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

Shooting sports, I´ve had a pressing need for an affordable lens to shoot daytime events where you can´t get close to the action (baseball, softball, football, soccer, etc.). This is the lens to fill that need. You´ll want a filter (I always want to protect the front glass) and a monopod. It can be hand-held, but will get heavy until you get used to it. Also, you probably will want to consider an aftermarket case. The one letdown was the soft carrying case which comes with the lens.

I´ve had it for a couple of days. It is very sharp. I generally stop lenses down a bit, because they are usually a bit weak wide open, but I´ve shot a lot at f/5.6 at 500mm with this and it looks great to my eye. The VR allows for sharp handheld photos at 1/30th. I am really impressed. The AF works better than I expected. This is a big lens, but at the price point, there´s no real alternative for an amateur, like me. Looking forward to Tanzania next spring. This lens exceeds my expectations in every respect.

This lens is a bit larger than what I expected, but not overly heavy. It´s roughly the size of a 300 f/2.8 fully extended. The performance of the autofocus is very quick. I still have to take it out to shoot sports, but I feel that it will perform. The bokeh isn´t silky smooth as other lenses, but the subject in focus is tact sharp. Considering I have the 1.8 series of nikon lenses, I believe the 200-500 f/5.6 is much sharper. It´s a remarkable piece of engineering. Rent it for a day if it´s available. I don´t think you will be disappointed.

Have had the lens for 3 days and have been testing it and have to say I´m very impressed. Well balanced smooth in operation accurate in focusing sharp beautiful images. I am primarily a wildlife shooter and I feel that this lens will be a important addition to my arsenal.

I have only had this lens a few days and took it to some local ponds near me. I used it on my D7000 D600 and Nikon 1 V2, I really liked it on the V2 with the 2.7 crop factor = 1350mm, I was able to shoot birds out in the middle of the pond and even on the other side. So far I am happy with this lens on all my camera´s and have only shot a few hand held shots and mostly used a monopod. I found this lens to be a little on the heavy side so shooting hand held is short lived, a tripod or monopod will be needed even on short walks around the pond. I surprisingly found this lens to have a multi use of shooting subjects like flowers, dragonflies, and I even shot a few portrait of my wife from a distance and close-up. My main interest in buying this lens was for wildlife photography.

At one point last year I got the Tamron 150-600mm, when I found out it would not work with my Nikon V2 and had some trouble with the auto focus on my D7000 when shooting some action shots of the eagles coming in to there nest, I took it back to shutterbug... Not sure if the AF problem was user error, but it may have had something to do with the minimum aperture of f/6.3 at 600mm on the Tamron not working well with my D7000... I think that the D7100 and newer camera´s AF will work with a minimum aperture up to f/8 allowing the AF to be more accurate. The D7000 and older camera´s has a minimum aperture of f/5.6 for the AF making the Nikon 200-500mm for me and my older camera´s I shot with the best choice.

Do to the Nikon 200-500mm lens only being out a few days and my limited use with it, I do not have enough experience with it to give a full review of it, but can say so far I am very happy with it.