sorry to hear this but i second the point about the house insurance. A few years ago our car with my gear was stolen from our driveway. I had no dedicated photographic insurance but i gave our house insurers a ring and was delighted to find that they covered what i had lost. It was over £2000 worth of gear. So give yours a call. You have nothing to lose.
i have never had any strap etc etc with the lens and i have no problem carrying it or shooting handheld with it. Anyone that wants to try the lens on their camera etc if you can make it to belfast i can arrange it. I live in north belfast but work in the city centre so i am their most days.
I am using it with the Nikon d700 (which i am considering selling too) but it will work with the d200 no problem although the focal length will be 120-300 because of the d200’s sensor. By the way there is no lens hood with the lens. I bought it without one and never seemed to need it in any situation.
hi Derek – i always focus on the eye and recompose too. However i only ever have one focus point activated on my camera (normally the centre one) and my results with on camera flash are generally pretty good.