Keeping the photographic side of things to a minium I'll make this brief. Snide comments abound...

In a moment of credit card flippancy I slapped down the plastic and upgraded the endowment package of my camera.

...is that a Canon lens in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

I've been wanting to try my hand at birding for a while now and also generally getting closer to my subjects. I've been using my 200mm f2.8 with a 2x converter but this has only driven my desire for a larger package.

Enter the super-telephoto Canon EF 400 f5.6 USM lens. This 1.2kg hunk of glass and steel is just another marvel from the Canon line-up, and will for a time, complete my lens collection. The 2x teleconverter will push this baby to 800mm f11 which should give me the reach to tap a bird on the shoulder from 50 yards or so. I can hear the SQUAWK already.

Ok so it wasn't fiippancy, I've been putting pennies aside for this baby for quite some time.

So, I'm now just waiting for my new toy to arrive and then I'll be out making all the lady cameras swoon (back of hand to forehead type stuff I'm sure :D )

Update: 22 October 2007
It arrived today and this is the first image out of the lens, 100% crop and no sharpening...
EXIF info: 1/350s at f5.6, ISO 100, 400mm on tripod

Tags: photography, cameras