vele

I guess you still haven't left, so on I-80 you have a great location for photos: Delaware Water Gap. It's on the border between NJ and PA starts on I80 and goes 10-20mi up north. Excellent views of forests and landscape, the river, plants, and waterfalls within driving distance. It has a lot of things to do without driving too far off your highway.

Alex, that's just mean. ;-)

Mirror lock-up can be quite important in landscape photos with long lenses, vibrating tripods, unstable locations, long exposures, and depth of field. It is best used with a cable release. I recently added a remote release to my D30 and the mlu can be very helpful in combination, especially when you use long lens, ie. 100-400L IS. I disagree that this is preventing you from looking at the photo. I only takes 1-2 seconds for you to get the shot after mlu. Canon allows you up to 30sec to press the shutter. Pressing the camera button can add shake and defeats the purpose, hence the need for cable release.

 

I also agree with Bob above. If you buy a new camera, look at the whole system, lens above all, since the differences in features in the higher end bodies are not that far, and your biggest investment will be lenses (unless you rent).

Why not buy the 420EX from a place where you can return it and rent the 550EX since most rentals would definitely have the 550EX and try them out on a test run. I was on the same dilema and just bought the 420EX and I'm quite happy with it. The trick most of the time is not so much the variable power as much as the metering in ETTL mode and how to adjust it properly. I'm renting 550EX for the weekend just to be safe in my choice. In the end if you can afford it, get the 550EX, you definitely won't regret this.