> > Yeah, I'm well into dick-waving territory. > > > i just joined the dick-waving club today too!
Sweet! Let me know how that baby goes. It looks like a pretty sweet lens. The only thing I'd be kinda worried about on it is filter vignetting - a 77mm filter ring is sailing pretty close to the wind when you need 75mm to achieve f/4 at 300mm. Are you going to be shooting on FX, or just DX? Could you shoot a grey card wide open with a couple of filters stacked to see if it gets nasty?
Also, which body is that battery grip for? I've got the Nikon MB-D80 grip for my D90, but the connector on yours looks different, kinda like the one for the D300. Let me know how it goes on a tripod. I've heard mixed reports about the quality of third-party battery grips.