I have no experience with deer here, but it would seem than a height of 8 feet should provide some protection. As far as reducing light, a chain link fence would not reduce light by very much, plus, your plants will be in raised beds, and that's where the root height will be, plus the leaves will be even higher on the stems, so light won't be in issue.

I live in a quite rural area and don't find deer to be a problem in my garden; in more than 30 years on 3 different sites in my town, I've only had a small bit of nibbling on peas once, and I've never fenced the garden. I think there is so much other food available during the growing season that they would just as soon avoid us. My problem animals are woodchucks AKA groundhogs which do a lot of destruction in a very short amount of time with legumes and cole crops being their favorites, and voles, which are an ongoing problem, munching on underground crops like potatoes, carrots, and sweet potatoes. Both will tunnel under fences unless the fences are buried. We have deer around - I often see them or evidence of their presence, but they tend to not come into the veggie beds, even when they are nearby. I've honestly had more problems with loose cows than deer . . .

A few questions, and please forgive me if you've already thought these through.

Do you know that deer will be a problem? Sometimes if the deer pressure isn't high, a bit of aversion therapy is enough. For instance, I kept deer out of my in-laws' hollies last winter with a combination of 80 lb. fishing line strung around various things a number of feet away from the bushes in a random web up to about 5 1/2' high in combination with Irish Spring soap in bags hung on the bushes. I don't know if it was the near invisibility of the transparent fishing line or the odor of the soap that made them unappealing, but they were untouched for the first time in several years.

How will you hold the fence up? Are you thinking the construction fence with feet? How expensive will that be - cheap enough to make the investment in fence or its rental worth the veggies? Even regular fence panels that need poles buried for support on Craig's List don't seem inexpensive, and gates aren't cheap either. Rocks alone won't hold up fence panels without feet. I wouldn't worry about the height since you can extend that with poles fastened to the chain link supports and light weight netting or a couple of strands of wire.

Do you have trees on the property? Would it be cheaper to use a combination of 3-4 strands of electric wire on trees around a larger perimeter than the fence panels?

There are some good ideas on the veggie garden forum: here's a search with deer as the search term.

We had fencing put in around our veggie garden area and so far deer have wandered by but not attempted to jump the 7- 8' height. We used rather open wire fencing because deer can't get through it. Rabbits have been seen inside the area and I know where they are getting in. But the real problem critter is the woodchuck. So far they haven't come in, but they can easily tunnel under. I think chainlink panels won't keep them out if the panels just rest on the ground.

For a temporary fence why not use the plastic fencing that comes in 100' roll. I think it's 8' high but if only 6' a double row of fencing should keep the deer out. Agway carries it or used to.