I love shooting wildlife but can’t justify (wife would kill me) the $13K for the Sony A-Mount 500mm. I did quite a bit of research and trying to find what other people were doing and in the end I chose the Canon FDn 500mm f/4.5. I found that people talked highly of this lens, its glass and its weight. I found one almost mint condition from a camera dealer in Japan on eBay so I bought it. I also purchased the Canon 1.4x-A FD Mount Extender. I also bought the Fotodiox Pro Canon FD to Sony E-Mount adapter (Pro is better right?) which I cannot recommend at all. The reason being there is a ring on the mount that allows you to basically hold a bar inside the lens so that the manual aperture ring on the lens works. Well the ring on the adapter has no detent or anything to help keep it in position so the ring walks back to the install position I guess due to vibration of the vehicle. Anyhow I keep having to check it as otherwise I will lose aperture control and I think in the end I will end up taping it after installing to keep it from moving.

 

In my testing with a target I find the f/4.5 to bit a little soft (still better than the Sigma 150-500mm at its best) and then goes tack sharp at f/6.7. The aperture ring is marked in full stops but it has detents at half stops.

 

So I got to go out and give it a real world test yesterday and wouldn’t you know it there were hardly any birds out at the wildlife sanctuary!  However, I did find some young Night Heron’s and a Snowy Egret to practice on. I am attaching links to some pictures I took using this lens with the 1.4 TC installed and I am impressed with the sharpness I must say. I do need a lot more practice with manual focusing though as I find if I can get the frame filled with the subject I can nail focus otherwise I have some really sharp pictures of grass and sticks both in front of and behind the subject while the subject is out of focus. So it will be a learning experience J

 

Be kind with the pictures I did not have a lot to pick from and I was basically just playing with the lens. 

 

The sharpness of this lens is awesome. I am using an A7MII and looking at the picture in Lightroom the detail is amazing. For example in this picture there is a tiny little spider on his head above his eye! 

 

https://flic.kr/p/z9ubYv

 

And some more

 

https://flic.kr/p/z8syc9

 

https://flic.kr/p/ycBkia

 

https://flic.kr/p/z7bo5s

 

 

I've been using the FD 500 L for a few months now and IMHO it's quite a good value for those who are OK with manual focus.  I typically add some saturation so its color will come close to my Leica 280mm f/4

 

 

 

 

I agree the Fotodiox adapter isn't the best for this lens.  This adapter works fine with the FD 300mm f/4 L but the 500's aperture lever is a little different and requires a longer actuating pin on the adapter.  I have a cheap Fotasy adapter that works with both lenses.