On another matter, I think I noted Steve Brown sporting the new Nikon 70-300 VR lens at Sebring. While it has been well-reviewed in the e-press, no comments to date on its effectiveness in our fave sport, but, as it's almost affordable for some, Steve - can you offer any views on the results you obtained, please?
Ian,
Sebring was my first outing with the 70-300 VR AF-S. It's reasonably light and very fast focusing (SWM). On my D50, I found it to be neutrally balanced, even at 300mm - definately didn't need a monopod or had aching shoulders.
I used continuous autofocus mode and varied from 1/1000 to 1/500 for the majority of the shots, using the VR on in normal mode, allowing panning.
For some of the evening brake glow shots I upped the ISO a bit, but still managed acceptable shots - maybe the VR helped here.
Although it's max aperture is 4.5/5.6 and mainly using ISO 400, I think the images I ended up with are pretty good.
In all, for £350 (I've seen it at £327 now) I think it's good value, having the reach of 300mm was definately a bonus but I didn't feel I suffered due to the f4.5/5.6 (against f2.8 of the 'out of my budget' 70-200 VR AF-S).
I've posted some of my Sebring and Gainesville shots on this forum. Eventually, I'll upload them all to Webshots.
Sebring
http://www.clubarnage.com/forum/index.php?topic=6826.0Gainesville
http://www.clubarnage.com/forum/index.php?topic=6822.0