500 f4 AFS

My first experience of a Super Telephoto lens was a 500mm mirror lens with a fixed aperture of f8. At the time I was interested in cricket photography and this took me right in to the subject, but I found it hard to focus, at f8 slow and in combination with my manual camera of the time awkward. However when I got rid of it I new that the focal length was great I just needed a fast lens and to solve the focusing issue. The answer came in the shape of a 500 f4 APS, this was everything having the superb AFS focusing system I loved from my 80 to 200 and two stops brighter than my old 500. The images this lens produces are staggering, you can hardly believe the results when you consider the distance over which some of the pictures have been taken and what’s more combined with the TC14E to give a 700mm lens is equally impressive and a great powerful lens for bird photography, in my opinion often a more flexible solution than the 600 F4 AFS despite being a stop slower, it is however a couple of kilo’s lighter worth considering when your getting to your hide.