BR Hills, July 2008

Test driving the 800mm! This was a fun trip!

I received the brand new Canon 800mm / f5.6 lens on Friday evening (from the Bangalore Canon dealer) and left for BR Hills early Saturday morning. My Scorpio was in the garage after a crash so we headed out with Kalyan’s Scorpio with Giri Cavale behind the wheel. The lens is a dream. For it’s focal length, it’s highly manageable (smaller and lighter than the Canon 600mm) and seriously enhanced with respect to build / construction as well as a virtually noiseless Image Stabilization mechanism. I hear that Canon rushed to launch it to catch the Olympics. Good for wildlife photographers! Check the lens stack-up comparison of the lens in the gallery below.

You can judge from the images about the lens quality. Please watch this space to check the images that appear in later trip reports. We drove around the BR Hills and K Gudi area and also spent a lot of time at the wetlands at the base of the mountains starting from Harohalli and Kanakapura. The tanks were full and bustling with waterfowl activity. The jacanas were the first victims of the 800mm lens!

In the hills, elephant herds were quite active and most of them had lovely brown mud coats which they apply immediately after a dip.

Cheers! –ramki | Aug 2008