Non-IS for BIF ??

I hope to be looking for one of the super-teles in the not to distant future. I'm hoping for either the 500 or 600 f4. I'd like input on whether or not you feel image stabilization is a must have for BIF with either of these lenses?
Granted if they were the same price between IS and Non-IS I'd buy the IS and just turn off the IS when not needed.
I'll be looking for a used lens not the new Mark II's.
Another question. How long did Canon make the 500 and 600 non-is lenses?
Thanks much.

Er... unless you're a bodybuilder you are going to struggle to handhold the non-is 500 or 600 for BIF - they are ~4x the weight of your 400/5.6. If you're going to use a tripod and gimbal then IS is not so important. The biggest change from the IS to the IS Mk2 is the weight reduction but the 500 went from 136.6 oz to 112.6 oz (the 400/5.6 is 44 oz).

You can find the lens production timeline at this link.

I have personally found IS to not be necessary for BIF.
the shutter speeds are so high that it negates the need for it.

if you drop the shutter speed it will show wing movement or other blur that usually isnt what youre going for.

I don't plan on doing much if any handholding of the 500 or 600. I'll leave that to the 400 5.6.

I guess I didn't realize that they never even made a 500 f4 non-is according to that chart????? I was aware of the 500 4.5 but that's too old for me and the 600 might be a little too old as well. I thought they made them more recently.
Thanks for the link!

No one else have an "IS" opinion???

I owned in the past a 300 2.8 IS that I used with an extender, and now own the 500 F4.5 L non-IS. I don't miss having IS 99% of the time, since I use the lens on a steady tripod and gimbal head. The 500 F4 IS would certainly be nice for a couple of reasons, but frankly it is twice as much money, and I am not so sure it has twice the benefits, and certainly not twice the image quality. Really the only time I got frustrated not having IS on the lens was trying to get a picture of Jupiter with stacked extenders, as even the slightest vibrations at that MM trying to find a little dot in the sky are extremely multiplied. Far from a deal breaker though.

I think the 600 F4 non-IS is a no go for most people cause it is just SO HUGE and heavy. The 500 4.5 is actually a very nice lens, lighter than the F4 IS, even new F4 IS II, and still great IQ. With the price of used 500 F4 IS's quickly shooting toward $7k and up, the non IS at around half that was just too appealing to me.

If you are primarily using a tripod, I'd say no. If you are handholding then I'd say yes.

The old rule since film days for handholding a lens was a shutter speed of 1 / the focal length of your lens (in this case 1/500 or 1/600). Anything faster should be doable, anything slower should be mounted on a tripod. IS improved upon that but given that stop-action flight photography should be a minimum of 1/1000 or even faster, IS should not be a requirement.

It can come in handy for slow panning and artistic blur images. It can also be something of a psychologic placebo.

I've only started out with bird photography & have also recently purchased a 600mm f/4 non-IS & Gimbal head. I don't think IS is necessary for BIF, but then again, I'm no expert.

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Quack Me Up wrote in post #14178219
I hope to be looking for one of the super-teles in the not to distant future. I'm hoping for either the 500 or 600 f4. I'd like input on whether or not you feel image stabilization is a must have for BIF with either of these lenses?

Are you seriously only ever going to use this lens for BiF?

Initially when I posted this, I didn't know that the non-is lenses were that old. I think I'll go with the IS simply because I'd like a somewhat newer lens, but that's just me. It won't be happening real soon but it's definitely a goal of mine.

For the 500 F4 I leave IS on mode 2 all the time whether hand holding or tripod. It probably doesn't help when you are faster than 1/1000 on a tripod though. Some people suggest to turn IS off when your shutter speed is really slow (< 1/4 sec) but I never use the 500 at that shutter speed.