. . . were calling me for a while there. Almost irresistably.

But—for once—sanity prevailed. In every practical way imaginable the SL2 is a more useful choice for the kind of shooting I do. That doesn’t mean things aren’t changing, though.

In recent weeks I’ve discovered the joy of walking about various places and finding plenty to shoot, without the need for a two-kilogram weight in the form of long glass. In fact, even carrying a 900-gram zoom on a walk where I see no birds has gotten tedious. 300mm is the longest zoom in the current arsenal and ~360mm is the longest prime+extender option.

Even though my shooting objectives have evolved over the years, I think I’ve resisted the urge to move further away from chasing birds because it seems like capitulation to age. But it’s true that I do like to walk around with less gear weight than I did ten years ago.

However, I think that this current slow transition is borne more of changing interests than from any other factor. Wherever it leads, the reliable 180/2X combo is still around in case there’s a U-turn anywhere down the road.

SL2/24mm f3.8 Super-Elmar-M . . .