I try to avoid cropping TBH, and try and fill the frame with the image.The Bluebird avatar pic is a crop , but I was laying under it, and very close. I have spent weeks getting the birds used to me, so I can get fairly close.

None of the animal shots are significant crops, just been lucky to be able to get so close. Just cropped a bit to improve composition in some cases.

The only ones not taken with my 55-200 are my Tiger shots, they were taken at 50 -70mm with my Sigma with a piece of glass between us, and the help of a very nice Zoo keeper.The shot of Mack is my 35mm.

The heavier you crop , the quality will drop. So if you want to take images from a long distance, the 55-200 won't be much good.

I was more than happy with that lens from Bazza. Looking back I have loads of shots that I like but it's since moved on with my (sob) Nikon D50.

Very fast moving things in low light are obviously going to be a struggle but in the right light - quality is fine.

Here's a few random shots taken on a 6MP (D50) shots with Bazza's lens.

great clarity with that Phil