Incredible TR, as always. Wonderful pictures as well (is it just me or did the quality level of TR pictures around here increase exponentially in the last year or so? Compare these to, for example,
your HKG TR).
Something tells me that this TR will end up hurting my wallet eventually
...
Due to a small snafu having to do with a misplaced camera lid, we deplaned with some of the last people left on the flight. [AJK: Seriously, anyone with the Sony Alpha line should understand this irritating eventuality, but why in the world did Sony not include a string to attach the lens cap to the camera?! 
This boggles the mind and frustrates me to no end.]
The reason for a string not being included is because the only thing more annoying than losing a lens cap is having it dangle from your camera at all times.
You want my advice? Throw your lens cap down a well and never look back. The only things lens caps are good for is for forgetting to take them off and missing the shot, or losing them
constantly. People don't understand a. how resilient the front element of a lens is, and b. how utterly inconsequential a scratch on a lens is.
Here's an exercise: take a piece of post-it note around 1/4" square and stick it over the center of your lens. Set your camera to a large aperture (small number) and take a random picture. Now look at the result - nine out of ten times you'd never know that there's a blob of yellow paper stuck on the lens. Now of course this is an extreme example; if you'd use a smaller aperture it may begin to be noticeable. But the point is that it takes an incredibly large imperfection to show up in your pictures. A whole bunch of pictures in my
Alaska TR were taken by a lens that not only was it scratched up, but it actually had a
chip in it - a chuck of glass around 1/2x1/8" was
actually missing. Did anyone notice? I think not. I looked for it and did not find any indication, not even once.
The other point is that lenses are made out of thick, hardened glass. On top of that they have multiple layers of coatings (usually around 12-16), the outermost of which provide an additional hardened and protective layer. Take a blade to your lens (don't
!) and you'll see how difficult it is to scratch it.
I've been lens cap-free for years, and not once did I regret it. My lens hoods never come off, and these protect the lens from 90% of the scary world already. My only caveat is a particularly wide and bulbous lens, such as the Nikon 14-24 or the GoPro. These lenses if kept uncovered will always bump into things, and due to their particular shape it'll always be on the same spot. Not that even a significant scratch will be visible on those; it's just that due to their wide angle of view light will often be hitting them at an acute angle, which may strike the scratch and create a tiny reflection. But for regular lenses, ditch the lens cap and keep the hood on. It'll change your (photographic) life.
You're welcome
.
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