Nikon 200-500mm f5.6 just announced

[Steve Hood]

The US MSRP is $1399.

http://www.nikonusa.com/en/Nikon-Produc ... ED-VR.html

[Michael Tam]

A truly exciting news for Nikon users with this newly announced lens for bird, sports and wildlife photography.  The price is unbelievable for a lens from the main stream manufacturer that competes in price level with other third party lens companies.  Please review the MTF spec of this new product below:

http://imaging.nikon.com/lineup/lens/zo ... r/spec.htm

Please note the quoted price is in US Dollar denomination !

Good birding and photography.

[JW Mills]

An interesting lens.
My only complaint with this lens and the Sigma / Tamron 150-600 lenses is weight. They are all too heavy for me to lug around for 3 to 4 hours.

[Paul O'Toole]

This Nikon lense weighs in at 5 Lbs , the Sigma 50-600mm F5-6.3 DG OS HSM | C weighs 6.3 Lbs, and the Tamron SP 150-600MM F/5-6.3 Di VC USD weighs 3.85 lbs. Even though the updated Nikon 80-400mm AF-S FX VR G ED N NIKKOR costs close to $3000k, its a bettter carry around lense for birders like me that don't normally carry tripods. This one weighs in at 3.5 Lbs, nice weight for using handheld for sure.

[Steve Hood]

The weight is the main reason I decided not to get the 500/600 zooms.  This week I had a chance to hold the Tamron 150-600mm when extended.  For smaller birds I like to hold the camera/lens near eye level for long periods of time as I walk.  I felt this Tamron lens would be too heavy for how I would use it.

[JW Mills]

Hoodlum, I'm curious. What camera/lens are you using?

[Steve Hood]

I have been using the Panasonic m43 100-300mm lens (2x crop) for the past 5 years.  I am currently using the GH3 body.

I would like to upgrade the lens before next spring and am currently waiting to see if Olympus releases their new 300mm f4 before the end of this year (Olympus already said it would support their 1.4x Teleconverter which would give me 840mm after the 2x sensor crop).  Olympus and Panasonic body/lenses share the same mount type.

[Steve Hood]

Brad Hill (Nature photographer from BC) just posted his initial thoughts and comparison of the 200-500mm against the Tamron and Sigma 150-600mm zooms, Nikon 80-400mm and a couple of Nikon primes on his blog.

http://www.naturalart.ca/voice/blog.html#200-500FIRST

I have found his reviews of new Nikon lenses very informative and look forward to his final thoughts of the 200-500mm lens after he returns from his trip in a couple of weeks.