ooops, not a typo I'll live down easily!!!!

Standee is Chester doable in one day in your opinion?

depends when you go, we went in August and it was fairly rammed, as it was warm most of the animals were outside in their enclosures so we didn't get that involved with the queues to go inside the pens/buildings etc, I admit to spending an hour just sat watching the cheetah and her cubs, I think I took over 400 shots in that hour alone.

take an extra SD card and a spare battery

and whatever you do, don't believe the hype about Chester town centre, or the Green Bough hotel!!!

We've 36gb of CF cards and eight batteries mate, I don't call her 4 gig for nothing

lol

I really do recommend Chester Zoo, given her apparent love of big cats, she'll love it.

Longleat was OK, but taking photo's though the window is frustrating (we never, ever, put the windows down when we thought we could get away with it, honest!)

The problem wasn't the camera but the lens mate, didn't you hire the 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L? While a good all-rounder it just doesn't have the speed an f2.8 lens gives you.

is there a similar but faster lens, any ideas would be welcome fairly sharpish as I was about to order the same lens as a my christmas present?

As I've said, it is a great all round lens with a long reach only trouble is that the long end is f5.6 which for action photography just won't cut the mustard.

We've a 70-200mm f2.8 that while not having the range of the 100-400 holds the F2.8 through its range, add a 1.4x extender and we get f4 which just about does.

"Touch me, I bite!"

So, I've been looking through peoples recommendations and have decided to go for a Canon EOS.

I'm currently debating between the 600D or the 550D. Anyone know the difference?