The photography forums around the net have been buzzing with rumors of new Canon equipment in advance of the big photography show next month. Amongst the rumors are dramatic upgrades to their pro cameras as well as to lenses, including at least some of the big telephotos.

I just bought my 500mm lens back in September, ordered a week before a trip to Wyoming and delivered with a few days to spare (thank you, B&H!). One of the worries about ordering such an expensive lens is that it will be upgraded soon after you buy.

With a trip to Yellowstone and the Tetons in the offing, and the waterfowl about to migrate back to the Northwest, it wasn’t a terribly tough decision. It’s a heavy lens and I wanted to get as much use out of it while I’m still (relatively) young and can move around with it. Another positive is that, even if the lens is updated, the older designs still tend to hold on to their value.

Regardless, I felt it would make a big difference in my photography and that I’d get a lot of use out of it — it has and I have. I’ve been using it a lot around here at home, but my first significant usage was in the Tetons and Yellowstone. Normally I wouldn’t recommend trying out new equipment on the road, but I decided to risk it this time.

Was it the right decision to buy the lens at the time?

Absolutely. I didn’t use it much in the Tetons (which I expected, I was doing a lot of long hikes there where the lens is a little too heavy). My 100-400mm lens, a favorite of mine for all the years that I’ve had it, filled in nicely when I was on the longer trails. I did get some nice elk pictures with the 500mm as well as other animals, but it was in Yellowstone that the lens really paid off.

From coyotes to black bears to elk, the lens proved it’s worth over and over. This elk picture is one of my favorites and was taken on my final day in Yellowstone, I left for home not long after the picture was taken. I have many pictures of bulls where they appear larger in the frame, but larger doesn’t mean better. A trap I see many telephoto shooters fall into is to place their subject as large as possible in the frame, regardless of whether it helps or hurts the picture.

This bull was with his harem in the field and had initially been quite close to the road. But the picture I wanted was to shoot a sea of browns: the brown elk, the light brown grasses, and the darker browns of the hedges. There was a cow sleeping out in the grass and I photographed her for a while, when to my good fortune the bull headed out to her and nuzzled up with her before checking on the other cows.

My luck improved even further when he stopped and momentarily looked in my direction with his mouth open. They say photographs never lie, but this one does — it might look like the bull is angry and aggressive and about to charge, but in reality he paid me no heed (I was a ways away on a bank beside the road) and he just happened to have his mouth open when he glanced in my direction.

And if Canon announces an upgrade to the 500mm, will I regret the purchase?

Not a chance. Even though I didn’t have much time for hiking the last few months of 2006, I’ve taken a lot of nice pictures with it and, if the upgrade turns out to be substantial, I can always sell this one and upgrade.

And if it isn’t much of an upgrade, or if the upgrade doesn’t come at all, I won’t kick myself over not enjoying such a fantastic lens. After all, when I bought my 100-400mm lens years ago, I worried then that it might be replaced soon, and yet Canon hasn’t touched it — and I’ve shot thousands and thousands of pictures in the meantime.

Seize the day.