In article <4b015g$393@newsbf02.news.aol.com>, fishfotojr@aol.com says... (most deleted)
>The 500f8 is crisp, has good contrast, good colour correction, in >short it lives up to the Nikkor name. I do not think you will find >anyone with anything bad to say about this lens, except the general >comment that people do not like fixed aperture CAT lenses. The
>only drawbacks, are that CAT lenses are fixed apertures and do not >really look good with tele-converters.

I would agree with the above, except that the older style 500mm f8
Nikkor does work well with the TC14 or TC14B (same glass), if you
have enough light for it. I also prefer the performance of the older
500, though the newer focuses closer and seems to peak in performance
at mid distances, rather than near infinity (for the older). The
mirrors are about 1/2 stop slow, and it is useful to also rate the
film 1/2 to 1/3 stop slower than you do for other lenses to compensate for metering in the "hot spot" when using center-weighted metering.
They are a great way to get into really long lenses (with good performance), without risking bankruptcy, but they do have their drawbacks (slow, uneven illumination, no aperture, hard to steady,
the "doughnuts"). But I still like mine a lot.
Hope this helps.