AggieDave

More like a semi trailers retread letting go at 75 MPH. --"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

No question about it. It adds benefit to any zoom. You'll find that most sport photographers use auto anyway. The primary issue is composition, and everything else comes secondary. Last year on the sidelines of a few Texas A&M football games, I was in a sea of Nikon D3x and D4s with 400mm lenses on Really Right Stuff monopods. Most of those guys had a D800 slung with a 70-200 or even a few with a 24-70 as well. It was impressive to watch them work, how they moved, how they setup and then their quiet work flow as they followed the plays and tried to anticipate angles in a sea of people on the sideline. You could tell they were working photographers who didn't pay for the gear out of their own pocket, though. When it was raining they had a hodgepodge of plastic bags for covers. The guys with less expensive rigs but it was obvious they purchased their own gear had purpose built weather gear over their cameras. With that said, besides sports shooters, I know of some wildlife photographers who run a D7000 with full frame lenses to get the sweet spot in the center of the lens, the crop, the cycle rate and the file size. Remember that even old D1s with their laughably small ability (compared to now) printed cover shots for large international magazines. --"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

To simulate the sound, just whistle... --"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

Or a cursed canoe. Then you could be drinking cursed beer in a cursed boat, possibly being up somewhere with out a paddle. --"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

Anyone want to buy the plane???? I Think this falls into the "you couldn't pay me enough to own it" category. The previous owner was killed in some crash as well... Anyone want a cursed airplane? --"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

I would be lying if I said we haven't done that before. Having been involved with the action with a K9, it is impressive, but it is also important to remember that no matter how well trained they are, they're still dogs. --"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

The link that I read said that the canopy came open in a dive and the plane rolled due to the drag. Not sure if it's the same link that is posted, though. --"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

Jetta Sportwagen TDI. I have a 2010 that's not a TDI and it has been a great car, put about 60,000 miles on it so far and love it. --"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

Dude, that's what I recommended. Then again, I'm sort of a zombie guy... Oh yeah?! What's to the NORTH? Maggots, FACE THE NORTH! --"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

Dude, that's what I recommended. Then again, I'm sort of a zombie guy... --"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

That would require a lot of work on his "Short Field Landing" technique. I saw a Twin Otter land perpendicular to the runway at the old SD Houston once...It can happen. --"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

No dogs here. Just a couple tuxedo cats. I don't know, service cats seems like a bad idea. They would probably ignore your needs while plotting to kill you. http://theoatmeal.com/misc/frame/cat_kill --"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

YOU can read?!?! Well sure... I wouldn't be on DZ.COM if I couldn't! but your monitor is smudge up from feeling all the braille, right? I'M FUCKING DEAF, NOT BLIND!!!! Ever since you got that hearing ear dog you've been all moody. --"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

YOU can read?!?! Well sure... I wouldn't be on DZ.COM if I couldn't! but your monitor is smudge up from feeling all the braille, right? --"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

Coaching helps teach you skill. Time in the saddle teaches you decision making and the experience lets you know when it will or won't work. All the skill in the world means nothing with out the experience to make it work right. The moral of the story is even if your skill set keeps increasing, you have to remember to limit your behavior to account for your lack of experience. I'm glad you weren't more badly injured. Like Ian said, everyone hits, how bad and where depends on your choices. I used to have a few different turns I would use. Mostly though I would vary between my "at the DZ" turn and my "competition" turn. The difference between the two had to do with a few factors, but the short version is that the competition turn was slightly lower and much more aggressive. That turn was only done over water and thank god for the time I bounced off the pond in Colorado, caught a windblade, collapsed my canopy and rotated like a giant slingshot back over and into the water HARD. It run my bell and damaged my rig, but I walked away from it thanks to the water. --"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

That reminds me of a story about a patrol officer at a different agency that I know. He accidentally deployed his taser on a rookie dispatcher who was doing a ride along with him. The officer had a couple of days off (no pay) to think about his decisions, then dispatch seemed to "somehow" find him when they had calls that involved a LOT of paperwork or the really annoying calls for service. --"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

Trust your rears. --"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

Day By Day Armageddon White Flag of The Dead --"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

Well, I'm super jealous! Rock that new (camera) body and e-mail me some links when you get back from your expedition!

I haven't watched that series, but I am excited about The Bible and The Walking Dead cross over episode next week! Yay, Zombie Jesus. --"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

Mediocrity is rewarded and promoted. Hard workers are slapped down until they quit or are put in place. --"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

If you have a 7000 I really don't feel like the 7100 is enough of a jump to justify dropping the money. I'm with you, if I was going to spend that money it would be on a FX body like the 600. LR can make good shots look better and great shots look awesome, bad shots still look like bad shots. Contrary to some of the film snobs, it isn't the midas touch to photography. I like those bear shots and would love to have the opportunity to get that close. A big part of the excitement of photography for me is taking the shot and it would be a lot of fun to take those shots! A buddy of mine bought the Sigma 150-500 on a trip to Canada to shoot bald eagles and loved it. He came away with some really nice tight shots. http://www.amazon.com/Sigma-150-500mm-Telephoto-Digital-Cameras/dp/B001542X64 Looks like you're going to have a fun trip! Also, this book helped me wrap my head around how to use LR well. I have been running some form of photoshop since the late 90s, but had never run LR until last year. Once I understood how to use LR to import and organize, my workflow is MUCH faster and post processing takes a fraction of the time it once did. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0321819586/ref=wms_ohs_product?ie=UTF8&psc=1 --"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

I'm still burning down a well loved D7000, shoot full RAW and use LR4 for my organization and the majority of the post-processing. If I was going to buy a body tomorrow, I would buy a 600 due to the frame rate, wireless tethering and a few other reasons including the need to increase my harddisk space significantly (which I already use up at a high rate even with chimping). The debate between those 2 camera bodies has been waging war since the 600 was released, but I need a few more speedlights and a couple of lenses before I buy another body, so that's on hold. The 70-200 F/2.8 is a rock star, but if you have good light/conditions, you may want to look at the 70-300 VRII as a "throwdown" lens for your trip. You can get it for just under $600. It's a cheap lens compared to the 2.8 glass, but you might like the little extra reach on your trip to Africa. You could always do a camera body rental for a trip. Wildlife is something I'm just starting to play with, having done mostly landscape, cars/planes/trains and portraits. I'm cheap, cheat and have kids, so the zoo it is: http://f8industries.net/photoblog/wp-content/gallery/houston-zoo/f8industries-zoo-03-2013-29.jpg That's with the above mentioned 70-300. --"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

Which was also the name of the beauty parlor seen in the background in The Blues Brothers. --"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

Supposedly Nikon addressed the mirror/oil issue that was flinging oil onto the sensor and there is a serial number range to avoid (very first production run). What kind of photography are you doing? If I was doing landscape, portraits or fine art photography, I'd go with the 800. If I was shooting anything with a bunch of movement (sports, etc) I'd lean towards the 600 due to shot rate and overall file size. The wireless support on the 600 is really cool and a cheap accessory. For the D800, not so much. So if you want wireless tethered shooting, the 600 has it for now. If you already bought the 7100 and have Nikkor glass, is all of that glass DX? If it's all DX glass then I would go with the 800 if for no other reason that with the sensor and MP crop to fit the DX glass, you're still basically shooting at the resolution of a 7000. Unless you need the addition of 1.5 fps burst rate. As for the LR support, you know that it won't be long until an update to ACR is released. Until then you could use ViewNX or shoot in Jpg. I'm a big fan of LR4 and understand the problem, but I wouldn't base a camera body purchase on software (especially when in a few weeks it'll be a non-issue). --"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."