Back in the film days, and with my early digital cameras that were fairly low resolution, I got in the habit of cropping tightly and refining the composition in the camera. Now with my 36MP cameras I try to leave a bit of room around the composition in case I need to straighten the horizon line or have choices as to how I will crop the image. I noticed however that a very well known pro photographer said he crops exactly the way he wants the image to appear, in-camera. And that refining the composition later was a bit lazy. Wow, really? So what's the verdict, leave a little room to spare when shooting or crop tightly? One reason he gave was that when you have to crop later, it increases the lens compression and will appear slightly different. Thanks!

I have a Nikon D3300 with the Nikon 18-55 DX VRII lens and the Nikon 55-200 DX VRII lens, with one 16gb Sandisk Extreme memory card, One EN-EL14a battery, I will have on my 7 day April Cruise, any advice or suggestions on what I might do or possibly purchase to help make my Photographic Cruise experience a Success, any help from my fellow UHH members before I go will be very much appreciated.
Thanks in advance for your support.

A month ago I decided to purchase a LUMIX LX 100. Theee weeks ago, based on previous positive experiences I ordered it from Adorama. I got a notice from UPS that it would be delivered on Friday, 3 weeks ago today. Knowing I wouldn't be home that weekend and would miss the delivery I called Adorama and asked they delay the delivery until the following Monday. They said it had already shipped and couldn't change anything. I then contacted UPS who told me they couldn't do anything until the delivery was made and if no one answered they driver would leave a tag and I should call back with the tag number. Well, when I returned Monday, there was no tag and no box. Obviously UPS just decided to drop it at my front door with no signature and someone helped themselves to it. I called Adorama and they said they would have to go through the UPS claims scenario. Last Monday I was told by Adorama that UPS determined it was a successful delivery. How, I don't know since no one signed for it. I told them this was unacceptable to which they responded they would reopen the case with UPS and it would be another 2 weeks. I told them what they could do and I was calling my credit card company to dispute it as well as turning it over to my attorney who happens to be my wife. Meanwhile, there has been zero communication from Adorama. 4 weeks is outrageous.

I don't know if there is anyone on this website from Adorama but you just lost a sale and a customer. Plus, I will NEVER recommmend your company....ever. If anyone else else on here has had this experience you can understand how frustrating it is. Monday I'm going to purchase from B&H. Adorama....This is NOT how to run a business. Apparently you just don't care.

Gene

I am happy to have just found this forum!

As a long-time enthusiastic amateur, and missing the experience of my old SLR days I am ready to upgrade from a little Canon point/shoot that has actually served me well and a Fuji X20 that is just not quite nice enough. I shoot landscape, mostly, but like to tinker with very close up stuff. Fast action and focal lengths needed for wildlife are not particularly an issue. Favorite shots might get printed, never larger than (and almost always smaller than) 16x20 or so.

Other things equal, I will work with my local camera shop, unless selection becomes an issue. The further I can stay under $1,000 the better, though I would stretch a bit to lens up later if necessary.

I am looking at Nikon D3300/3400 at a good price with a lens kit (18-55mm and 55-300 mm) or D5500 but without some of the promo pricing. They carry Canon but do not seem too thrilled with Canon's lower end DSLRs compared to Nikon. Thoughts on that? I do like the relatively small size of the D3300/3400. One of the changes with the new 3400 is the elimination of a sensor cleaner in the camera. Do those things work very well, or is a (carefully done) manual cleaning the best way to maintain anyway? Both are currently available, but D3300 will be gone for good when sold out.

Intriguing, and also with some holiday promotions, are a couple offerings in the Olympus OM-D mirroless series, with smaller size and interesting features. They have a Fuji model I haven't yet looked at.

For macro work it seems that the options are a standalone lens, which the camera shop people strongly recommend or an inexpensive screw-on closeup ring. Nikon and Olympus both offer a closeup ring - any specific experiences with them?

Are there thoughts or experiences on sensor quality between Nikon low end DSLR and Olympus OM-D (and Canon, for that matter)?

Of some small concern is battery life in the mirrorless, which I am told is substantially less than DSLR. What are your experiences there? I don't need to cover an all-day wedding shoot or like that, and am willing to carry a spare if necessary.

General thoughts on the mirrorless experience will be appreciated. The OM-D series has a viewfinder built in, which is, for me, an essential feature.