool is that you can change it on the fly. It is not difficult to change at a later time period. Its as simple as creating new categories, then left click and drag. I did a complete restructure about 8 months ago and the whole thing for 18000 photos took me an hour. Now I think I have it the way I want it!!

I second MT Shooters Nest Gimbal. Works beautifully on my Sigma 150-600.

Don't give up on that lens so quickly, it is a very good DX lens. Ken Rockwell loves that lens and considers it the best Nikon DX lens available. I just picked the vrii version of that lens up and I love it. It out performs my Tamron 18-270 mm in sharpness so it stays on my D7100 body as my all around lens. Later, you can add a 35mm 1.8 prime lens for under $200 dollars for low light situations. Until you are ready to move up to a full frame, the 18-200 mm is a great lens for the body you currently have.

In photoshop there are many ways to do the same thing. For what you are trying to do I find it easiest to just click on the first step you want to delete in the history panel, right click on it, delete it. Then this step and all steps after it are deleted. So in your case, click on step 15 in the history panel, right click it, delete it. Steps 15-25 will be deleted.

I agree, I just found a D7100 and 18-300 on Amazon or E-bay for $750. Refurbished for $1100.

I use BBF on a D7100. What I would do is focus on what you want in focus using the BBF (the release it), then you can lock your exposure on the grass with a half press of the shutter release. Reframe and shoot. In order to use the camera in this fashion, you have to set menu option C1 to ON (exposure lock with half press of shutter release). I normally shoot with this menu option OFF so that my camera will continually change exposure as I move the camera; but if I want to lock exposure, I have my front lower button set to a personalized menu with the C1 option right at the top for easy access. I believe the settings on the D7200 are identical.

Happy Birthday!!

I got a 10 stop B&W ND filter from B&H for $70. It has given me some very nice long exposure photos. I also have a circular polarizing filter which gives me 2 stops. Now I need one in between and I should be good to go for most long exposures I would take.

I understand what you are saying completely. A few years ago I watched two photographers in mid-day light photographing a wedding party on the steps of a historic building in Savannah. They had the tupperware type diffuser that comes with a flash and they had it pointing at a 45 degree angle backwards pointing at the sky. For the life of me I couldn't figure out what they were doing (two of them). There is no way any of that light was reaching the wedding party which was a good 20 feet away.

I finally got around to messing with this photo. I have done a bit of learning with photoshop and decided to give it another go.

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Here is the photo dehazed in Lightroom CC

(Download)