@dpollitt ya - you unmarried or at least no kids? that affords that kind of time to travel

ha just a dog and wife at the moment

so yes we travel quite a bit

i also traveled a lot for my previous job

it is nice when you can travel 100% on someone elses dime

ya, that is nice

@dpollitt You should hit Roxborough state park.

Its open from 8am to 5pm

just south of chatfield

really nice place

tons of HUGE red slabs of rock shoved through the earth

tons of wildlife

oh natural national landmark, i like

this might be doable, thanks for the tip

my next trip is going to be southern utah. probably drive all the way through CO to get there too.

bing.com/maps/explore/?org=aj#5003/…

there is a map

its pretty easy to get to from denver

or anywhere in denver area

Is this a sculpture, or some kind of photomanip:

tok5.deviantart.com/art/Louise-Bourgeois-Zuerich-212650341

@jrista Looks like a sculpture. There's something resembling a mounting plate at the bottom of each foot.

@jrista I missed the bit where you were bemoaning being "stuck" with that 100-400 L lens. Life's rough, huh? Sheesh (he says, slinking off into the corner with his 70-300 Canon)....

@DLambert LOL. Well, I LOVE that lens. And to be honest, I think its more the camera than the lens that is really the problem. My 450D sucks with noise, and anything above ISO 400 is pretty noisy. Even ISO 400 itself can be fairly noisy when you have large solid blue and green areas.

But, an f/5.6 aperture is pretty limiting, regardless of how nice the lens is overall.

I'd like to get the 600mm f/4 at some point, but its about as expensive as two 5D II's

maybe even more than that

ha

So whats the difference between the current Canon lens and the one announced today - canon-europe.com/About_Us/Press_Centre/Press_Releases/…

EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS II

well, for one, it has a UD element:canon-europe.com/For_Home/Product_Finder/Cameras/EF_Lenses/…

I don't think any low-end lens from canon has ever had a UD element in it

and it has circular aperture blades, which I think is also a first for their super low end

it has their nicer multicoating as well, which is probably another bonus

flaring is usually pretty bad on canon's silver-band lenses

Sounds like quite nice improvements for a lens that will probably retail around 300

and it seems to include a lens hood, when normally their cheap lenses require you buy the hood as an addon

yeah, not bad at all

and for that 88-400mm effective focal range

I'm a little surprised

I would have figured such a lens would qualify for their mid-grade bold band designation

oh...actually

no USM

its still got the crappy old gear drive motor

where do you see that it includes a hood?

thats why its still silver band

In the accessories list

oh...wait...

guess it does say optional

I didn't finish reading that sentence