Time will tell. I expected it to be expensive, but not that expensive. There are better lens choices for me at that price level. But then, we don't really know what it will cost yet, do we? Best of luck.

Why not set your camera up to record RAW plus JPEG. Then you won't be under pressure to figure this out before you go on your trip. JPEG images are processed in-camera and have some degree of noise reduction applied to the processed image whereas RAW files have no noise reduction applied. There are any number of programs that will reduce noise in post-processing including Lightroom and Photoshop.