chrismielke

<p>Dan that makes for a great day for certain. You do have to leave about 2 hours before sunrise to get there from the valley, but sunrise at Mono is worth it. What is the name of the Gas Station right outside of Mono I believe it is in Lee Vining? Shoot at Mono, but save room because that is a great breakfast for certain. <br>

Barry, I am in the Central time zone as well and there are some advantages when traveling west isn't there. </p>

<p>I love the Photograph America Newsletter and have used that as a start for my research on many of my trips. I also have enjoyed Michael Frye's Photographers Guide to Yosemite which is now and iPad and iPhone app. It's only $6.99 I have the book which now seems to be out of print. </p>

<p>I would look at the 565. I have that as well as an SB-900 and it works very well in TTL mode. If you haven't worked with flash before than I would shy away from trying to master manual. Especially since all of your work before was with the TTL pop-up flash. Be sure to purchase the flash before your baby is going to arrive and get some photos of your pregnant wife and also learn how to use the flash for when you child arrives. Enjoy, it's a very fun time!</p>

<p>Good news is that almost all of them work. They won't be as finished as nicely as the Voigtlander adapter is or any of the actual Lecia adapters. I have some of the chinese ones and I replaced them with the Voigtlander ones as soon as I could. They worked, they just were a little crude. </p>

<p>The M8 goes for about $2500 the Ricoh GXR M Mount can be gotten for less than $1000. Not cheap by any stretch, but much less than the cheapest digital Leica. If you need the external viewfinder it will be more. It also outperforms in ISO the M9, the files are quite clean up to about 1000 IS0. The bad part is that it is a crop sensor although the M8 is also cropped slightly. It also has video which no Leica currently has. It also lacks the red dot. :)</p>

<p>What about the 300 f/4 AFS? Those are around $1000 and you can add a TC to get out to 420 and even a 1.7 to get out to 500. It will perform better than any of the above lenses.<br>

If you need to go slightly less expensive the older version of that lens is also wonderful. That is around $400 and you can add a Kenko TC to it with very nice results. It will not focus as smoothly as the AFS, but if all you are using it for is landscapes or slower animals. ie not small birds. :) It will work very well.</p>

<p>Chris</p>

<p>I will echo what everyone else has said.  I use the 1.4x and 1.7x TC's with the 300 f/4 AFS and have gotten very good results even wide open.  Focus was a little spotty with the 1.7x, but no issues with the TC-14e II.</p>

<p>I like this lens alot as well. I have landscape, portrait and even a macro sample in the below gallery.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.mielkephoto.com/2010/11/nikon-28-300-proof-is-in-the-results/">http://www.mielkephoto.com/2010/11/nikon-28-300-proof-is-in-the-results/</a></p>