well Jim, I did it.. and I'll be living off of macaroni and cheese for the next six months in order to pay for it. I couldn't stand the thought of tripping into the densest population of orca whales for two weeks.... and not having a good zoom lens.

In short I ordered the EF 70-200mm f2.8 IS and a multi coated polarizing filter for my EF-S 17-85mm, much like you have.

I cant promise that I will come back with amazing shots of orca whales and grizzly bears or..... that having the reach of 200mm will be enough however, I can promise to share what ever it is I do get.

I hope I have no regrets as I the suffer financial woes of paying this equipment off

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Twelve months a year out west.

Congrats on the lens purchase. I can guarantee that you will love this lens, it is one I would like to have someday. It works great with a 1.4X TC to get more reach with little lost of quality.

Looking forward to some of the images you bring back from your trip.

Did you ever get a chance to process the video you took on our trip?

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-Jim-

"Paddle faster, I hear banjos!"

You two have turned this thread into a photo thread.
so why not join in...
I used a friends VR 80-400 on the W/E down on Kananaskis Lakes. If only I had a spare $2K kicking around. Nice glass!!!!!
My D70s never had it so good!!!!
Hugh

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"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
M.T.

Ya know ha gotta Hugh. You tried it, now you will be always yearning for the great range with top notch glass. You could try to find one used, good glass holds its value great.

I found this VR 80-4000 on eBay from a seller I have bought from before with great results. This will keep it well under $1,500 for you. There will be GST and could be a brokerage fee, though I never got hit with one on a $500 order.

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-Jim-

"Paddle faster, I hear banjos!"

80-400 VR, what a useful range! I keep hearing about this lens, how does it's image quality compare to Canon's best glass? Image quality was the reason I went for the lesser range of the lens I chose, as opposed to what I really needed for this trip... which is the EF 100-400. Not that image quality from Canon's 100-400 isn't great but it was the stunning sample images I saw from the 70-200 2.8 that forced my hand.

I looked very seriously at going towards Nikon instead of Canon when I got my camera but in the end Canon's high ISO performance was just too perfect for the kind of low light shooting I like to do.

p.s. I haven't had a chance to pull off the video as yet Jim... it's such a pain to get it off and when I looked at what I had... nothing about it provided too much motivation. I do promise to get to it though, and of course to give you a copy.

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Twelve months a year out west.

I think I will doing this river very soon.

I will be going with some experienced, and some not very experienced but I think we should be fine if we team up the better with the worse.

If I wanted to do 2 nights, where would anyone suggest we start and finish...keep in mind that we won't want to go too hard at it, but we won't wanna be too lazy either.

Hi DRC and welcome.

When you say 2 nights, does this include 3 full days of paddling? What we do is to head out the Friday of a long weekend to put in on the forestry road.. Last year we paddled on Friday night less than an hour just to set up a camp away from the forestry road (and partiers). Saturday in a long paddle, followed by a short paddle day on Sunday and another good half day of paddling to get to Rocky on Monday. We will most likely be doing this trip again this year and bringing two kids who have not done river trips before. If you wish you can circumnavigate all the big sets of rapids quite easily without the need to portage. All sets of rapids have good run-outs should you tip.

If you needed to shorten the trip, you could put in at Saunders campground, you would miss some nice scenery but only a few good rapids, one of which is Saunders Ledge, a favourite swimming hole of Monster's. From here you could do it in 2 days of paddling.

An even shorter trip would be to put in at Horburg which would either give you 2 short days of paddling, or it do this as a day trip.

Check out this Reach Report from Mark's Guide for Alberta Paddlers for more ino.

North Saskatchewan River: Nordegg to Rocky Mtn. House

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-Jim-

"Paddle faster, I hear banjos!"

Thanks!

Can't wait to get on the river!