Who Chose the 300 f4 over the 100-400 for Birding and Why?

petebuster wrote:

Phocal wrote:

lattesweden wrote:

sdw1 wrote:

I have to admit that, given my interest in birding, the Nikon D500 and a 300 PF would be a strong choice. I've read some D500 reviews and will have to look into the 300 PF more closely. Its the D500's AF speed and accuracy and ISO strengths, etc. that really seem great - making APSC very interesting again. If I was already invested in Nikon it would be a no brainer.

The D500 seems extremly good at AF. The sensor is about one stop better noise wise. The Nikon 200-500/5,6 would make a nice lens on it. Gives with the 1,5x crop 300-750 mm(FF eqv) with the same noise as the Olympus 300/4.

If the EM1mk2 is not as good as Olympus says it is going to be I will probably get the D500 and 200-400 ƒ4. The 200-500 ƒ5.6 is not weather sealed and I cannot go back to a non weather sealed system, but that would be the perfect lens for my shooting style otherwise.

D500 and 200-500, probably the best combo on the market if you don't mind the weight, you can always get a cover for the lens.

I gave up using those covers a long time ago, just not worth the hassle. They rip and get caught on everything as you move thru the brush. I am not the sit in one spot and hope something comes by type of photographer unless it is for something special like a bobcat or mountain lion (which I have yet to successfully stalk). I prefer to move and stalk my prey so trying to use a camera condom is just not going to cut it.

Edit - I also shoot a lot in the rain and actually plan trips for days it is suppose to rain.  Something about the light you can get when it is stormy out that just attracts me to shooting in the worse conditions.  It's also one of the reason I switched to Olympus.  Olympus and Pentax have the best weather sealing of all the camera manufacturers in my opinion.