Marvelous!
Your photos are top-notch and illustrate well the plants you’ve selected. I particularly appreciate your text and the context you draw for us with each of these fascinating plants.

Thank you! I look forward to more of your work!

A SOC iPhone grab shot during 2021’s bitter, week-long 5 deg (F) temps in The Texas Hill Country. I kept the circulation pumps running and avoided damage to our development’s pool. Note the ice on the branches and the palms from the day-long ice storms that preceded the 5 inches of snow. I wondered why we bothered leaving Minnesota!

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Very, very nice. Not overdone - you captured great images for a great start! Thanks for sharing!

Well said!
I absolutely agree and have experienced the anger and humiliation of Chinese counterfeit goods produced with our own property - our own tooling - and packaged in another international company’s packaging for sale in select areas of Asia. (They were not aware it was occurring.) We had made the multi-millions in investments that we were working to recover. Those thieves were simply printing money.

Recovery of product development investment can take many forms. A company chooses the form they employ. And it’s not unusual that a market segment becomes disillusioned and parts ways with the company’s products if they don’t care for the impact of such a decision. Ultimately, the market will pick the winners and losers - and whether that management decision was the right one. You’re in the process of doing that right now. Ain’t Capitalism Grand!

Thank you, Bill. You’re once again offering great information based on your personal experience(s) as well as your solid technical understanding. Your prior comments and others’ formal reviews re: the M1 Macs had me literally pull the plug on a 2015 iMac. I have a Mac M1 Max 10/24, 32GB/1TB Studio ordered and I’m looking forward to digitizing some old 16mm Ektachrome ECO and Plus-X to produce the railroad history film that I envisioned and shot on my Eclair NPR / Nagra III in the mid-60s. (Remember ECO? This is the newer “hi-speed” 25 ASA stuff, not the earlier 12 ASA version.) I’ve been carrying that footage around since the ‘60s - and it’s still good!

I’ll dive into Premier and see if my 8 years’ experiences with Mac-based Media 100 and COSA’s After Effects in the ‘90s does any good. Management roles then got in the way of hands-on growth. We’ll see…

Again - Thank you for well-reasoned, well-expressed, experience-based reviews and opinions. As well as being informative, it’s refreshing!

Ha!
If you said the topic couldn’t go 17 pages, you should be having second thoughts (unfortunately).

I bought the chipped but non-AF Nikon version about three years ago. It’s very sharp with manageable distortion. I’ve used it on a D7200, D750 and now D850 and Z6 (with FTZII adapter). Very pleasantly surprised at the image quality: no fringing, no chroma, manageable pincushion. For convenience, I picked up a Nikon 16-35 f4 that’s extremely sharp - Rockwell claims it’s the best of Nikon’s wide FF FX zooms. But, surprisingly, the Samyang gives it a run for the money at its wide end. It’s surprising to see what a difference in field of view just 2mm makes. From what I’ve read before and since, I may have been very lucky to get such a good copy right off the bat. Be prepared to exchange the first few you get until you get a great one. But they’re out there!

I shoot a D850 and a Z6 w/FTZ II for my F-mount lenses. I don’t own any Z glass yet. But in filling out my F-mount stable, I added some non-zooms including a 50mm. I first purchased a Nikkor 50 f1.4 - it was so-so. Then I read Ken Rockwell’s evaluation of Nikkor 50mm f1.4 vs. f1.8. (In my typical after-the-fact-its-too-late-to-save-my-foolishly-spent-money fashion.) Rockwell gives the 1.8 higher marks. I bought a NikonUSA refurbished 1.8G during a 20%-off sale and have $151.50 in it, including tax and freight. (Refurb 1.8Ds are available at even less.) It’s great! It’s sharp, fast to focus, free of aberrations and very well-tuned by Nikon’s service department - as all my refurb Nikkors have been. Far superior to the 1.4 I had. So, one vote for a 1.8 50mm vs. the 1.4 and multiple votes for NikonUSA’s refurb lenses. Only problem: I don’t use the 50 since getting the 24-70mm f2.8E.

(If considering NikonUSA refurbs, check B&H and Adorama pricing, perhaps other retailers as well. They often price those refurbs at less than NikonUSA’s own website pricing. There’s apparently no pricing agreement in effect on the refurbed equipment.)

Thanks for the info - I appreciate it. A pretty nifty handle!

So what brand/source is the handle? Where does one locate a handle like that? Thanks…

I absolutely agree! Please, please, please support a personal position with the info or impression that caused you to take that position. I’m spending time trying to learn - whether mirrored DSLR vs. mirrorless or finding the best focus mode for particular situations or….

I don’t understand why some - most often the same people - are driven to make snarky, mean comments. I now see particular names and I skip their comments, knowing the post will be filled with vitriol or unsupported claims. If you’re in disagreement with someone’s statement, just tell me why. Please help me learn and provide enough real info that I can form my own opinion and make decisions that accommodate my particular financial, physical and health conditions as well as my particular visual interests. In advance, Thanks!

I agree - Something’s not quite right. I think we’ve been punk’d! (BS’d in my generation.)

If photo 1 and photo 2 are closely compared, they’re the same photo with some post-processing applied. The small tendrils of the waves breaking over the reef, the floating debris, the foam, the relationship of the identical clouds to small landmarks on the reefs, the patterns on the water - presumably from the wind - all are identical. Not almost identical, but absolutely identical. That simply doesn't happen in nature with so many concurrent dynamic elements. That may explain the lack of stored originals with data for each “exposure.”

Someone’s having fun with us!

Quoting: “One concern would be automatic lens corrections applied by the camera processing software. If you really want to see the performance of the lens you may want to look at results without those lens corrections applied... “ (end)
———————
Disabling in-camera lens corrections (presuming that can be done) would simply demonstrate the lens design’s failings; ie. pin cushion distortion, barrel distortion, etc. The camera’s firmware corrections to images produced by that particular lens model are designed to minimize the lens design’s weaknesses. If corrections are not applied and failings are observed, how does one know the if the observed failings are for that individual lens or that model’s design? Early on in my career as a cinematographer shooting documentaries, theatricals, commercials and educationals with their extremely varied demands, I was taught the maxim of “test it as you’ll use it” to best assure significance of the test results. Ex: We looked most closely at our lens collimating results for what we expected to be the most used shooting apertures for the particular production getting underway. We most often disregarded sub-par performance outside our expected working range. Occasionally, a technician would “tune” a particular lens for an unusual setup demanding an unusual range of working apertures. In my well-aged opinion, testing means nothing unless the selected test parameters and protocol reflect the expected demands placed on the lens, camera, lighting system, etc with the available optimization employed.

(Disclaimer: Mine are very dated viewpoints. As you’ve guessed, I’m a Luddite. Someday, I’ll turn the mode dial from “M” on my D850.)

Ditto - wonderful series and fascinating info... The road trains are legendary. Thanks for giving us a glimpse. From an old wanna-be truck driver.

I don’t understand the statement that a lens hood is not included with the Nikon AF P 70-300 f4.5-5.6. Here’s what the Nikon USA website claims as included with the lens (a direct select/copy from the site):

What's in the box
AF-P NIKKOR 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6E ED VR
LC-67 Snap-on Front Lens Cap 67mm
LF-4 Rear Lens Cap
HB-82 Bayonet Lens Hood
CL-1022 Soft Lens Case

Has / have dealers been stripping the lens kits? They should have that HB-82 bayonet hood included with any new USA-authorized lens. Can’t say on Grey Market goods, tho. All Nikkor lenses I’ve purchased (dozens) since 1963 have included lens hoods. That said, if replacing one, I’d go OEM.