Lens lust satisfied
...for now, that is!
Wow, that was a really hard decision! Although I had a serious case of lens lust, I knew it wasn't a spur of the moment desire for a longer lens but something that had been building for a while. I wandered through photos from some of my recent (bicycle) tours, and there were always some shots where I knew that a longer lens would have captured a better photo. There were birds, little red squirrels, sometimes even a deer. And they were always too far away.
If you read my Still dreaming... post last week, you already know that I returned the first lens, and ordered a second (different) lens. The replacement, a Canon 70-300 DO IS, showed up on Tuesday, giving me the holiday Wednesday to play. The light was a little funny that day, and I wanted some sunshine to complete my test. Yesterday the lens jumped into a bag on my bike and happily came out to play as I spotted things along the road.
My impression after playing with the lens on 2 different lighting condition days is that it is a good choice for me for right now. It takes beautiful pictures, but it needs a little more care and attention to get properly exposed good shots than the 100-400 did. Based on what I've seen so far, I think (I hope!) that I will be happy with the lens.
The Canon 70-300 DO IS uses a different lens technology than most of the lenses that Canon offers. It uses diffractive optics, something that I don't fully understand but that I'm more than willing play with. I figure - I hope - that the photos that are created by my new lens get better as I continue to experiment.
Only time will tell whether I made the right decision!
Interested in seeing more pictures from my first days of playing with this lens? You can find them in my Another day, another zoom gallery.
