AF-S NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR

EXCELLENT lens... if you find one used scoop that baby up!

I have been very impressed with this lens. This pretty much goes with me on every birding trip. I use it with a D500 body and a Monopod. I am really impressed with the ability of this camera to auto-focus quickly, sometimes on some very small birds that don't seem to want to cooperate with the camera. I would consider myself to be an amateur photographer and this lens with the D500 body is not intimidating at all. I sometimes am genuinely shocked about how good these photos come out. Even my bad shots are clearly user error versus camera capacity. I have attached a few photos below of a Prothonotary Warbler and a female Orchard Oriole. if you like nature photography, you can not go wrong with the lens!

I photograph SpaceX launches in Florida on the side for a news outlet and this lens allows me to get close up, detailed shots of the rocket ahead of liftoff at perspectives that the general public don't get to see! This lens is extremely sharp, very fast at focusing and can take a beating! Highly recommend!

Photography is a hobby. This lens is my 'big' zoom, and I couldn't be happier. For my purposes, the photos taken with lens couldn't be better. Unless I begin selling images, there is no need for me to upgrade. I am currently using the lens with the FTZ adapter on either my Z50 or Z7. The attached photos were taken with the FTZ on the Z7 in DX mode for an effective focal length of 750mm.

After receiving this lens, I mounted it on my Nikon D7500 and headed out to my backyard to try it out. I was surprised how sharp the images are, and how effective the image stabilization is! This lens is everything I hoped it would be, for a lens in this price range.

I put this on my D750 today and just walked outside and quickly took a few pictures. I took a picture of my neighbors chimney at full zoom and was amazed at the sharpness. I could read part of a sticker on the chimney cap. Wow. And that was hand held in auto mode. the label may not show in my uploaded image, but it is there on my computer.

I´ve been shooting football, skiing, hockey and lacrosse with this affordable, fast lens. I´m able to hand hold and not be bothered with a monopod. Obviously f5.6 is not the fastest but my d5 does well at very high ISO so i can compensate. focus seems very fast - as fast as my 70-200 f2.8. The images are fantastic.

I use the 200-500 exclusively on my D7200, which I have for the 1.5x reach. Originally, I was on the 200-500 pre-order list and received one of the early ones. I wasn´t able to get images as sharp as I had hoped and convinced myself I didn´t need to spend that much money for a lens, since I am only a hobbyist. I sold the lens. Then I saw really sharp photos online that were taken with the same equipment I have, so I bought another copy. I am now a little more patient and have taken some shots that I am really impressed with. I´ll keep this lens and continue to work on my technique. I´m lovin´ it.

I purchased this lens for my Z7 in summer of 2019 - unlike most here, I wanted to use this lens for baseball photography. I have the 300mm 2.8 which works great of course, but longed for a good zoom with some reach to be able to really capture some of the images in outfield depending on where I´m shooting from. I´m so thrilled with this lens - the image quality is great and it works superb for outdoor baseball. Sometime I will attach my 1.4 tele to it to give me some amazing reach up to 700mm at f8. It has really given me more versatility to capture images and the different perspective that 500mm gives me is great. Looking forward to playing with the lens more in different settings. While the lens has weight to it I am able to hand hold it mostly without issue. Couldn´t be happier with this lens.