Quote Originally Posted by Daniel Browning
I'm in the market for a nice $2500 birding lens too, so I hope Canon will add one to their line someday. (I'd like it as long as slow as possible, 1000mm f/10 manual focus would be great for me, but probably not marketable.)

I'm sure you've considered this, Daniel, but... what's wrong with a telescope? An old takahashi fc 100 has exactly the specs you specified, and could be had used for under $2500 I'll bet. A fs102 would be 800 f/8 and easier to get, and well under $2000. Etc etc. An 800 mm f/10 of okay quality could be had for $400.


The only downsides I can think of (besides manual focus, which you said you could live with) are 1) long minimum focus distance, but I'm assuming you aren't exactly planning macro and 2) can't control aperture (would you want to stop down an f/10 anyway?) 3) limited exif (so what?) and 3) weight (perhaps this is the biggie... though if you could live with 800mm f/10 it wouldn't be too bad)


I guess also, it is nice to use stuff that was designed to work together.