I feel I was a bit hard on this lens when I first reviewed it. I still don’t like it for sports mainly because I like shooting with faster lens for action shooting (like the EF 300mm f/2.8 L IS II), however this lens does have some merrit for other kinds of shooting.
I really like it for landscape and nature photography as well as photographing animals, wildlife, birds, etc.
Let me say that there are some very nice things about the lens – like the weight and size. It’s not too large or heavy to carry with you when hiking – although it isn’t light. I like the external zoom for travel too. When it’s set to 100mm, the length is relatively short – so it’s not difficult to pack in my Thank Tank Airport Navigator bag…
In addition to the convenient size and weight, the stabilization makes it easy to hand-hold at slower shutter speeds. The image below was hand-held at 500mm and 1/250 of a second. Not a super-slow shutter speed, but it’s typical of what you might encounter in the field. It was a relatively dull day (not much sun) so I had the ISO set to 1600 with my R6 II. I know everyone likes to shoot at a higher ISO these days, and just denoise in post – but I’m old school and like to try to keep the ISO as low as possible, and maybe not have to denoise.
So, I feel like daytime, wildlife and nature photography is really the sweet spot for this lens. It’s not difficult to carry – as long as you’re not hiking 20 miles – I’m a bit too old for those kinds of hikes these days. I could walk for a couple miles with this lens pretty easily though.
I felt like I had to say more about this lens because it is a good lens – and it produces some very nice/sharp images. I don’t like that it’s not as fast, but it is a really good lens, and I find myself reaching for it more and more – and not being disappointed that I did!
If you have a chance to shoot with this 100-500mm lens I think you’ll like it!
Mostly Film Photography (GotFilm.org) 
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