Updating seems to be the word of order for so many photographers. Obviously, that makes camera manufacturers very happy and bargain hunters very happy as well.
Like it has been said before, if the camera in use is pleasing you that is good enough.
I am strictly a Nikon DX user. In early 2000 we did not have the variety of lenses we have today and to give you an example my 12-24 f4 AFS covers ALL my wide angle needs and that I call good enough. I am not going to say much about teles because we all know that the 1.5 factor makes them very useful for sports and wildlife. That also is good enough for me.
With my D7000 noise is not as much a concern as it was before and I am not a regular low light shooter. Recent shots using my camera at ISO 6400 turned out spectacular and there is also excellent softwares like Topaz Denoise that make a great job with noisy images. I repeat it, I am not an avid low light shooter.
In my particular case Nikon DX bodies are good enough to satisfy my needs and I do not do professional work. By the same token 16 megapixels are more than enough for my needs and ocassionally you will see me shooting with a D70s that has only 7 megapixels and some of the most beautiful colors among my cameras for my taste.
To resume what I just said, if the images you are obtaining now with your camera are satisfying you that is good enough.

In full agreement.
:thumbup:

Like I already said, this exercise is an exercise in discipline. If you have a hand held exposure meter and if your lens has apertures then the exercise will be complete.
I posted a shot I took with my Nikon F, hand held meter and a 50mm f1.4 lens but I will not be participating because I do this often.
Good luck to all of you. Surely you all will get great benefits from this exercise and it will improve on your photography.

I have and use a D7000, it is pretty new technology and indeed it is a great camera. I also use my D300, another great tool that sees lots of use in the Everglades National Park or action photography. It shines also in the studio.
My old D70s, in my humble opinion, has the best colors of the three of them. The colors from the D70s are first generation colors, pastel like and similar to those from Kodachrome 64, the film I used regularly for landscape photography. I have to tweak the D300 and D7000 a lot to get the colors I like and prefer.
In my personal opinion the camera should fit the needs of the photographer. I know my D7000 has the best noise performance, the D300 the best AF and the D70s the best colors for my taste and I use them accordingly.
Just buy the camera that will fit your photography. Technology helps and makes us comfortable but it does not take pictures. That we do.

We are talking about discipline here. You will see me often using my 1963 Nikon F with a prime lens, in this case an old 50mm f1.4 and a hand held exposure meter. When I do that I "zoom" with my feet and I do what I used to when film was more prevalent, select my subjects very carefully.
This view of the Miami buildings was made late in the evening, when there were still light colors in the sky. I used my Nikon F loaded with Fujifilm 200 set to ISO 160 on my Manfrotto tripod with a Linhof ballhead. I used my Minolta meter for the exposure, which I regret I cannot remember what it was.

I could not be more in agreement. The D300 is an excellent tool with one of the best AF systems made so far by Nikon. In the second hand market the camera can be bought for $500 or less depending on condition.
I still use my D70s for two important reasons to me, it can sync flash at 1/500sec, not achievable with any modern camera and it has the gorgeous pastel like colors of the first generation colors that I like so much. Its sensor, the same sensor in the D40, is excellent in good light and I never felt limited with its 6 megapixels.
New cameras have incredible technology, nobody can deny that but these old models do very well indeed if it fits the photographer style at prices that are very hard to beat.

Thank you for the compliments. Yes David, Topaz also has lots of presets.
I like a little bit of warmth in my b&w work. I used to print with Agfa fiber base paper and if you ever used it you have to know that it had a beautiful warm tonality. Topaz has many presets to warm the pictures.
Akfishguide you are absolutely right, we are all different and we have different tastes. I have made shots that I hate and other people love them! I have made shots that I like and other people hate them!
I enjoy sceneries, nature and night time photography and on the side I love portraits, studio or ambient light.
In the winter months here in Florida I am a frequent visitor to the Everglades National Park and depending on the year I find a good variety of migratory birds including the local ones.
Photographing in the fog is something I do really like and the views from the mountains in the Dolly Sods area with the fog in between the mountains is something so beautiful that it is hard for me to describe. The secret is to be there before the sunrise and I was there at 5:30AM local time ready to roll.
Thank you once again for your comments.

Thank you for your comments. I do appreciate your kindness.
David for the second shot I compared the original and the b&w conversion and I decided to go with the conversion. I think that the b&w tonalities enhanced the photograph.
I had training in b&w photography and I learned the Zone System well. We have more control using digital, especially using a software like Topaz B&W Effects 2. Enhancing whites and black tonalities with the software is so easy compared to what I had to do in the past in the optical darkroom. At times the tonalities are not correct but software has made a big difference.
Ansel Adams was a great b&w photographer. I am sure that my second shot would have been a work of art in his hands since he had a complete understanding of the techniques he had to use in the darkroom to make his pictures as outstanding as they were.
If you have followed his work I am sure you are familiar with "Moonrise over Hernandez, New Mexico." His negative was badly underexposed but once in the darkroom his expertise made from that negative a work of art.
If you visit Yosemite National Park there is a gallery there that belongs to his daughter showing many of the pictures he made and surely "Moonrise over Hernandez" is there also.
Thank you for your kind comments.

Last week I posted here some pictures I made in the Canaan Valley and Dolly Sods Wilderness area in West Virginia. I promised I will post some more and here they are.
The first two shots are b&w conversions using Topaz B&W Effects 2. Both of them were shot with the 12-24 f4 AFS Nikon lens in a cold morning in late September. The rural scene was made in the Canaan Valley while the other in an area known as Blackwater if memory does not fail.
The rural scene with the silo was shot also in early morning light. I used for this shot an old 80-200 f4.5 that was AIS converted for use with my digital cameras. The shot required color correction and I enhanced the colors of the trees in the background.
The next shot was made in early morning light in the Dolly Sods area. I had to make a color correction due to the cold light and enhanced the pale colors in the sky. For this shot I used my 28-105 AF-D lens set to 105mm to compress the view of the mountains.
The following shot was also made in the Dolly Sods area with my 28-105 lens. Color correction was also necessary and I enhanced the yellow colors of the flowers in the foreground to give them some pop.
Finally this last shot is the result of shooting against the light with my 12-24 lens. I positioned myself after taking a meter reading of the foreground so that the sun would be hiding behind the branches of the trees. Notice how well the lens controlled ghosting.
In Photoshop it was necessary to make a lens correction since there was a significant distortion of the corners due to the wide angle effect.
All these pictures were made with a Nikon D7000 using a Gitzo GT-2541 carbon fibers tripod and a RRS ballhead.
I hope you like them.

I want to thank you all for your kind comments. I am still working on some of the files and hopefully I will post them soon.

Thank you gentlemen for your kind comments. I like to post and explain to others what I did technically to come up with the photograph. I am quite sure that it helps to understand how the photograph was made.
I hope others will imitate me, I do not see many technical explanations in the forum.
Will post some more as I continue to edit them.

These are the first pictures I post here. They were made during a recent visit in late September to West Virginia.
I had the pleasure of meeting a young Vietnamese-American photographer by the name of Bernard Chen, who leads workshops to this beautiful part of WV. He was kind enough to invite me to participate and shoot with the rest of the group.
We mainly shot sunsets and sunrises so, or we were early for the sunrise or late for the sunset to catch the beautiful light. Being there as early as 5AM was not unusual. The night shot took place at midnight with chilly temperatures. I used the "Painting with Light" technique using a LED light to illuminate the rocks and its surroundings for a few seconds during the 30 second exposure with the lens wide open. The pictures in the Valley were made also early in the day to catch the fog.
I used my Nikon D7000 on a Gitzo GT-2541carbon fiber with a RRS ballhead attached. The lenses I used were the 28-105 AF-D and the 12-24 f4 AFS, both Nikkor lenses.
The sunrise picture with the rocks in the foreground could have been made better using layers and masks based on a double exposure, one for the sky and the other for the foreground and blended as layers in Photoshop, a technique I am learning which obviously was not applied here, instead I opened up the shadow areas to taste.
The picture of the trees and fog required a slight color correction since the light was very cool in the early morning.
The sunset was a simple composition using the pine tree as a dominant element in the foreground. I enhanced slightly the red colors in the sky.

This is the "Painting with Light technique" that I described above.te

Once again, thank you to each and everyone of you for the warm welcome.

Tripods are considered accessories but indeed they are a necessity. I agree with you that a photographer looking for a tripod should get the best he or she can afford.
All my tripods are made of aluminum. When I was younger I had no problems with them but today they are too heavy to travel with them.
Carbon fiber tripods are light and steady enough although they are expensive. Looking at the second hand market and I find many of them for over $300, not precisely a bargain but much less than a brand new one.
Most recently I traveled to West Virginia to photograph in the Dolly Sods Wilderness area and I used a Gitzo GT-2541 with a RRS ballhead. I could see the difference at the end of the day and the tripod was steady enough to support my camera and lens, about 5 lbs. of weight. I am sure the tripod can support easily 10 lbs. The head, by the way, even when it was the smallest made by RRS did a great job also.
My advise, like yours is to buy the best you can afford.

I do not know the type of camera you are using but if like me you use Nikon the lens I recommend is the excellent 70-300VR made by Nikon.
I have heard and read very good reviews on the Tamron lens but I would prefer to use what the original manufacturer has made to be used with its cameras.
There is a good chance also that the retail value of the Nikkor will be better when ready to sell.