Trip to the zoo

[Andy.]

I went to the zoo in Rotterdam with my two boys for fathers day and took the camera along. It was actually amazing how many people had DSLR's there, and it almost seemed to be a 50/50 split with compacts!

I used the 70-200 most of the time, but 200mm was too short so most of these have been cropped. The one saving grace is that the 5DII has 21 Megapixels, and the 70-200 f2.8L IS MkII gives such amazing quality pics that the 100% crops are still sharp and clear enough to use. I'll pick up a 2x extender for the next visit though.

A few of the highlights:

The Paparazzi with tripods and some huge glass. I think they were on a course or something.

 

[Ribena]

some nice shots there bud! love the textures on the rhino pic.

 

[Andy.]

Cheers matey.

 

[Paul_G]

Nice shots Andy, like the candids. As you say difficult to see these have been cropped, although you come to expect that sort of quality with the 70-200mm quintet.

Will be interesting to see what sort of image degredation / focus speed degredation you experience with the 2x extender and how it compares to something like the 100-400mm L. I think I am going to pick up some long next month in time for another trip to the Pembroke coast, just can't decide between the 100-400mm / 300mm f4 / 400mm f5.6....hmmmm decisions.

 

[Andy.]

I have read good things about the 2x with the 70-200 MkII, especially stopped down to f5.6 so it seems like the cheapest way to get something long.

I also toyed with the idea of getting a long prime, but I don't think that I would get much use from it. The 100-400 is also a nice lens, but I am not really a fan of the push-pull zoom, and it is long overdue an update. The next gen 100-400 will probably be quite a special lens. Something for next years budget perhaps.