Just joined the campfire, but this thread jumped right out at me. To the OP, if you're seriously considering dropping the kind of coin that has been discussed, you need to take a real good look at lensrentals.com. Roger has most of what has been mentioned here available to rent... Trust me when I say that a weeks rental at almost any price is a bargain if you learn enough from it to NOT buy the wrong lens.
Good point about finding out that you do
not want to buy a particular lens before you lay down the cash!
However, do
NOT try the Canon 300 f2.8L IS, or the Canon 800mm f5.6L IS lenses. A friend has both and lets me borrow them -- and after using them and seeing the image quality, I am thinking about selling a limb to buy them (especially the 300mm!)
Wish I had never used either (sort of!)
From the website:
Roger�s Take: Do you know the difference between a fairy tale and a Southern fairy tale? Well, a fairy tale starts �once upon a time�. A Southern fairy tale starts �Y�all aint gonna believe this S#@t�.
The 300mm f/2.8L IS is the Southern fairy tale of camera lenses.In addition to his own evaluations, I see that Roger also provides links to comments by users (e.g. on the Canon 300 f2.8L :
http://www.fredmiranda.com/reviews/showproduct.php?product=38&sort=7&cat=2&page=2I wish I was in the US so that I could use the company!
Seriously though, many will find that a lens over 400mm is not what they want after all... so renting first is indeed a great idea.
John
