And should we face life moored to a tripod?
I bought a 2.8/24-70mm G Nikkor a couple of weeks ago and had only used it on a Gitzo which I can hardly lift. Yesterday, there was a bit of a stramash going on with firefighting helicopters raiding a local swimming pool for water to put out a brush fire on the mountains beside me. This happens a lot out here, but usually they use planes which dip into the local bay and scoop up water from there. The tourist season has just started, so perhaps they didn´t want to risk the annual jokes about swimmers being found up in the trees.
Anyway, to the point: I though hey, why not give the new zoom a go, so I went up to the top floor and stuck it on the long limit - 70mm, about 105mm in normal 35mm language and ran off a few shots of the pair of choppers having life-threatening fun. I discovered very quickly two things: the combination can be held relatively steady up till the moment of releasing the shutter, at which stage it goes AWOL in my hand, all by itself.
I was on a 1000th of a sec at 2.8 and the base 100 ISO, expecting that should be more than enough to freeze motion. Some time later I discovered my mistake. I didn´t need 100% to see it. What, using a normal 105mm lens would have been a piece of cake turned, with a zoom, into a piece of crap. I can´t really decide if it is just shake or whether the lens at 2.8 just can´t cut it, but one way or the other, far from being the universal panacea that the makers all claim these things to be, it is the worst of all worlds, confirming how right I had been all my professional life never to have bought a zoom. Ever. Wish I hadn´t allowed fear of getting dust onto the sensor to overcome my better judgement, the ONLY reason for my buying a zoom in the first place.
Solution? Perhaps a tripod welded to my feet? No thanks. There are better ways to "enjoy" photography.
Rob C