Adam L wrote:
Can you expand on this please? What is "true hand-held manner"?
You're right, it's not the fastest horse in the stable.. it's certainly no 300/2.8 or 200/2, but it's still pretty fast! I have to say I've never missed a shot because of sluggish AF on a 500.
(1) When one is walking the woods or the marsh in search of targets, then that typically forces one to use the lens in a true hand-held manner. There are no cars to rest the lens on, no stools to sit on and deposit the lens on your knees, etc.
The lens is essentially held in a ready-to-shoot manner, and not stowed away in a bag or a backpack.
(2) Whenever I tried to shoot in-flight pijuns, swallows or even ducks bursting into flight and similar flight transients, any lens heavier than 300 f/2.8 IS becomes a liability. The 500's are a losing proposition.
In fact I prefer to use 400 f/5.6 and 300 f/4 for that kind of fast action. Ideally, if I can come close enough, I'll be using 135L and 200 f/2 IS which are IMO the most agile telephoto lenses Canon have ever made....both the aperture and the AF drive.
So far it looks like almost 1/3 of local members have at least one supertelephoto lens. Which is actually pretty high considering that here we have a large population of landscape, portrait/studio, wedding, product etc. photographers who really do not require "Big Whites" in practice of their specialized craft.
PetKal wrote:
(1) When one is walking the woods or the marsh in search of targets, then that typically forces one to use the lens in a true hand-held manner. There are no cars to rest the lens on, no stools to sit on and deposit the lens on your knees, etc.
The lens is essentially held in a ready-to-shoot manner, and not stowed away in a bag or a backpack.
The 500/4 is a hand-holdable lens, and can be used in the "ready-to-shoot" manner. I've hiked with it for hours strapped to my side, and sometimes even with a 300/2.8 strapped to the other side (admittedly, in this scenario, it can get a bit tiring )
To each his own, I guess!
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