Great but exspensive

Dave wrote:

Care to share some samples?

here is a sample:

when you take this lens out of the box and hold it for the first time, you know you are holding an amazing piece of engineering like no other lens! the only inconvenience i face when using this lens, is the difficulty of finding the location of the small birds! by the time i find the location, the bird is gone but if it is your lucky day and you nail one, it is very rewarding! the other drawback, is when you use this lens, you become very conspicuous, and people know the value of it! speaking of IQ and ease of use, this lens works like hot better (for whatever subject). shooting birds with this lens take some time to get used to! i practiced quite a bit out on my porch with my 600 II, i am very satisfied with its performance. you do need to be mindful of its long MFD, though.

KiloHotelphoto wrote:

I never thought I would spend this much on a lens but now having owned it for 5 months I have no regrets buying it.

I am using it on a Canon 5ds-r, these were my first Canons ever, I've been shooting Pentax. The lens is built solid but I wonder how durable the lens hood screw will hold up.

Actually there were problems with the hoods cracking when the screw was tightened on early 300 MkIIs IIRC. Not sure if it also affected the 600 but the basic design is the same. Later ones have been fine.

The image quality is amazing wide open and auto focus is fast. I have only used the first setting on the IS and it works great for me that's why I never tried the other two. When using the 1.4 TC III on it you see no performance downgrades. it's just as fast and sharp.

A good tripod and gimbal head or a solid monopod are a must, I know some people say you can hand hold it but you won't be walking around with this thing on a neck strap. I have done several 5 to 7 mile hikes with it on a carbon fiber monopod and it is't to bad but when I get done my shoulder feels it.

This is part of the reason why I went for the 500. I think there's a tipping point - the 500 is a lot more manageable in terms of size and weight. But if you don't mind that, and the cost, I'm sure the extra 20% of reach is worth having.