The lens arrived unexpectedly yesterday so I only had a chance to tinker briefly with it last night. So far my impression is that it’s very well constructed, the actions are very smooth for a still lens, and the IS makes a very noticeable difference when trying to keep it steady.

So I brought the new rig into work this morning in anticipation of the bag arriving. No way could I wait till evening to find out if everything fits inside.

The new 70-200 lens fits snugly into one of the side slots, which means the shorter 24-70 should fit similarly well into the other side. I’m not sure I’ll be able to keep both lenses in the bag and leave one attached to the camera body but maybe I’ll get creative when I have all the pieces in front of me.

I’m a little concerned that 200mm won’t be enough to grab stuff way off in the distance so I’ll try to pick up a 1.4x extender at some point in the next 8 months before we go on our trip. That’ll extend my reach to 280mm, which is only 20mm short of the next step up in focal length (300mm) for most lens makers. If that’s not enough, there are options but I don’t want to think about it.

All this talk about gear lately and I don’t really have any photos to show for it. It’s embarrassing.