The SR-71 is a great plane. It has been mothballed, and is not generally serving now...though it is sometimes called back to service for special missions. I was in USAF, and stationed on Okinawa in the 1970s, and we had several SR-71 planes. We called them the "Habu." In the mornings they flew out to pass over various targets-Viet Nam, China, Russia, etc-and at night they came back with lots of good intel. My best friend worked in the Photo wing, and processed images shot by the Habus. I was a medic, and performed hearing tests on the pilots, and health & safety inspections of the hangars, and such. I got close up to the planes, and was always interested in the SR-71s.

Toni - You are welcome. Let us know what you decide on. Another thing to consider is-as I have said elsewhere-Canon pro cameras all use CF memory cards...which are a bit obsolete, and less easy to find. Canon consumer cameras all have OLFP filters...which combat the Moire you may get when shooting some shots of some subjects, but will always certainly make all of your images a bit blurrier. Nikon offers several cameras which have no OLFP filters.

It would help if you dumped the Canon, and got a camera which lacks an OLFP filter. Then, use a larger numbered (smaller aperture) F stop...8, or 11, or 16. That should make everything...bird, leaves, etc, sharp. Focus on the bird. If you want Bokeh, blur the background up in post production.

My mother took us back to 1300 AD using family Bibles, birth certificates, church records, etc. It was as we knew...German-Irish-Norwegian. Everyone has a bit of other things-Neanderthal, Natives American, or whatever-in them somewhere. I may use DNA to discover more about that someday. One needs to be prepared for what they might learn, though. White Separatist Craig Cobb did a DNA test on himself, and learned that he is 14% Black. It destroyed his self image, and turned all of his fellow white racists against him. His dream of living in an all white town were shattered....since he would make it partly Black by living there. What a laugh!

Get a more advanced camera...a Nikon D7200, or D810, or their Canon / etc equivalents...having two memory card slots. Put a card in each slot. Set the camera to record RAW to one card slot, and JPEG to the other. Modify the RAW images from card one to your heart's content, and use the JPEG duplicate images on card two to post online, email to friends, and so on.

Addictive personalities can become addicted to anything...cell phones, booze, farting, etc. The trick is to not be, or raise, an addictive personality. It helps to think about what is being done as it is being done.

ISO 100, Aperture Priority, F/11, frame the people from the waist up, smiling, looking into the lens, exchanging the keys, with a truck in the background, nearby....all sharply focused. Put the camera on a tripod, far enough away to focus sharply on the people's eyes while using the 55mm lens. On the APS-C sensored camera, that will give a field of view equivalent to an 82.5mm lens on a Full Frame camera....a nice Portrait focal length. The people, keys, and truck, will all be nicely focused, as all are the collective subject. The subjects can stay stationary for the time it takes to shoot. Use the timer, set for ten seconds, and press the shutter release. Then stand away from the camera, let the vibrations from having pressed the shutter die down, and let the camera fire itself. Use a flash. Fold a white hanky in half, place it over the flash head, and hold it in place with a rubber band. This will soften the light from the flash, and eliminate harsh shadows. Repeat several times to be sure of getting at least one shot with no one blinking / sneezing, etc.

There is no best camera, lens, etc. What is best for you will not be best for another person. What is best for action photos will not be best for portraits. Everything is a compromise. An entry level DSLR-like a Nikon D3300, or D3400, can serve generally, but a mid level, or upper level, 'enthusiast' DSLR camera will be better overall. A refurbished Nikon D7100, or D7200, would be a good choice. If you want a simpler, easier to use, item, a new 'Bridge' camera such as the Nikon B500, or B700, would be good. Canons, Fujis, etc, are good, too, but may not be as good. All of Canon's Pro cameras use CF memory cards...which are pretty much obsolete. All of Canon's Consumer cameras have Low Pass Filters, which make images blurrier. Fujis have fewer lenses available for them. Nikon seems to be the best compromise to me, but you may feel otherwise. If you buy a DSLR, or a Mirrorless, camera, with interchangeable lenses, spend time learning to use it. If you want to rely on Auto, or Program, modes, and let the camera do the work, so you don't have to learn much, get a Bridge camera. In the DSLR line, I would suggest the Nikon D7100, or D7200, and buy factory refurbished from nikonusa.com. If you go the Bridge camera route, I would suggest a new Nikon B700.

You get what you pay for, and pay for what you get. If you buy Grey, you do NOT pay for domestic service / warranty, and so do not get it. Boo Hoo. To avoid such, avoid Grey Market goods. If new non-Grey is too costly, buy factory refurbished non Grey. If you buy Grey, you save money, but risk getting an item which will break down, and not be fixable without shipping it back to Hong Kong, or wherever, at great cost, and inconvenience. Pay more up front, by buying non-Grey, and having the security of domestic repairability under warranty...or save a bit up front by buying Grey...and risk paying a lot more further down the line when the thing breaks down. Life is full of choices. Domestic repair people deserve to be paid, and paying them means the seller needs to charge more for the products those repair persons will work on. If you buy Grey, and the item never breaks down, you come out a few dollars ahead. If you buy Grey, and the item breaks down, you screwed yourself. Do ya feel lucky, Punk? Make your choices, pay your money, and take your chances. Whatever else you do, or don't do, be sure to quit whining.

The Declaration Of Independence is nothing but a letter of complaint to Mad King George III. It has no force in law, and is NOT the foundation of anything. The Constitution Of The United States IS our foundation, and IS The Primary law here. Educationally challenged people are always confusing these two documents. If you are going to expound upon such matters, bother to learn what you are talking about.

You know what you have to do then. Sterilize all Repubtards.

Does it matter what they are called? What will be will be. If Nikon is still around, in the future, there will be various innovations / model upgrades. Perhaps there will eventually be GigaPixel sensors the size of a thumbnail, in cameras with thousand shot buffers, which produce images in near total darkness, at ISO 6,753,600 which are as bright, and clear, and noise free, as ISO 100 images in sunlight are now. Time will tell. Back in the early days of digital consumer cameras, most cameras were 0.3MP. Fan Boys went wild over the latest items, and were doubtful when I said that I would wait until there were 8, or 10, MP models at least. The Fan Boys scoffed, and were sure that there would never be such hi-res systems. There would never be a 10MP camera, ever, they said. Now, there are hundreds of 20MP+ models. Incremental upgrades keep the factories busy, and the people employed, and the shareholders making a profit. We could have had 8MP cameras back when most cameras were only 0.3MP, but those 8MP cameras would have cost $30,000.00 each then, and so would not be selling well, and the camera makers would have missed out on all the profits that were to be made from: 0.3MP, 0.5MP, 0.8MP, 1MP, 2MP, 3MP, etc, cameras until the current 24MP, etc, models. We have the great camera tech that we have now because the camera makers survived to bring it to us at reasonable prices...thanks to Incremental Upgrades. Get used to it.

A golden river? Shades of Trump's Russian tapes.

Yeah. Jail them all....along with jewelers. 'Cape Rubies' are not Rubies. They are Garnets. 'Water Sapphires' are not Sapphires. They are Iolites. 'Herkimmer Diamonds' are not diamonds. They are Rock Crystals. Then go after the oil companies...who are the real Arabs. Then get the politicians. 'Revenues' are taxes. 'Tax Cuts' are not tax cuts for the middle class. They are tax credits for the uber rich. When you have Imprisoned all of the frauds, and raised taxes to fund their incarceration, go after the whiners.

TJ had little choice. He owned s***es, and routinely raped, and impregnated, s***e girls as young as nine years old. He was scared sh*tless that his abused s***es might someday revolt against him. I don't take advice from s***e owning child molesters. BTW - TJ is the most mis-quoted person in history. Everyone, and his uncle, says what they feel are pithy things, and then claims that TJ originally said it...when he did not in fact do so. Even when it comes to what he did actually say, I don't follow the advice of cowardly perverts.

PS - TJ's alleged quotes are NOT equal to The US Constitution, and NOT US Law. Real Men can make a weapon out of anything. Guns are nice, and handy, and I have used them in defense of myself, and others. I have also used sticks, swords, rocks, household chemicals, and bare hands, against perps who had guns, so guns aint all they are cracked up to be. Most who own / hoard guns do not know how to use them.

The south was wrong, The Cun*federacy was doomed to lose, and The War Of Southern Aggression settled the phony issue of State's Rights forever. The South will never rise again. Anti-Federalists should go buy an island in the Pacific, declare it an independent nation, and live there as they wish to. Like The Cun*federacy, it will cease to exist in short order. The Federalists won the debate here when the nation was founded, and the descendants of the losers need to get over that fact. In this Real World nation, County Sheriffs-despite their delusions to the contrary-have less actual power than do Courthouse Clerks.

Guns are handy, but are not the be all / end all of anything. Rather than hoard guns I've paid for, which others will ultimately steal, I'd be more apt to steal guns from the military if society collapses. The government has more armories than it has armory guards, so it would be easy.

So, you share TJ's alleged opinion on armed citizens. Does that mean that you also share his predilection for sexually abusing children? If so, aren't you worried that one of your victims will someday get hold of one of your guns, and use it against you? Let us know.