for me, all without merit unless there are several stops of improvement in ISO noise..

For me, low light sensitivity is everything. Working in poor light (canopies, dawn, disk) whilst being restricted to low ISO leads to wide open lenses and low shutter speeds - blur or out of focus images -> discard pile. Some of my best best shots have come from a D3S (12 mpix, less than most phones). Particularly important because of the unaffordability of wide aperture f4 lenses. Potoo was in the dark, soft LED illlumination at ISO 12800, 1/80th of a second (phew!). Malachite kingfisher at a more sane ISO 3200. Jacamar at a very luxurious ISO 1600.

Originals at http://rjbwild.smugmug.com (sorry, only screengrabs, as I'm in work).

I have a D850 now, but I stall hanker after a D3S again. I'm not the only one, as prices don't seem to be coming own that quickly! The only camera I ever regret letting go.

For us, it's a toss up between the Atlantic Coast and the Gulf Coast for Florida, but we have done FM, Marco Island and Sanibel. If you like birds, this is a superb location, nad the suggestions above largely focus on birding. We've done most of these,a nd I;d add a lng distance UK 'tick;' as well.

One I would add is Marco Island/Tigertail beach - easy burrowing owl sighting, lots of other birds. Have a look at this page on our web site.

https://rjbwild.smugmug.com/USA/Florida-2017/

Some tasters (the reddish egret was from Estero Island, also worth a visit - you can wade into the water and take pics of the birds on the shore, with the evening sun behind you)

Better quality, and many more images on our web sites.

Rob

D850 in the UK: £3,500.
D3S from mpb : 140K actuations (plenty left!) £790, or wex, 24K actuations, just over £1000

I would seriously consider the D3S, 'old' as it. And, I have a D850. There's something special about the D3S.

The Nikon D3S is the ONLY camera I regret letting go...and it seems to be holding value well. It was/is an absolute gem, with low noise performance and colour rendition that was fabulous.
(going off to see how much a medium used S/H one is nowadays....)

On one of our trips to Tanzania a couple of years ago, we tipped the driver $1 per bird species... he did very well...more than the 'standard' rate and have an element of fun and appreciation. he didn't know in advance..brilliant birder!
On another trip we asked if we could visit a local village, and we had heart to heart, non-staged meetings with the local medic and the local teachers.all four of us left with every penny (by which I mean hundreds of dollars) we had on us left behind. I would put $10US into local value, and realise how much difference it can make.

It's not about what we do at home, it is about what we do there.

Rob

I concur with this. The Sunway is a great fit, and they provide replacement Allen bolts, and it drops directly onto your tripod.
This solution is also very carryable (I tend to carry lenses by the foot, and the two play (existing plus bolt on) is less easy on the hands.

But why the hell Sigma couldn't have done this in the first place completely defies me!

Rob

:-)

Can't resist this - recent picture on Air Force One might give you practice material.

Ahh....Got it, mea culpa! (and thanks)

That's a helpful document, and I recognise many of the elements :-)

I didn't know this:

'I should note that Lightroom has the capability of renaming files at import time.'

and will make use of that in future. ('was this near the Arenal volcano or in Selva Verde?' is not so easily answered twow eyears later!

BW
Rob

I use Lightroom as much for organising my files as I do for most basic editing tasks. This holiday break, I finally got around to reducing the 100,000 images (maybe 3 terabytes) I had accumulated, by selecting, editing the best (keepers) and then blithely deleting the rest. LR made this tolerable (not easy!) by quickly marking images as '5 start' or 'x'. I now have a sense of winning, and expect to reduce my database of images from the current 60,000 ish to around 20,000. I am learning the art of culling. Many of the best (best is a relative term, I mean best of mine) are at http://rjbwild.net.

It's not easy at first, but worth persevering. I have become comfortable with the Northups's YoiTube style and learn a lot from them.

Rob

Sorry, forgot to add link to our website..this will point to the FL 17 trip

https://rjbwild.smugmug.com/USA/Florida-2017/

This link is the top level, and includes other parts of the worldEnjoy!
Rob

We think this area is worth traveling from the UK for.

I'd also recommend Tigertail Beach - lovely area, and you can wade into the water and shoot birds on the shore with the sun behind you. We had a family of burrowing owls one block away from where we stayed on Marco island.

Here's the link to the whole gallery, or if you wish, back up to see birds form across the world :-)

Fabulous area. You're close enough to Corkscrew Swamp. We drove over to Wakodahatchee, and liked it so much we made an impromptu overnight there. Estero is great. They have some mad reddish egrets with their manic fishing habits - and you can wade into the water again and shoot them with the subsetting behind you.