Originally Posted by
deniah
I have a small sample
here from a few different parks
We did minimal amounts of walking, but throughout the day, we were popping in and out of the windows, underneath and above the vehicle roof.
Our vehicle was only my wife and I, but I imagine with a foot-long lens + hood + body (say, the Nikon 200-500), it would be quite unwieldy.
The photos look great. In some of them, the animals are so far away that even a 600mm lens wouldn't have been of any use. Quite frankly, the 100-400mm lens is at the upper range of what I'd be willing to carry regardless. Realistically, I can always crop a 300mm shot to make up for the shorter reach anyhow.
I've not yet decided what I'm going to do about a new telephoto zoom, but I did decide to get a new camera body. I went with the Canon RP and it's a great body so far. For zooms, I'm vascillating between the Canon EF 70-300 II or the Tamron/Sigma 100-400m. The Tamron and Sigma are very similar to each other.
The extra 100mm reach of the Tamron/Sigma is worth the extra $110-$200, but they'd have much slower AF performance than the Canon. They also weigh 1,150g vs 700g for the Canon.