500mm vs 600mm?

cdw1 wrote:

I don't think that it is possible to generally say that the 500 or 600 is 'better'. Many have sought to find the answer to the question which is better (including myself) and have found too many different answers.

It partly depends on what you will use the lens for. I use my long lenses mainly for safaris and I'm not much into birds. I ended up with (amongst others) the following:

24-70 2.8 II

70-200 2.8 IS II

300 2.8 I

500 4 II

I mostly use the 500 4 on a crop body. I'm happy add a 1.4x to the 500 4 on a FF but not so much on a crop body.

Generally, I'm happy with my lenses but not a day goes by that I'm not wondering if other lenses, including the 600 4 II, wouldn't be better. I selected the 500 4 II because of its size and weight advantage over the 600 4 II. My hand luggage is already way overweight. We also always go on self drive safaris and the 500 4 is still just manageable in the car when I have the above lenses and 4 bodies next to me. If I would not have had any travel concerns, I would probably have bought the 600 4 II.

However, I think you can't go really wrong with any of the big whites. I would also have been happy with the 400 2.8 II or the 600 4 II ... but I'm sure that there would also have been many occasions where I would have wondered whether the 500 4 II would not have been a better lens.

They are both excellent.  I sold my 600 Due to size and having to use a tripod.  I kept the 500 ll, but use the DO ll + TC more, as it is so portable.