in the lens, that is normal in Canon and Nikon, I see you have Sony/Minolta which uses motor in the body. Makes lenses cheaper as the motor/Vibration reuction is in the body and works on all lenses, unfortunately VR came out after I changed from Minlota to canon 10years ago! However if that motr fails you lose all your af in one hit, and need a spare body, if a Canon/Nikon lens motor fails, you can use another lens! Swings or roundabouts I guess Like the sound of a "normal zooming" 100-400 though, never too struck on push/pull, not too precise on moving subjects, and about time Canon did update this lens, it's been about for years! I think I'll start saving for that, so when this repair fails again, I will bin it then and buy one of those, and not go Sigma 50-500 route as I was pondering at this moment in time! Thanks for the info! your welcome, the reason why I am with Sony is because, many years ago in my manual focus film days, I was a MInolta X700 user, then they brought out the A mount a/f cameras and I changed, then Minolta brought out the Dyanx 7d which used the same mount so I changed to Digital, then Sony bought out the MInolta camera division and I bought the A700 as a second body, which although I still have the 7d, is now my main camera, the added bonus as you say, is