I did it.

Well I finally did it. I made enough money during the Sundance Film Festival on my extra day over and above my usual working schedule to buy my new telephoto lens.

Yesterday Carl and I went out and visited a shop that he recomended as having a good selection of tripods. I had at that time pretty much decided upon a used Tamron 200/500 mm telephoto zoom lens. While looking around the store I noticed that they had in stock the Tamron lens, so I tried it out on my Cano Rebel XTi, that I just happened to have with me. They also had a Sigma 170/ 500 lens that fit my Canon and both Carl and the sales person thought that the Sigma had better glass than the Tamron. I tried out the Sigma on my camera and I couldn't tell the difference between the two. Thew clincher was that the Sigma cost less than the Tamron by nearly $100.00.

I also picked out a filter for the lens and a new flash. I had them hold the items till today as I needed just a couple more $'s to get everything. Terri and I went their this afternoon and I got the lens and stuff.

I also picked up a 2 gig memory card for the camera. The only thing(s) that I now want/need is still a tripod and a hard carrying case to protect the camera and the lenses when traveling.

I haven't had much time to test out the new stuff but from what I have seen sofar I think the lens and the flash will work just fine.