Recommendation for a good lens for 2017 Eclipse

Originally Posted by Bikerbrent

No activity from the OP since July 7 so I would guess they have moved on. There have been a rash of new posters of late with strange problems or questions who post and never reply to requests for additional information and you never hear from them again.

That's OK, I was directing my comments at Sparky.

Mostly thinking out loud without starting a new thread.

Any decent 300mm lens is probably higher in resolving power than that thermals in the atmosphere permits, so a slow zoom is probably fine as long as the tripod is steady, the lens will not be the limiting factor. Not enough information to judge why or if his current gear needs a new lens added. With the ND filter he was planning on, speed of the lens become a non-issue and in fact slower lenses at f/8-10 are not much different than higher end fast exotics at the same aperture. A low cost zoom is easier to travel with also.
I have no long lenses past 200 mm be even there, when stopped down to f/8, my 2.8 lens is really no better than a cheap plastic zoom at f/8...small apertures cure a lot of ills. You invest in quality glass for their wide open performance which varies greatly from slow zooms

Originally Posted by Bikerbrent

No activity from the OP since July 7 so I would guess they have moved on. There have been a rash of new posters of late with strange problems or questions who post and never reply to requests for additional information and you never hear from them again.

...or until they get back! Sorry, I was on travel with "limited" (usually no) internet access. My camera is a Nikon D3100 (per the sub-forum ) and my only lens is the stock nikkor 18-55mm that the camera came with. I would like to take a landscape shot over a just-the-sun shot, but will take both if totality-time permits. As you can tell, I'm really new to this. Thanks for your help...and your patience.