I had a chance to test the 200-500 this morning at the beach shooting surfers. My main goal was to see how it would compare with a 300 f2.8 and 1.7TC shooting at f5.6 from the same location at the same time of day, which means harsh back light conditions.
1) Used a tripod with a video head
2) I did not have the 200-500 lens hood
3) VR on in sport mode
4) All shots at f5.6
5) Body was a D7200 (with 1.3x crop on)
If your not familiar with surfing, surfers move quickly in all three planes, but humans are a lot bigger than birds.
After reading that the AF speed wasn\'t all that fast on the 200-500, I assumed the worst. In reality it\'s not bad at all and faster than I expected. Most of the time I was able to nail focus, in the conditions above.
I probably do get a slight higher hit rate with the 300 f2.8 and the 1.7TC. These days with the D7200 there is less need to use the 1.7TC, because I shoot in crop mode for the additional FPS. Certainly build and AF speed with the 1.4TC is better on the prime, but it\'s a lot more money.
Basically I achieved similar results in terms of over all IQ and sharpness. I had the zoom set to about 400mm with an effective 800mm FOV. I used AFC with 21point dynamic AF, which seems to work well on the D7200.
The lens seems to handle real world conditions with moving targets just fine. When shooting video, the versatility of the zoom was nice. I think the lens is a great value, its worth having if you prefer to shoot with out TC\'s and can\'t afford the prime. I used a RRS MRP-113 plate and it balanced nicely with the stock foot.
Dec 18, 2015 at 07:05 PM
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