Heading to the mountains for 5 days of practice with the 180-400: your best piece of advice.

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Agree with everyone above especially the ‘have fun’ part.
This is your learning curve with this lens so don’t put pressure on yourself by trying to get that perfect sharp shot, this is the perfect opportunity to practice all the suggestions above & have some fun with your amazing new lens.
If you don’t get it this time, you’ll get it next time, but you will get it.
Have a great trip & look forward to seeing some of your images when you get back.
 
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I would take a sturdy monopod and work at learning to use it effectively. Much easier to move around with a monopod than a tripod and easier to adjust the height of the monopod so you can shoot at the eye level of your subjects. I owned the 200-400mm lens and used in one day shooting hand held and I quickly learned to regret doing so.
 
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Calson said:
I would take a sturdy monopod and work at learning to use it effectively. Much easier to move around with a monopod than a tripod and easier to adjust the height of the monopod so you can shoot at the eye level of your subjects. I owned the 200-400mm lens and used in one day shooting hand held and I quickly learned to regret doing so.
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Thanks. Wound up hand holding the entire trip; no 'stationary' wildlife opportunities. Monopod is on my holiday gift list :)
 
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markymark said:
Agree with everyone above especially the ‘have fun’ part.
This is your learning curve with this lens so don’t put pressure on yourself by trying to get that perfect sharp shot, this is the perfect opportunity to practice all the suggestions above & have some fun with your amazing new lens.
If you don’t get it this time, you’ll get it next time, but you will get it.
Have a great trip & look forward to seeing some of your images when you get back.
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I definitely kept just enjoying being in the mountains as priority number one. I could have used wildlife that stayed put more so I could do more comparative techniques and settings practice, but I did get lots of get the shots while you can practice. Thanks for the comments!
 
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ssheipel said:
Thanks. One thing is sure, it was a handheld shot yesterday that had me say to my monitor, "Wow, finally a sharp shot!" like I did the first time I shot the 300 pf, for instance. I'll be doing hopefully some tripod work if I find a herd of Elk or goats today (the sheep were really on the move so tripod was out of the question) and do some of the 'testing' you talk about. Don't have a monopod. I continue to suspect it was my tripod use causing much of my initial disappointment with the lens, I think. I am horribly disinterested in technical 'playing' (I only work for engineers; definitely ain't one LOL). But am going to play with your suggestion at least handheld vs tripod. and tripod VR type vs tripod no VR, just to see what's what for my own brain.
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I am engineer but currently have nobody to work for, I don't think that's much better :D.
In the meantime I had a bit of time to shoot with my monopod setup and it is really nice to handle. As @Steve wrote it gives you the support to bring down your shutter speed and at the same time keeps the level of agility and mobility pretty close to being without support shooting handheld.

The only little drawback I found may be specific to me and not apply to people with newer or more modern lenses. Because the Wimberley head works with the lens foot being sideways, the collar of my "old" 500 f4 G tends to be a little sticky. So if I want to change from horizontal to vertical format, in order not to put too much strain on the connection between camera and lens I either turn the lens by its neck rather than the camera or swing the entire combo in a more vertical position (lens looking up or down) then turn it by the camera body and swing back the combo back in shooting position again. Sounds more complicated and slower than it actually is.

I wonder if it would be possible to lubricate your lens collar yourself without being in danger of getting oil inside the lens ...
 
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