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

I saved up and sold stuff to be able to buy this lens. I was torn between buying this lens and a new body. I was advised by people to get this lens, then get a body down the road. But living od disability is tough and I knew I might not get a new body for a very long time. Running out of stuff to sell to raise money. Then I was trying to decide between this lens and a Sigma 150-600. Of course some advised me to go Sigma. Others with this Nikon. But more said Nikon. And when I finally decided I thought that this would be a better quality lens. There is a feature of the Sigma I like that this doesn´t have. A lock at the long end of the zoom range. But I decided to go with this lens. My previous wildlife lens was a Nikon 70-300 VR. I didn´t expect a learning curve, going from 300mm to 500mm. But there was. At first I thought something was wrong with the lens. But it was me not understanding the design and features and how best to use the,. I bought this back in 2/2016. I have not regretted it. I do now know this is much sharper then the Sigma I was looking at. I am blown away by how sharp it is. Even wide open and at full zoom. How did they do that in a $1400 lens? I even use my Nikon TC-14e II with it and get amazing results. As long as I have enough light for it. I really like how closely it focuses. I use this for my hummingbird shots as well as macro shots of bugs, flowers, butterflies, or whatever. I still don´t have my dream camera, the D500. As the price drops I hope someday I will be able to get that amazing camera. But I am glad I went with this lens first. Even if my dream camera never comes. It is truly amazing.

The Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6E lens is probably the best value lens that Nikon manufactures. I have been photographing Bald Eagles for the past five years using this lens for the past 18 months. The reach of the lens is perfect on both my Nikon D850 and gives me an even longer reach with my D500. The sharpness and clarity of my images is superb with this lens as evidenced by the images I´m attaching to this review. You just can´t get more lens for the money and why would anyone want to put anything else and a Nikon Camera?

I am new to cameras - got my first, a compact, 2 years ago. What was in my head was more than the camera would do. Got a D7500 3 weeks ago and since day three have used this lens exclusively. I am mobility impaired and do nature pix out the window of my van. I need the reach and weight doesn´t matter. Exclusively hand hold.
As a newbie to pix, all I can say is this lens makes me look like a heck of a lot better photographer than I actually am. It is a dream!

A Nikkor long-tele zoom for only $1400?!? When I first heard of this I was surely skeptical - I mean these class of optics from Nikon have always cost many thousands of dollars! But then the reviews and sample photos started coming out so I took the plunge myself. 18 months later, I can say this lens has been a game changer! It is sharp at F/5.6 and gets better from there on. But it is the amazing VR that makes this lens so versatile: goodbye tripod! I shoot this lens hand-held 99.5% of the time. A bit hefty? Yes. I use it on a D810 so the total weight with lens is about 7.5 pounds - but once I got it on a black-rapid strap, I can walk for miles with no issues and it is at the ready to shoot in a split second. The AF acquisition is a tad slow - especially in low light, low contrast, but once it finds its mark, it tracks well - birds in flight are no problem. This lens is real winner and a godsend to those of us who are not working pros. Bravo Nikon, well done!

I normally use a 200-400 f4 on safari. The lens is fantastic but very heavy and cumbersome to fly with. I got the 200-500 5.6 thinking it would solve some of these issues. At a quarter of the price I was hesitant as to its performance in a hostile environment.
The lens is priced at a prosumer market so I paired it with a D810 and D850. The only physical issue I could find is that zooming isn´t done internally so even with weather sealing there is a risk of some dust getting into the body. I´m glad to say after three trips it still remains dust free!
Shooting from a safari vehicle is best done hand held and the weight of the lens is perfectly balanced with a full frame body. My ratio of ‘keep´ to ‘delete´ images was however lower than using the 200-400 f4. I put this down to a couple of factors.
Firstly with a maximum aperture of f5.6 this lens performs at it best around f6.3 or f7.0 This is great for bright sunny scenes. On safari where your often shooting in the golden hours catching a running cheetah at 1/5000 means your iso is very high. It´s worth remembering that stabilization doesn´t aid in this scenario.
Secondly the bokeh is great with subjects well isolated from their background, but when foliage such as leafs and grass are close by the results at f5.6 or f6.3 are not as smooth as I would like for the scenes I encounter.
Where this lens shines is in full sun photography and in backlit conditions where the coatings and large lens shade do a exceptional job. Although the lens might not be suitable for all purposes especially where speed is essential, as a back up lens it is more than up the job!

After using this 200-500mm f/5.6 just under three months I´ve noticed an improvement in my Images mostly all nature. Paired up with my D7200 at 1.3X I am getting a 750mm reach that is even better than I expected. Sharp Images and closer to subjects for great detail and very little if no Chromatic Aberration. Using Nikon Capture NX-D to process my Images is working better than my paid for photo software. (strongly recommend Capture NX-D software). The VR is very good on tripod, the lens at just under five pounds is a very well made strong lens and can be used free handed as i do most of the time. Well worth the money.

I bought this lens to do astrophotography with but decided to test it by photographing wildlife. With any lens on a full frame you still have to get close. The detail is really great and crisp! The astrophoto I took was my first ever deep space photo. The amount of detail this lens allowed me to capture of Orion´s Nebula is absolutely incredible. Both photos were taken with this lens and my D800e camera body.

It´s a big lens but I love the fact that I can get close to birds in the field and still get quality shots. Still learning how to handle this thing but so far I really enjoy it.

Only had it for about three days. It´s been overcast and cloudy, but I still had to take it out and shoot. I got decent still birds and birds in flight pics on my first few days. All the shots were at 500mm. Cant wait until a sunny day so I can see the full potential