Will share my results here. Used it for backyard wildlife and a trip to a nearby National Wildlife Refuge. While I still needed to crop, the images with this lens are much larger then from the 80-400VR lens I own. The birds like the trees on the edge of my lawn. I was photographing from an open window in my house which is the perfect blind. Northern Cardinal by Scott Thomas, on Flickr
Great photo. How do you like the lens? I just bought this lens, I haven’t used it much, hoping to get our this week or next. I bought mine used off Adorama.
Another backyard bird. I seem to have the classics hanging out this year. This shows off the lens' bokeh capability. Blue Jay by Scott Thomas, on Flickr
I like it. The woods behind my house can be tough with a lot of tree branches which get between me and the birds. I also took it to the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge and it was great there. Keep in mind at f/5.6, it is a fair weather lens for moving wildlife. I tried to get some birds in flight with some success. I think I need to adjust the D500's focus settings for best results for flying birds. I wish I could take it to the zoo as I think it would create amazing close up portraits there.
I have the 80-400VR AF-S version and have taken that to AK with lots of success including on the Safari. The 80-400 is not at long at the 200-500. I really wanted to try out the 200-500 on field sports but the high school seasons have been cancelled. If the baseball team I work for does get on the field, I may rent this again. For day games, I thing the reach would be fantastic coupled with the 1.5x crop of the D500.
Aren’t there 2 versions of the 80-400mm? I think what I saw was an AF and the AF-S 80-400mm. I looked at the Sigma Contemporary 150-600mm and there were mixed reviews, that it wasn’t the sharpest at 600mm.
Yes, there are two versions of the 80-400VR. The original one had VR and AF. The latest version has AF-S and VRII technology. I have both as I could not find a buyer for the original one. Both are variable aperture from f/3.5 to 5.6. You can search for 80-400 on my flickr account see photos taken with those lenses. .
Photographed this interesting behavior as a male Cardinal was about to feed a female. Pair of Cardinals by Scott Thomas, on Flickr
Luckily for me, I got a beautiful Spring day and traveled over to the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge for more bird photography. Female Red-winged Blackbird by Scott Thomas, on Flickr
