I have been hoping to get a 500 f4 VR for quite a while now and I was lucky enough that a friend (met through Sar) decided to sell his off as he was getting a little too old to use it any more, he is 83!! It is in superb condition, just needed a wipe down and I got it for a real bargain price. :-)
It is a superb lens, amazingly sharp even wide open and it is almost criminal the amount of cropping you can do and still have super sharp images.
Here are a few first samples. All monopod, except the dalmatian photo which is handheld.
The photo below was from a previous outing with the previous owner when he let me borrow it to see if I would like it. LOL. Are you kidding? I may have posted it in a previous thread, but thought it worht reposting for this thread.
Model NIKON D7000
Flash Used No
Focal Length 500 mm
Exposure Time 1/500 sec
Aperture f/8
ISO Equivalent 500
My first shots as the new owner. The first is quite heavily cropped as I was about 10 metres away from the bird as he wouldn't let me get closer than this. I think he has caught his next week dinner looking at the size of that worm!
Model NIKON D7000
Flash Used No
Focal Length 500 mm
Exposure Time 1/500 sec
Aperture f/5.6
ISO Equivalent 1250
Model NIKON D7000
Flash Used No
Focal Length 500 mm
Exposure Time 1/500 sec
Aperture f/8
ISO Equivalent 720
Model NIKON D7000
Flash Used No
Focal Length 500 mm
Exposure Time 1/500 sec
Aperture f/6.3
ISO Equivalent 2500
My favourite test subject, our dalmatian.
THIS IS WIDE OPEN AT F4!!
Model NIKON D700
Flash Used No
Focal Length 500 mm
Exposure Time 1/640 sec
Aperture f/4
ISO Equivalent 200
Crop of above: