The Nikon 200~500mmF:5.6 G VR lens IS NOT weather sealed at all. Carrying a garbage bag or shopping plastic is very important.

I use the 200-500 on a monopod so it takes the weight not me. But at lock and dam 14 I use a black rapid like strap also.

These cars raced on a 1/4 mile track. I asked about that and was told to race 1/8 mile at Milan its done with a box,???. A motorcycle went 167 MPH on the 1/4 mile.

I spent both weekend days at the racetrack using a 11 year old D3 and an old Silent Wave AFS 80~200mm F:2.8D lens. I also used a old D600 and a 24~120mm F:3.5~4.5. The results look great if I might say so.

Here are photos that I was told shouldn't be on Steve Perry's site as they are not wildlife, landscape or macro. However I find them interesting anyway. They are from 1975, 1976, 1981, 1985. The last photo of the winged sprint car was shot with B&W tri-x and totally backlighted. I could not print the shot in the darkroom because of the severe backlighting. It was only when I went digital I could use the power of photoshop and Topaz to be able save the shot.

How far away are you from the subject? At surprising shorter distance atmospherics come into play. Even engine heat can cause distortion when shooting from your seat in the truck or car.

Its really useless at F:11. I have a older Nikon 1000mmF:11 and very specialized because of its F:11 max aperture. So F:11 is really bright sunny sea side beach kind of lens.

Is it the 600mmF:11 lens. Totally different from the Nikon F:5.6.

It is best to get a really good tripod and gimbal head. Putting a $16,000 lens on a Kmart tripod is crazy and I've seen people do it. You don't want the tripod to fail in any way with a $16,000 lens lens attached to it. The Canon 800mm mention above is a F11 lens. Kind of useless in the field in early morning or in shadow.

Parakeet, Least & Crested

I have a Nikon 600mm F:4 G VR and a Gitzo 3541 and the Kirk Enterprises Gimbal 1head. Works great. The Gimbal cost me $625.00 and the tripod cost me around $750 in 2011.

If I were you I'd head over to Robertsusedcamera.com. I saw SB-900 priced well within your budget. In fact I bought a SB-910 from them for only $150. I'll be using it today. Put a Nikon brand strobe on any Nikon camera and it works perfectly. I've seen people using off brand and have problems when using it.

I've done this for years. All I do is stand or sit still and they will come close if the is no noise or excitement

On my 600 I do but on the 200-500 there is none.

Here are a few images I got the other day using my Ipod with iBird Pro and my Mini Bose speaker. Icalled in the little birds and stood or sat quietly and they came within 2 feet of me. Using my 600mmF:4 G VR and a 200-500 they were too close to shoot.