Various wildlife from today...

[Shocknawe]

These were "quick pull over the truck" shots....and oddly enough even at 500mm I still wish I had a bit more reach!

 

[JAFO28]

Great shots! How do like the 200-500mm? Was thinking about this for myself, because 300mm is nowhere near enough, and the price seems pretty good for that reach.

 

[Shocknawe]

Great shots! How do like the 200-500mm? Was thinking about this for myself, because 300mm is nowhere near enough, and the price seems pretty good for that reach.

it was a "gamble purchase" simply cause you'll read reviews on both sides of the coin and often leave you with doubt. Too make my decision I searched the lens on flikr.com and it came up with a TON of images taken with it. I figured rather than reading all the text reviews I'd rather SEE what its capable of producing....and well I bought it! It does excellent on nice bright days, if you have a jacked up image its your fault- I've figured that much out and with the ap. limits thats obvious. However I did take a couple shots on a very gloomy typical winter Wisconsin day and it still preformed decent...even at 500mm. I filled the frame with a couple ducks and blew up the image and was able to see sharp facial feathers, did it again on an otter accross the river, this time the otter was only filling 1/4 of the frame and I zoomed in on the computer and there was no detail at all....black/brown blob. But on the flip side I'd blame a lot of it on the lack of light rather than the lens. Low light = Monopod. Shooting hand held in low light is challenging and a PITA. Also keep in mind it is difficult to keep it "still" when at 500mm and can still produce "eh" images at high noon without a cloud in the sky with no OS/IS, you can however counter it to a point with a quick shutter or again-monopod.
Bottom line at the end of rambling here, I'm very pleased with the purchase; learn its limits and capabilities and she'll perform.:thumbup:

 

[JAFO28]

Thanks for the info, I did a search on flickr also, a lot of the images taken with this lens seem pretty good. I think I may rent one and try it out first among others. Thanks again.