On Monday, I was able to collect my gear from Canon Repair Centre at Elsree after having the 7D serviced and then matched to the 70-200 f2.8 mk2, the new 500 f4 mk2 and the converters. Despite being inundated, Canon really came up trumps so that the expected delays did not materialise.

On my way back home, I was eager to test out the new 500 lense so decided to call in at Grafham Water Cambridgeshire for a couple of hours or so.

The weather was cloudy/bright with a smattering of sun and although there were no reports of anything interesting there, there were guaranteed to be some common species to test on kawatches.com.

The first call was at Mander car park. There were plenty of Common Terns sitting on the boom to try first.

Then in the car park from the car, the usual Mallards were around and close, this being a drake in eclipse plumage

and then a rather scruffy Jackdaw

On the way home, I called in at Ouse Fen RSPB with the only photographable bird being a Wood Pigeon but in the circumstances, worth a shot

This was obviously not a full blown trial and I really want a full day in the field to reach more conclusions but my initial reactions on static birds are that the lense is ultra-sharp, even more so than the old MK1. I needed to reduce my usual levels of sharpening in editing to avoid overkill and that plastic look from over sharpening.

Auto-focus was quick but there were no opportunties for flight shots to really test it. The reduced weight is very noticeable and the lense and camera seemed to be much better balanced in the hand although causing problems on the tripod with the Wimberly Head. With the battery pack on the 7D, there is too much rear weight to achieve the correct balance. I am still looking into this to resolve the problem.

More later after my next trip.