sjhein

Thanks for the great insight from everyone. I'm pretty sure that we will be on St. Paul staying at the King Eider Hotel. I suspect that there probably isn't an easy way to get over to St. George, especially since we will only be there 3 days.

With respect to the telephoto, probably the smart thing for me to do is rent a 300 f/2.8 and see if I can live with the image quality with the 2x TC. For the past 6 months I have been shooting primarily Provia F pushed 1 stop and have been happy with the results. However, I haven't yet tried pushing it 2 stops, which might be a good option to have in the overcast/rain that it sounds like I should expect to see. Fortunately, I have quite a bit of time to fine tune and test things before June.

Thanks again,

-Scott

I will be traveling to Alaska in early June for a 2-week birding trip

with a small group of friends. The highlight of our trip will be a

visit to the Pribilof Islands. We are also going to visit Denali and

take the Homer-Kodiak-Seward ferry for seabirds, marine mammals, and

the big bears (we will be able to spend most of a day on Kodiak

Island).

Although the primary focus of our trip is birding, my friends will

usually "put up" with a fair amount of photographic activity. Since

we have most of our reservations taken care of, I am now starting to

contemplate some of the other trip details. In particular, I am

interested in hearing from anyone who has visited the Pribilofs and

might have recommendations regarding photo opportunities there.

I will likely have to limit the amount of photo gear that I take, so

I am also trying to determine what telephoto lens would be most

useful. I am afraid that my 500 f/4 will be too awkward to use in

many of our photo situations (on boats and in buses or vans) and am

considering trying to pick up a used 300 f/2.8 lens to which I can

add 1.4x or 2x TCs if needed. The 300 would also give me an extra

stop, which would likely come in handy on the overcast days that I

expect we will see. Since our trip to the Pribilofs is probably a

once-in-a-lifetime event, will I kick myself for not bringing the

500, or is the wildlife close enough that I could compromise and use

the 300 with TCs?

Many thanks,

-Scott