I get the feeling you were secretly following me around recording my days in those days of yore. I remember all the things you mentioned. Plus we used to walk about a half mile to a creek that we played in and came home all wet and filthy. Thanks! I wouldn't trade it for anything either!
People on this site used to be a lot more helpful and sensitive to peoples feelings. Calling something a rant does not make it excusable .
I have a Gitzo and an Induro. The Induro costs about half of the Gitzo, but it is very sturdy and light weight (carbon fiber). When you buy any tripod I recommend you anticipate any (possible) future lens buys and get a tripod that will support your camera and that biggest possible lens. This way you only buy one tripod rather than upgrading whenever you buy a larger lens.
Nice! Did you try it as a vertical?
I got stopped once for not dimming my lights. I was frantically stabbing around the floor of the car for the dimmer and it was on the steering wheel. When I told the cop what had happened he let me go with a warning.
I had also heard all the terms before (mostly when I was a teenager many, many, many years ago).
I prefer Canon's 180mm macro or Sigma's 150mm. With longer lenses you don't have to get so close to insects that you frighten them off. I own the 100mm but find I never use it.
Looked like a disaster to me.
"i.e.: you don't have to fine tune the focus for each lens you use"
Is this statement true? Or is it the fact that you can't fine tune the focus for each lens you use?
What was your shutter speed?
You said you were going to buy a camera. I asked if you couldn't use "that" camera for macro work. I asked about macro work because you can do a lot of that with bad knees. One of my knees is a 15 year artificial one and it is the better of the two. I also do a lot of macro work and a good bit of my non macro photography is from the car, something else you can maybe do. People on this site are more than willing to try to help others with problems.
Can you use the camera for macro (close-up) shots?
What exactly makes someone a "pro". What are "serious credentials." Does someone have to be making their living as a photographer? I am a retired college professor who taught his first photography class in 1972, and many more times since then. Some of my students now make their living with photography. Does this make me a professional? What if we get conflicting answers form mentors? Since there is a lot of room for speculation in photography, this is bound to happen (unless the mentors have a policy of not disagreeing with one another).
When I travel I use my laptop to download images from my cards at night by just connecting the hard drives to the computer. The cards (compact flash cards) are in a card reader. I put them in a folder that is identified by the date. Not sure why you don't want to do this. I usually backup to 3 hard drives and keep one with me and 2 in the motel room.