Thanks Chaps,
Good stuff here so shall go through some of my own reasoning based on the items you have chosen to comment on.
Usage: Norway will be primarily photo's, although I would like to do time-lapse with them, they are not always around for long, but a time-lapse would be a nice to have. Long term I do have a few time-lapse projects in mind for my local area and would be good for them too. I have tried to future-proof the purchases and make it not all about Norway, this is genuinely something for the future.
I went for the D610 over the D600 as at time of purchase they were the same on price buster, in fact today the D610 is cheaper! Plus admit to being spooked by potential for oil spot - five weeks until the trip so would rather have the time to play than send it back and deal with a warranty issue out of the box)
http://www.camerapricebuster.com/Nikon/Nikon-Digital-SLRsD800 or rather the D800e didn't represent a value for money alternative, the D610 did everything I needed / wanted, plus, I like its two SD card slots over a CF slot. Megapixels isn't everything and I preferred to keep the money focussed on the lenses. Had there been a good reason why I may have gone higher. But I had to have some kind of a budget else it would have been a D4s :-) - Kind of a VW golf mentality perhaps?!? It does everything you could need / want, so why go for something better even if you could.
On a side note: I met the CEO of a VERY large retail chain in the UK last week....drove his own Golf Mk7 GT when his staff rolled in driving Q7's and S class Mercs.
14mm and 24mm Samyangs were chosen because of:-
- Good DXO scores.
- Large apertures after struggling with the 10-24mm small apertures.
- Two very good lenses cheaper than the price of one Nikon 24mm.
- Adding the 35mm Sigma would still be the same price as one of the Nikon 14-24mm or 24-70mm lenses. (Circa £1300)
- Past shots I regularly took at 10mm on the DX body so for me and my shooting it is a good option.
- David Kingham's recommended. (http://www.davidkinghamphotography.com)
- I like primes, makes me think about composure more than zooms.
- Manual focus on large stationary landscapes is fine with me plus autofocus often struggles with stars so would prefer the better manual focus ring.
- Autofocus is more for 50, 85mm where it's more about people who don't stay still.
Cable-release: Going to try using the Intervalometer built into the camera, see what results I can get, otherwise its just a second bit of redundant kit. It has an Intervalometer and a time-lapse feature, the latter I tried last night, worked well, but deleted all the jpegs once it had constructed the movie. So tests with the Intervalometer to continue...
Clothing: Super warm thunder crackers: Check!
D5100 Issue: I've actually agreed to sell the D5100 now to my girlfriends father in law, he muttered something about grandchildren!!
More recent and further contemplation leads me to think that if I want small, then I will go truly small like a Fuji X100s or get one of the Nikon 1 cameras.
Flickr: I suspect I may pay the extra. I'm a bit behind putting things up but the link for my stuff is:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_nav/Filters: Not had much experience with these and bit reluctant to start with them just before the trip, not many of the sites I've been reading about northern lights photography mention use of filters, other than to remove them. I am interested long term as often daytime / evening skies are a tad bright, suspect I may leave that for another day.
If you come up with anything I've missed, do let me know. If not happy snapping and will post a few items on my return to make you all want to go to Norway.
Mr F
PS. May be a sober week - It's > £10/pint