richard_noggin

<p>Good zoos I've seen... Stone Zoo in Stoneham, MA (north of Boston). St. Louis Zoo. I've read good things about the Baltimore zoo... heading there this weekend. There are plenty I've never seen.<br>

I forget the name of the one near Providence, RI... it was so-so.<br>

If you find yourself on the west coast, the L.A. zoo and San Diego are great (San Diego being the best I've seen anywhere).<br>

Now, with enough telephoto and good timing, is is possible to get some good shots at the National zoo. It just isn't the best zoo. If you are in the area I'd go anyway because you never know.</p>

<p>I live near the National Zoo and I doubt that your flash will have enough power once you add the softbox, at least in most cases. Some of the animals are behind glass/plexiglass so that won't work in those cases anyway. I would bring the better beamer for the more distant animals. If you have the 100-400, bring it. My 300mm + 1.4x is good there but I sometimes wish for a zoom for the convenience. If you want tight portraits, then you will need more than 400mm for some of the animals.</p>

<p>Of all the zoos I've seen, the National Zoo is the least impressive, sorry to say.</p>

<p>I've purchased many lenses and bodies from them, both EOS and Minolta MD before that. EX really does mean excellent. Everything I've gotten in that condition looks barely used. I bought one "bargain" lens and it was beat up but quite usable (glass and mechanics were fine, it just didn't look great).</p>

<p>Reza, read less, shoot more. "maybe your standards are not that high or you cannot tell the difference between a good photo or bad photo" is just a dumb statement. And compare prints instead of raw images on the web that tell you nothing. The 50D is an excellent camera. If you can't take a good picture with a 50D, you won't be able to take a good picture with any other camera of any brand or model.</p>

 

<p>You can mount any EOS-mount lens on your 400D. Relatively inexpensive lens options for birding are the 100-400 as mentioned, the 400 f/5.6 (no image stabilization), and the 300mm f/4 as you mentioned. You can add a 1.4x converter to the 300mm and retain auto focus.</p>

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