The weather this weekend was rainy. I was hoping for a break from the rain so that we could go hiking, but that's ok since there isn't anything great to hike right now. Up high is muddy and slushy, and down low is too hot. There aren't a lot of middle-altitude hikes that we want to do, so instead I decided to spend some money on more gear. I had $50 in "bonus bucks" from buying my camera a few weeks ago that I needed to spend, so I bought the last lens I needed to in order to have a well-rounded lens portfolio.

I bought the Canon RF 100-400mm f/5.6-8 lens, which will be primarily for wildlife, but also the lower-rage of that lens will work well for some landscape photography. I don't do a lot of wildlife photography, but there's always a handful of hikes where we encounter wildlife where I need a telephoto lens. And since this is a new lens, I'm sure I'll be using it in many more applications just so I can familiarize myself with it.

If I had infinite money, I would have bought the 135mm f/2 or 100-500 f/4.5-7.1 lens, but both of those are over $2000. The 100-400mm lens seemed like a reasonable compromise to not break the bank coming in at $650. I now have 3 lenses for this camera that make a great set of lenses for any situation. I have the 16mm ultra-wide, a great middle-of-the-road 50mm prime lens, and now a 100-400mm telephoto lens. Since getting this new camera a few weeks ago and buying the 3 lenses, I've spent a little over $2,500, so needless to say, I think I'm done spending money on any new gear for a while. But that's okay, I think it will be a while before I've used these lenses to their fullest potential (and want something different).

I first took this lens around my neighborhood and into the Pelican Natural Area. Then in the evening Katie and I walked around the Fossil Creek Park Lakes where we found a lot of different types of birds that were great for testing out the new lens.