Hey Guys,

I am shooting with a 70-200 F2.8 with a 2x converter. This gives me the equivalent of a 400mm F5.6 lens - not the fastest animal in the barn. Until this year, I had not been pleased with a lot of my shots - even when I was shooting with very fast shutter speeds. This year, more than any other, I have learned to depend on a solid tripod. The tripod, of course, does not help you in situations where the critters are fast moving and you are in low light - but they do help prevent most problems with hand shake. I know that a lot of folks complain about noise, but I have decided that a slightly higher noise photograph is better than a poorly focused one - so I have been doing a lot of ISO 800 and 1600 shots as well.

I have avoided getting one of the larger, faster lenses for the very reason of cost as well. While I definitely want to move to a larger, faster lens, I am doing it slowly.

It might be helpful to see some examples of shots that did not work out the way that you expected them to.

James