[The Machine]

I have a cannon zoom lens ef 70-300mm1;4-5.6 IS USM with a cannon rebel xti, i saw am acquaintance shoot some super nice pics of birds with an olympus e450 with a Zuiko lens 70-300 1:4-5.6, man i was envious, i thought for sure when i asked her what she was using,was a cannon or nikon, but nope, my question is, what she is using better than mine, cuz her pics are great, i want some of that, infact im going tomorrow to Resaca de la palma to shoot me some birds, any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Pocketfisherman]

You'd be better off replacing your glass versus a new camera. The 100-400L zoom is a fantastic birding lens. The Rebel is capable of some fantastic pictures. To get the best out of the lens you have, shoot at F8-F11 for best sharpness. Don't use IS if you have the lens on a tripod. Use a remote shutter release so you don't vibrate the camera on the tripod. Use a shutter speed of 1/320 or faster. If you want to see what the camera is capable of, go to Flickr and put xti in the search field: http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=xti

 

[The Machine]

thx pocketfisherman.

 

[Jerry-rigged]

As an Olympus guy, I will say the Zuiko glass is often better than the comparable C/N lenses(more so in the kit/mid range) but the bodies leave a lot to be desired, compared to similar priced C/N's. Plus I think Oly now only makes one true SLR - their high end E5.

Olympus's new bodies have migrated to the mirror-less segment. While they make some of the better bodies in the segment, (IMHO) they still can't compete against a decent SLR for action photography.

 

[The Machine]

Thx Jerry-R