fmw
No longer a newbie, moving up!
To the experts on here, this will be stating the obvious, but maybe it will help a beginner like me. I took the plunge and bought a Nikon 70-300 vr lens. What a difference in my pictures!! The blur is gone and the tripod is put away ( until its time for HDR). I read all the comments, good and bad about this lens and decided to try it out. Its on a D40 body and I could not be happier.
I originally purchased a package deal with the D40 with a 18-55 and a 55-200 kit lens. I could have done without the 55-200 lens. I can see still using the wide angle lens for landscapes ( with a tripod). I guess for me buying a body only camera would have made more sense.
I would recommend taking the tripod back out and working with it. All lenses behave differently at different apertures. Aperture is one of the three things we use to control depth of field, for example. Because you can hand hold some shots a couple of stops slower than you could before, doesn't change the basic behavior of camera optics. You haven't yet explored what the new lens can do. Some of the things it can do will require a tripod. Congratulations on the new lens.