What should I buy? (new body vs. lens) Right now I have a Nikon D3100, a Sigma 50mm f1.4 (older version). Right now I have almost 1300$. What do you think I should buy? I'm hesitating between the Nikon D7100 or buying a Sigma 35mm f1.4 Art+ a flash and some other accessories. (I'm really into portrait photography)
Which piece of equipment is holding me back? I am primarily an amateur photographer but I do take small jobs from time to time.  I'm looking to upgrade my equipment but I'm not sure if I should be spending money on my body, glass, or both.  I have two common issues that I'd like to improve.   I shoot a lot at ice rinks and find that even in servo mode I get a lot of shots that are slightly out of focus.  I try to keep the AF target on face masks but many shots will come out focused an inch or two off (ears, hands, etc).  I'm shooting F/1.8-F/2.8 to get action stopping shutter speeds so you can really tell when the focus is even a hair off.  I don't know if this is a limitation of my camera, lens, or the human operator. Most of my paid work is indoors shooting candids where a flash is inappropriate.  I feel like I need to use a higher F-number to get more subject in focus but I usually can't do it without upping to ISO 3200 unless I'm using a flash.  By the time I clean up the high ISO noise in Camera Raw I end up with an image lacking detail.  So far this hasn't been a big problem because the photos are typically used in magazine prints only an inch or two wide but it's still driving me nuts.   Here is the equipment currently in my bag:   Canon Rebel T2i Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II (no IS)   Collecting dust, came with my old Rebel XTi.  Canon EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS   Purchased with my T2i.  This is my workhorse lens but I'm disappointed with the soft images it produces at higher focal lengths.  Stopping down makes the images acceptable but that's not always an option.  My eyes want more contrast and color but considering how inexpensive this lens is I can't really complain.  Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM   This was purchased with an older camera and doesn't get used much anymore.  The images are too soft beyond 200mm and the AF seems sluggish.  Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM   I am extremely happy with the images I get from this lens.  I use it indoors all the time and also paired with extension tubes for some macro work.  Some of my best ice hockey images have been from this lens even though I didn't have sports in mind for this lens.    My initial plan was to upgrade to a 60D or 7D body but after doing some reading it occurred to me that I might invest in better glass first.  I'm unsure of what will help improve focusing, image quality, high ISO shooting, etc.  Maybe it's a new camera, new glass, photography lessons, or a little of everything?  I'm looking to keep my next round of purchases under $3,000 and am willing to trade in some of my used equipment to offset costs.  Would anyone care to make a recommendation?  I'm looking at the EOS 60D and 7D bodies.  Not sure if the 7D is overkill for my needs.  I'm also looking at the EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM lens to be my new workhorse but I'm concerned that it may not be wide enough on an APS-C body and the lack of IS might be an issue.  There's also the EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM but I'm thinking it wouldn't be wise to spend all my budget on that lens right now (or maybe not?).
Does it feel lately like all questions have already been asked and answered and there is nothing more to do? I think everybody with a history of participation can't help but notice the explosive growth of repeated duplicate questions. The work of looking for duplicates and then closing questions has overtaken the work of actually answering questions.  It's become virtually impossible to ask something which hasn't been yet asked. Lately I feel boredom each time I see a new question and start answering it only to realize after the first written sentence that I have answered similar questions five times over or seen them answered some ten times or more. I know where it's going to be going and what answers with what votes it is going to receive before any answer is even written.  It's obviously not the administration's fault, it is simply so. The questions is, what to do about it? Engaging more moderators to close and close duplicates won't work because it's already starting to repel users who get mad at their questions closed and become afraid of asking more or perhaps just go away.  The original idea of Jeff stated the the site is for questions that can be answered. Meaning no open-ended discussions. When I first read this I had a casual thought - well, and what's gonna happen when they all are asked and answered? Will it become a museum, a monument of wisdom and knowledge or what?  I'm not sure what to do about it. Perhaps deprecation/versioning of older questions so that their new versions can sparkle the tiresome evening...  POSTSCRIPTUM.  I recall Star Trek Voyager episode  when another Q asked Captain Janeway for asylum. He was tired of immortality and wanted to die. They opened a hearing and went on to visit the continuum to evaluate the living conditions there which caused the suffering and the wish to escape it in death. A lifeless picture presented itself to the visitors... a house lone in an open space, two people going about their business, nobody talking. When asked why they were silent, the following was said. It's been so long, all has already been said, all stories told, all jokes are made... there is nothing left to do...  Are we there as well?  UPDATE: Just saw this answer in another question:       Also, some of the core questions got asked early on in the life of the site. Great questions still come around from time to time, but many have already been asked.   Doesn't that confirm my point? Successfully connected to a bluetooth speaker, but how do i direct sound there? Evaluation of $\lim_{n\rightarrow \infty}\frac{n!\cdot e^n}{\sqrt{n}n^n}$ without stirling approximation Evaluation of $\displaystyle \lim_{n\rightarrow \infty}\frac{n!\cdot e^n}{\sqrt{n}\cdot n^n}$   $\bf{My\; Try::}$we can write it as $$l=\lim_{n\rightarrow \infty}\frac{e^n}{\sqrt{n}}\cdot \left(\frac{1}{n}\cdot \frac{2}{n}\cdot \frac{3}{n}\cdots \cdots \frac{n}{n}\right)$$  $$\ln (l) = \lim_{n\rightarrow \infty}\bigg[n-\frac{1}{2}n+\sum^{n}_{r=1}\ln\left(\frac{r}{n}\right)\bigg]$$  Now how can i solve it, Help required, Thanks A geometric reason why the square of the focal length of a hyperbola is equal to the sum of the squares of the axes? When I teach conics, I give a simple geometric argument for the Pythagorean relation for ellipses. (By "Pythagorean relation" I mean the fact that the square of the focal length $c$ is the difference of the squares of the semimajor and semiminor axes, i.e. $c^2=|a^2-b^2|$ for the ellipse defined by $\frac{x^2}{a^2}+\frac{y^2}{b^2}=1$.) The picture argument goes as follows: just draw the obvious isosceles triangle from the two foci to one of the two points at the end of the minor axis. We see two right triangles; in each, one leg is the focal length $c$ and the other leg is the semiminor axis, while the hypotenuse is the semimajor axis. The result follows from the Pythagorean theorem applied to this right triangle.  But when it comes to the Pythagorean relation for hyperbolas, I can't think of an equally convincing picture to draw. Instead I have to give a rather inelegant algebraic argument for the relation $c^2=a^2+b^2$ (for the hyperbola defined by $\frac{x^2}{a^2}-\frac{y^2}{b^2}=1$, with focal length $c$), directly from the definition of the hyperbola. The messy details are below.*  Now, obviously there is an asymmetry between the argument for the ellipse and the argument for the hyperbola: the ellipse argument is almost trivial and doesn't involve working straight from the locus definition, but the hyperbola argument is tedious and does require working straight from the definition. So, my question:     Is there an equally persuasive picture I could draw to convince high   school students of the Pythagorean relation for hyperbolas -- without having to get technical with points at infinity, say?   The natural triangle to draw is the right triangle with legs from the center to a vertex and from that vertex to an asymptote, which has legs of length $a$ and $b$; but then the problem becomes why the length along the asymptote should be equal to $c$. I doubt there is a purely (Euclidean) geometrical reason because this triangle lies on the asymptote, not on the hyperbola itself; I suspect some sort of limiting procedure will be required.    [*] The tedious algebraic details:     The foci lie at $(\pm c,0)$.   Say $a&gt;b$. Then hyperbola is the locus of points $(x,y)$ such that       $$\left|\sqrt{(x+c)^2+y^2}-\sqrt{(x-c)^2+y^2}\right|=2a$$      Assume for simplicity the expression between the absolute value bars   is positive. (The algebra is even more tedious if we don't make such a   simplifying assumption.) Then moving the right root to the other side   and squaring gives      $$(x+c)^2+y^2=4a^2+(x-c)^2+y^2+4a\sqrt{(x-c)^2+y^2}$$      Simplifying gives      $$xc-a^2=a\sqrt{(x-c)^2+y^2}$$      and upon squaring again we have      $$x^2c^2-2xca^2+a^4=a^2(x^2-2xc+c^2+y^2)=a^2x^2-2xca^2+c^2a^2+a^2y^2$$      which reduces to      $$x^2(c^2-a^2)-y^2a^2=a^2(c^2-a^2)$$      Defining $b^2:=c^2-a^2$ brings the equation into the form   $x^2/a^2+y^2/b^2=1$, and the Pythagorean relation follows from the   definition of $b$. Non-Affine image transformations in .NET Are there any classes, methods in the .NET library, or any algorithms in general, to perform non- transformations? (i.e. transformations that involve more than just rotation, scale, translation and shear)  e.g.:      (source: )      Is there another term for s? Can I change my itinerary and hotel reservation after getting a Schengen visa? What does the size of the font translate to exactly? I have a 40 pixel font that I'm trying to translate into custom images. I'm trying to match the size of the image exactly, but I'm having some problems getting exactly the right size. Basically, what it comes down to is this. When a font says it is X pixels, what does this physically mean? When playing as a spellcaster, is it valid the use of the Ready action to prepare Dispel Magic to counter a spell cast by an opponent? In the same vein, when declaring said action, do I have to specify which spell slot I will use when Readying the Dispel Magic spell? If that is the case, does this tactic nullify an opponent's spell? I get the impression that this is basically turning Dispel Magic into a spell with a casting time of &quot;1 reaction&quot;. Is my reading of the rules accurate? I got the Turkey e-visa several times with my schengen visa. In the e-visa form there is a condition      I have a round-trip ticket with Turkish Airlines, Pegasus Airlines,   Onur Air or Egypt Air.   What if I am traveling from another country to Turkey or using another airlines like Nile Air form Egypt? Let me say first that I am fairly new here (about 3 weeks) and absolutely love Stack Overflow. At first I let some of the negative attitudes get to me a little, left a few snarky comments, but that phase has passed. I see the tremendous value for this site in the long run and sincerely do want to help make it a better place.  I find myself going for  the downvote very frequently -- currently about 35% of my votes are downvotes. I even make an extra effort to upvote good content to offset this a bit, so the number should probably be more like 60%. I always try to leave constructive comments and try to help out the confused ones who are really trying.  I truly can't tell if it is just me, or if these folks deserve it. I don't know if you guys noticed, but there are a lot of really bad questions being posted, and a lot of people trying to pass off things like "use jQuery", "use Firebug", and "use Google" as good answers (and getting upvotes!). I even saw someone copy/paste my "What does Firebug say?" comment as an answer and get 3 votes within moments. Sometimes This answer is unclear or not useful just doesn't do it justice.  I feel like some of the people just drive me nuts, but then again I feel this way IRL :) Am I being too harsh, or is it really that bad on SO? Has there recently been a surge of new users, and the quality of content is degrading, or was it like this in the "good old days"? Have I perhaps misunderstood the expected behavior on Stack Overflow -- should I just ignore these crappy questions and answers rather than downvote them? Which one is correct: '3 hour journey' or a '3-hour journey'? Which one of the following is correct (bold part)?      It took us quite a long time to get here. It was 3 hour journey.   or     It took us quite a long time to get here. It was a 3-hour journey. Laptop with no battery We built our eCommerce web site using Angular as a single page application.  We have implemented a spinner that runs until the page is responding with the expected content. We have some category pages which were crawled and indexed by Google but which are no longer available on the site. What is the best practice for old pages?  Should I create &quot;404 Not Found&quot; pages for them instead of saying &quot;loading&quot; forever? Is setting a no index meta tag enough? Unable to install Cisco Packet Tracer 7.3 on Ubuntu 20.04 I am trying to install Packet Tracer 7.3 (latest version) on Ubuntu 20.04 but do not succeed to so so because of two dependencies which are not installable ("libdouble-conversion1" and "qt-at-spi").  However I successfully installed the previous version (7.2.2) which was available in an Ubuntu installer format (.run file) but I nothing happens when I run it from my gnome desktop.  I am quite a newbie in Linux so I appologies if answers are obvious...  Thanks in advance ;-)  Denis I have my bachelors degree in engineering science: computer science, option electrotechnic. I have a good understanding of basic mechanics and dynamics, calculus (differential equations).  The books I'm now having a look at are:       What book do you recommend for studying fluid dynamics on my own and why? How do I create tools with multiple properties? Person, Persons, People, Peoples Can you please clarify the relation and differences between these nouns?   For example, is it proper to use "persons" instead of "people"? Are they the same? As I believe that "people" is plural, how come there exists the plural of the plural (=peoples)? Does it have any usage? How do I give myself an item that can only be placed on a block with a certain damage value? Do you add Proficiency bonus AND the stat modifier to skill rolls? I know this basic knowledge, but I seemed to have missed this info in the player's manual.  Say someone makes an stealth check: do I add their Dexterity modifier and their proficiency bonus in Stealth to the roll? In other words, does the Dexterity modifier apply to all Dex-related skills, including ones with a proficiency? When new users edit a post, the review is posted to a review queue and other reputable users can review the edit and choose to approve or reject it. However, I feel that a lot of people do it pretty quickly.    to . He was fixing broken links in the answer, and as soon as I saw it I knew it would have been a good edit. However, only one reviewer found so, and three others rejected it. I ended up manually doing the edit, and poor Onato didn't get any credit for it (in fact, he got an undeserved 'rejected' for it).  The point I want to bring is that, first and foremost, the person who wrote the answer probably knows best if an edit is acceptable or not. Could there be a time frame where the author of the answer (or question) can overturn a review decision?    EDIT: one more  was rejected by overeager reviewers as well. I absolutely disagree with the notion that the community knows better. The community repeatedly proves that it only wants Internet points.    EDIT: I told a commenter to fix something himself in one of my posts, but . I went back and applied the changes myself. It's not credited to him and his stats got a rejected edit now (which really should be an approved edit). The reason ("This edit is incorrect or an attempt to reply to or comment on the existing post") is blatantly wrong and shows once more that the community has much less insight into edit quality than the people who wrote the answers in the first place. It's true that the UI didn't make it easy for them, but those guys clearly didn't read the comment thread; I did, because as the author, I was notified.    EDIT: This time around, a user fixed a blatant (though small) mistake in one of my accepted answers. One hour later, another, unrelated 10k user , even though it had been approved by the community. I went back to undo his undo.  This goes on again to show that an active user is the best judge for the quality of an edit, and that since I can have the last word on edits on my own posts, I should be allowed to retroactively overturn a community edit vote and accordingly credit the person who proposed the change.    EDIT I wrote a  years ago. Some guy found it and tried to fix it but the community thought that it wasn't worth it. I think that the changes are great and once more I'll integrate them by myself into my post. Unfortunately for this user, he won't be credited for it. I still don't understand why I can't have a binding vote on edits on my posts.