Testing out my new 80-400VR2, so far I'm liking it. Handholding is tough, and you can see some blur in this shot even at the high shutter speed and VR engaged. VR might be a mistake with birds, still exploring.
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I think somewhere around 500th of a second it is recommended to disable VR. Let us know if disabling it helps. A higher shutter speed should help also. Only birds I've taken photos of were sitting on a branch.
Got my film sent out today. Also included a test roll of 30 year old Kodacolor II film, ISO 100. Tried different overexposures, since it will have lost sensitivity. Tried ISO 50, 25 and 12 for 3 different scenes. Have 4 more rolls of this stuff, hoping something will jive.