Here are several images taken on Thursday with the D500 body and 500mm PF lens. This was my first time kayaking with this combination. While that combination worked well, I came away thinking that I probably prefer using the D500 and 300mm PF with 1.4x TC for kayaking. That latter gear combination is smaller and lighter, making kayak photography easier. For normal use (on land), I now prefer using the 500mm PF over the 300mm PF with 1.4x TC. Just my current preferences, of course.
Keith W.
MedicineMan404 wrote:
Wow! All in one day. Would take me a year+
. I'm lucky to be near a very good birding area (Parker River National Wildlife Refuge). Although fewer birds in the winter some really interesting ones (Owls, Eagles etc).
MedicineMan404 wrote:
Geoff I'd expect you'll be keeping the 500PF
Very nice Bluejay...a bird I have zero photos of as it likes to stay in the east and the few I saw in Florida didn't like me
Yes, I will surely be keeping it for a long while. I wasn't as excited as I could have been when I first got it...questioning whether it was worth the extra 80mm over the 300PF/1.4TC and wondering how it would pair with my 500/4.
But now it is almost the only lens I use and not just because it is the "new toy" but it is just a great lens and for walking around discovering subjects at either 500 or 700mm it gives me a lot of "reach" paired with the D850. I'm having a hard time finding a reason to take out the larger/heavier 500/4. Not sure what I'm going to do about the 500/4 or the 300PF for that matter....will depend what Sony releases this year.
Thanks Geoff.
Yes the 500PF is a bellwether for wildlife photography.
You know in many ways I wish it had been Sony to develop these lenses but is what it is.
Well you are certainly doing incredible work with it, but you'd do incredible work with a Coke bottle.
Luckily Poof is now using the D500 and 300PF and neither one of us can tote a 500/4 so we're good on that
I think I've made this offer before-ship me an Anna's and I'll package up Blue-J's and Cardinals for you. If you include a Rufous I'll throw in a RTH--there is one 50 feet out the window as I type.
Thanks again for your kind try-out of the Canon 400DOII on the Sony A7rII Robert, it has helped my decision along, although it did fall on the D500 with the 500PF and the 1.4TC.
I realized that I have been skipping many birding shots because my Pentax DA560 did not like birds moving too much.
I remembered my time with the Sigma 500mm f4.5 for Pentax mount years ago, and realized that I actually liked BIF before the change to the DA560 made it too unrewarding.
You tend to limit yourself to what you can do best, and I really did not want that kind of limitation again thinking it over properly. So I decided to force myself to choose: either Canon 400DOII with Canon 7DII, or Nikon 500PF with Nikon D500. I went for the latter after all.
It's on order and my camera store expects it to arrive in 1-2 months (ouch!!)
It actually feels like the right decision, and great that a lens like the 500PF now actually exists, from a financial as well as ergonomic perspective. I might be in for a big surprise handholding the 500PF as well as hiking with it in a bag on my back, after 8 years of handholding and carrying a 3+kg lens!
. I'm lucky to be near a very good birding area (Parker River National Wildlife Refuge). Although fewer birds in the winter some really interesting ones (Owls, Eagles etc). 
