hi guys, i'm still relatively rookie at bird photography, for the past year i've been using the sigma 70-300mm macro as my bird lens. being a student it'll be a long time before i can afford anything more than a budget 300mm. however i have recently come into some money and i was wondering if it's worth bothering upgrading to the quite new tamron 70-300mm vc. i've read some good reviews for it online, the main reason i would like to buy it is the vc, but is this really a worth while reason in bird photography?
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sigma 300mm vs tamron 300mm (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter cartzo
- Start date
canon 550d.
Eugene Archer
Well-known member
Hi Cartzo,
I started off with a Canon 1000D and the Sigma 70-300 f4-5.6 DG OS before moving up to a Canon 550D recently at which point I'd really reached the limits of patience with the Sigma, it's not a bad lens but for a walkabout birding lens there were just TOO many times when the results were too soft at the long end. Given perfect conditions and a stable platform though it can produce good results.
I spent hours and hours and hours trawling through reviews, etc before finally deciding on going with the Tamron. The Tamron 70-300 f4-5.6 SP Di VC USD is, in my opinion, a much better lens at 300mm (which, in all honesty is where most of us birders use such a lens), it's just as comfortable in the hand as the Sigma, and the VC and USD all work well. What really sets it apart for me is the full-time manual focus override allowing you to focus fairly easily on a small bird moving about in a bush for example, something which the pure auto-focus on most lens will have difficulty with as they hunt around between branches and twigs (and leaving the photographer frustrated !)
I'm not technical enough to be able to say if the Tamron has quicker auto-focus or better stabilisation compared to the Sigma and by how many nanoseconds etc. but I am getting a lot more good useable shots with it and it's a dream to use in the field.
I've attached some (hand-held) shots taken recently:
The Great Tit was about 12-15m (45') away and the shot was taken 5 mins after opening the box with the lens. Full image reduced to 800x600px then a 100% crop (@ 800x600px) of the original. Small adjustments for levels and sharpness only on the crop. (EXIF: f7.1, 1/1250 sec, ISO 800, 300mm)
The Yellow-browed was only 6-7m away, again full image reduced to 800x600px then a crop of the bird, reduced to 800x600 then a small amount of sharpening again. (EXIF: f7, 1/166, 300mm)
Some day I'll get around to saving up for an "L" series lens but in the meantime the Tamron is probably the best available in the 70-300mm bracket. Yes, it's generally a little bit more expensive than the Sigma but worth it in my opinion and I only wish I'd bought it in the beginning instead of going with the Sigma. Hope this helps.
Eugene
I started off with a Canon 1000D and the Sigma 70-300 f4-5.6 DG OS before moving up to a Canon 550D recently at which point I'd really reached the limits of patience with the Sigma, it's not a bad lens but for a walkabout birding lens there were just TOO many times when the results were too soft at the long end. Given perfect conditions and a stable platform though it can produce good results.
I spent hours and hours and hours trawling through reviews, etc before finally deciding on going with the Tamron. The Tamron 70-300 f4-5.6 SP Di VC USD is, in my opinion, a much better lens at 300mm (which, in all honesty is where most of us birders use such a lens), it's just as comfortable in the hand as the Sigma, and the VC and USD all work well. What really sets it apart for me is the full-time manual focus override allowing you to focus fairly easily on a small bird moving about in a bush for example, something which the pure auto-focus on most lens will have difficulty with as they hunt around between branches and twigs (and leaving the photographer frustrated !)
I'm not technical enough to be able to say if the Tamron has quicker auto-focus or better stabilisation compared to the Sigma and by how many nanoseconds etc. but I am getting a lot more good useable shots with it and it's a dream to use in the field.
I've attached some (hand-held) shots taken recently:
The Great Tit was about 12-15m (45') away and the shot was taken 5 mins after opening the box with the lens. Full image reduced to 800x600px then a 100% crop (@ 800x600px) of the original. Small adjustments for levels and sharpness only on the crop. (EXIF: f7.1, 1/1250 sec, ISO 800, 300mm)
The Yellow-browed was only 6-7m away, again full image reduced to 800x600px then a crop of the bird, reduced to 800x600 then a small amount of sharpening again. (EXIF: f7, 1/166, 300mm)
Some day I'll get around to saving up for an "L" series lens but in the meantime the Tamron is probably the best available in the 70-300mm bracket. Yes, it's generally a little bit more expensive than the Sigma but worth it in my opinion and I only wish I'd bought it in the beginning instead of going with the Sigma. Hope this helps.
Eugene
