That's why I love the versatility of my 50 - 500. Everything from portraits to long reach and everything in between. I would still bring my E500 with the 14 - 45 on it for close in stuff or get my wife to shoot it with her P&S just like you suggested.

Now the 70 - 300 can easily be shot hand held if you have a steady hand ( I regularly shoot at 500 hand held as slow as 1/100th....with lots of practice anyone can) and for those who say that the IS doesn't help at max zoom I beg to differ. I leave it on all the time and I know for a fact that my keeper vs. trash bin percentage is better because of the IS. When I am shooting wildlife I am almost 90% of the time at the far end of the lens and the IS most definitely helps.