Of course you can do what you think best. I use much smaller cards and down load and reformat. I have two reasons to do it. The first is if I can't down load and something happens to the card, I only lose 8 GB. I carry two just in case. Also they are much less expensive.

Don't send it back. The guarantee they offer is a decent one and the price was right. I have bought a couple and never had any problem. Don't look back. The camera was made in the same factory with same specs etc.
The sky is not falling.

I sold one recently for $475 on ebay.

Wow, I earned alot this morning from this thread.

It is the first one you mentioned.

No I don't use the back button no do I lock focus. I almost never use manual focus and when I do, I have set the diopter for my right eye.
Should I use multiple focus points with that lens?

I use one about 50% of the time. I primarily use it when I have my 80-200 Nikon on my camera as it is a bit heavy and over the course of a high school softball or football game it really helps. My hand held photos are ok early on and as these aging arms become fatigued, they get worse. I also have used it in shooting flowers and still things that I want to get sharp images of. I can hold the monopod with one hand and use a cable or remote to focus and trigger with. I think that they are a wise investment.

I shoot with a D7000 currently and recently bought, (used) a Sigma 17-70 f2.8 w/ OS. My problem is that I just don't seem to be able to get a sharp picture. If I shoot high school basket ball from under the basket sharpness isn't really critical but for other things like the occasional candid portrait it is very important.
I have had many of you use the term calibrate and fine tune a lens and focusing but for the life of me, I can't seem to find anything relating to it in the camera manual. The lens, which is highly thought of by many has a limited aperature range of f2.8-f4, if I remember correctly if that makes a difference. I should also mention that I have been shooting with a single center point focus.
Any thoughts you may have would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Dana

My thought would be that you returned the tripod because you didn't like it, not because it was damaged or flawed in some way. I think that they are justified.

Thank you one and all. At one time I thought I would be a wild life photographer but physically I have limitations which would get in the way. Naturally when an opportunity presents itself, I will shoot. I may have to crop but the 80-200 will do a lot and with a Kenko TE I can have 270 or 400. I am also going to save for the 18-300 which would be great at softball, track meets and afternoon football.

I bought a D7000 and had no problems. In fact their after purchase follow up checking to see if Iwas happy twice was great.

Pure nonsense. There is no difference in the products. The are identical to cameras purchased at "authorized" Nikon dealers. If you want to be an "authorized" seller, you have to buy into the products with a guaranteed number of cameras or whatever to be sold and purchased by you the retailer. This leaves out a lot of retailers that don't want to be muscled around by Nikon, Canon or any manufacturer. It many cases they could do it but if they did, they are told how much they MUST seller products for and cannot mark down or undersell another "authorized" seller. In short, it is monopolistic at best. I will buy a grey market camera and save the money, thank you. If what ever needs repairing, I can pay for it. After all, after a year you have to pay Nikon for repairs on their authorized U.S. dealer cameras. They are not any less expensive or any more speedy than a ton of repair shops across the land.

I am a Nikon owner and user. I have 95% Nikon glass but I am not a member of the cult so to speak.

Go ahead and flame away.

I also just saw that Sigma made a 28-300 as well as Nikon. Any thoughts on these....
Of course I could buy a TC for the 80-200.

I forgot to ask about the Tamron 28-300 or a Sigma. Please give me as many ideas as possible....oh yea...retired, limited income...

I need some opinions about using this lens primarily for outdoor high school sports. During spring and early fall, I shoot soft ball and in the early fall, football. Naturally the softball natural lighting is good as it is always played in the late afternoon around 4:00PM. Fall football at least late summer / early fall usually is lit well. After the light comes on I switch to my 80-200 two ring f2.8.
I now that the image quality is fine for this but I want to know if this is a good choice. The 80-200 is great but sometimes doesn't have quite the reach and at 80 I can't frame well in the infield on occasionl. Since for a while I will be a single body shooter w/ a D7000, I don't want to make a mistake
Feel free to offer other options as well.
Thanks,
Dana