A really great review with wonderful photographs. Thank you Andy for doing such a fine job. However I am both a Canon shooter and a Nikon shooter.
From the Andy article:
"A Pointless Comparison
This is a plea to the lens geeks. Please do not start comparing the Canon lens with the Nikon one, it is pointless. The Nikon 200-400 does a great job for Nikon photographers and the Canon lens will do a great job for Canon photographers. Comparing the two is just pointless, as no one is going to change camera system to use this lens are they? No they are not, so please don’t fuel the silly Canon vs Nikon debate anymore, it’s not what this lens or this review is all about."
I just bought the Nikon 80-400 and am now in the process of evaluating it. In particular at 400 I'm not yet very happy. So, right now I am considering BOTH 200-400 models as well 300, 400, and 500mm from BOTH vendors. I only have money for one this year. I'm sure that the Canon is better with the built in teleconverter but I'm having trouble mentally with paying over $10,000 for any lens. So while I think the article is WONDERFUL, for me I need to see a comparison between brands. At this pricing level of lens, the camera body is relatively cheap. It is the lens where the value is. I already have the 500mm Canon but the older, somewhat heavy model. For Canon, I found the MTF of the 300mm F2.8 (I have the F4 version) interesting. Since I already have the 1.4 and 2x III teleconverts for Canon the 300 might be a lighter weight alternative. As other blog posts suggest, there is a real lack of true comparisions between brands of SuperTels. Anyone know of any?