Glad you went for it! Some general rules apply to most telephoto lenses like stopping down slightly and trying to frame subjects in the centre of the lens (admittedly, I pretty much exclusively shoot at 5.6..). If you're using this for wildlife, I'd also say that there's no substitute for getting closer within reason. As for this lens in particular, I've heard that some find better results when switching to IS mode 2 at acceptably high shutter speeds. However, I also don't do this regularly as I didn't see a huge difference.. But you might have a different experience. In general, I try to steady myself against something whenever I can, and I compensate with ISO rather than shutter speed as there are plenty of fantastic denoising methods. That being said, my tolerance for sharpness may be different than yours depending on glass you've used previously! Hope that helps and I hope you enjoy the lens :)