Pod or not for Zoo 70-200 2.8 L IS

Hey all!
Rented a 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS for a couple of days and wonder if you have any tips.
Should I bother with a tripod? I'm going to a zoo. It doesn't feel too heavy and if I do take a monopod or tripod should I switch all IS off or put it on number 2 if I use the 'pod?
Any tips?
Thanks!

NAH! You dont need a tripod or monopod for the 70-200 2.8. When i went to the zoo about 6 months ago i carried around a 300 2.8 on a MKIIN and a 70-200 2.8 on the 20D without any tripods or monopods.

Carrying around a tripod is a pain. Just use a faster shutter speed. Also, outdoors with the 70-200 won't be a problem.

I thought I'd need support so I rented a Manfrotto to go with it, but when I handled it I thought hmmm this feels nice! I don't really think I need the support to be honest. It feels even more balanced than my 24-70 2.8. Am I mad?! I'm no Arnie more like peewee herman to look at but I did use to climb 5.10 3 times a week - that was 2 year ago though.

You should be OK without a pod.

Should be just fine. If you are outdoors, the light will normally be just fine for ISO 200 and f4 or so... You shouldn't have any trouble with shutter speeds.

Well I went to the Zoo today with the rented 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS.
I love this lens! It feels really comfortable and balanced on my 30D. Even with a total weight of about 2kg I wandered about with it for 3.5 hours and fired off some 350 shots without it tiring my arms out at all.

A bit of extra reach would have been great but I decided against using a 1.4x convertor as I wanted to try out the IS at f/2.8. 280mm would have been perfect, but f/4 wasn't on my menu for today.

I shot everything handheld - which may have been a mistake too as I have a lot of misses, but again I wanted to test the IS so I can hardly gripe.

Here are a few samples. I didn't really get any spectacular shots but I put that down to my own inexperience. I need lots more practise! Anyway I had a really enjoyable day out in the fresh air with the g/f and got to play about with a quality piece of kit at the same time. I couldn't ask for much more than that on a cold Saturday afternoon in November in Auld Reekie!

Hope you like them and thanks for looking.

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