Tamron SP 150-600mm F5-6.3 DI IF VC USD (1 Viewer)

[Roy C]

Here is another quote by one of the satisfied users over on POTN . As long as you can frame your subject with minimal cropping everything is fine, but if you have to do any more than very light cropping it's hard to maintain a usable image. Which is where the 'L's (and, probably, your Sigma) still earn their keep. This is what I have been saying and is why I put up the couple of 100% crops from the 400/5.6 to show that the Tammy would not stand anywhere near that amount of cropping and retain fine detail.

 

[FernandoBatista]

.... This is what I have been saying and is why I put up the couple of 100% crops from the 400/5.6 to show that the Tammy would not stand anywhere near that amount of cropping and retain fine detail.

I don't think anyone should expect the 150-600 to be as good as the canon 400mm F5.6, or any other good prime.
But how good is the 400 F/5.6 with a 1.4x TC on? Does it still stand to that much cropping? the only comparison I've saw from both at 560/600mm F/8 was very similar with the tamron being slightly better in the corners.
The images you showed weren't with a TC were they?
Also I think AF with canon and TC wouldn't work as well as the tamron at 600, I may be wrong tough.

I've tried the tamron for a few hours and it seemed decent, not as sharp as a prime but very acceptable to say the least. About as good as I would expect from a zoom.
This discussion is turning useful for me as I'm currently deciding between the tamron and a 400 f/5.6.

 

[Hor Kee]

Here is another quote by one of the satisfied users over on POTN . As long as you can frame your subject with minimal cropping everything is fine, but if you have to do any more than very light cropping it's hard to maintain a usable image. Which is where the 'L's (and, probably, your Sigma) still earn their keep. This is what I have been saying and is why I put up the couple of 100% crops from the 400/5.6 to show that the Tammy would not stand anywhere near that amount of cropping and retain fine detail.

That's exactly the experience of one of my friends who had the opportunity to try out this lens. Its IQ looked really soft once one tried cropping even if slightly.

 

[Paul - Herts]

I've given this a lot more thought and am still no closer to deciding which would be the better option for me and I think therein lies the root of disagreement. The 2 lenses we have been looking at over the last posts are very different beasts and whilst being in the same price range both have their strengths and weaknesses.

The Tamron has a good focal length range, gives sharp images at full-frame and with the VC is hand-holdable. For my own use, the zoom would be very useful especially for video.

The Canon 400 f5.6 is very sharp, allowing for hard cropping of photos. It doesn't have IS which is very important for some but more significantly it is a prime not a zoom.

Regardless of differences of opinion over the sharpness of the lens with extender, both the Canon and Tamron function well at roughly 560mm and there is very little difference in aperture speed either. The caveat with the Canon, of course, is that AF would function with live-view only with the Canon bodies from 70D and down - I am guessing here but think it would AF with 5D mkiii and up?? The Tamron, however, does seem to perform much better with the full-frame bodies too.

Honestly, I think that the only way anybody could be 100% certain which of the lenses suits their needs most would be to actually use them both. I think I am struggling because I could use the strengths of both lenses, the Tamron's zoom and the Canon's sharpness for cropping would both be hugely beneficial to me.

And finally, it's grey and dark again so that's another weekend wasted

Edit: and now it's raining again!

 

[Roy C]

The images you showed weren't with a TC were they?

Yes, if you look at post #205 you will see that the Robin was taken with a 1.4x tc - full EXIF is intact showing the 560mm, it is also cropped a fair bit. It not as good as the bare lens but typical of what I used to get.

The couple of 100% crops I put up must be equivalent to some like a 2000mm FOV I would have thought.

MY problem with the Tammy would be that even at a near 600mm I would still need to crop a fair bit most times and from everything I have read it does not stand a lot of cropping (I shot at 600mm for a couple of years with the the 300/2.8 + 2x tc and I almost always had to crop those shots).

For anyone who can get close enough with the Tammy without the need of cropping then I am sure it would serve you well and represents good value for money.

 

[Roy C]

I've given this a lot more thought and am still no closer to deciding which would be the better option for me and I think therein lies the root of disagreement. The 2 lenses we have been looking at over the last posts are very different beasts and whilst being in the same price range both have their strengths and weaknesses.

The Tamron has a good focal length range, gives sharp images at full-frame and with the VC is hand-holdable. For my own use, the zoom would be very useful especially for video.

The Canon 400 f5.6 is very sharp, allowing for hard cropping of photos. It doesn't have IS which is very important for some but more significantly it is a prime not a zoom.

Regardless of differences of opinion over the sharpness of the lens with extender, both the Canon and Tamron function well at roughly 560mm and there is very little difference in aperture speed either. The caveat with the Canon, of course, is that AF would function with live-view only with the Canon bodies from 70D and down - I am guessing here but think it would AF with 5D mkiii and up?? The Tamron, however, does seem to perform much better with the full-frame bodies too.

Honestly, I think that the only way anybody could be 100% certain which of the lenses suits their needs most would be to actually use them both. I think I am struggling because I could use the strengths of both lenses, the Tamron's zoom and the Canon's sharpness for cropping would both be hugely beneficial to me.

And finally, it's grey and dark again so that's another weekend wasted

I would not beat yourself up about it Paul as I am sure either lens would be OK for you. At the end of the day it is more to do with the person behind the Camera than the kit itself. By far the hardest thing I found when I was snapping birds was finding the bird to snap in the first place, the rest was easy 3.
P.S. If you wait a while you may even find used copies of the Tammy going cheap

 

[Paul - Herts]

MY problem with the Tammy would be that even at a near 600mm I would still need to crop a fair bit most times...

That I think is one of the most important considerations. There will always be a desire for greater reach and greater reach often translates as cropping.

 

[Paul - Herts]

I would not beat yourself up about it Paul as I am sure either lens would be OK for you. At the end of the day it is more to do with the person behind the Camera than the kit itself. By far the hardest thing I found when I was snapping birds was finding the bird to snap in the first place, the rest was easy 3.
P.S. If you wait a while you may even find used copies of the Tammy going cheap

Ideally, Canon would introduce an updated 100-400 with inbuilt 1.4 x extender, extremely sharp glass, auto subject detection and tracking, plus drinks dispenser, all for under a grand :t:

I might just invest in a GoPro Hero 3 and DJI Phantom quadcopter instead - if the birds won't come to me ...

 

[Hor Kee]

I might just invest in a GoPro Hero 3 and DJI Phantom quadcopter instead - if the birds won't come to me ...

That's the coolest idea :t:

 

[Paul - Herts]

That's the coolest idea :t:

I have lots of cool ideas it's just that many are darn stupid 3

Radio-controlled duck anyone? Having seen the dolphin pod cam on the BBC recently I think it might just work!

 

[chris129]

The caveat with the Canon, of course, is that AF would function with live-view only with the Canon bodies from 70D and down -

The 400/5.6 will AF if you have a non-reporting TC such as the Tamron but it will hunt more than with the bare lens. For some odd reason the 7D AF system does not do very well with this setup. The XXD and the Rebel series seem to do OK. Because there is no IS you will need at least a monopod. Whether one can lose the monopod with the Tamron on a crop camera remains to be seen. The zoom also could make the Tamron better for walking around birding. Having both lenses wouldn't be the end of the world.

 

[FernandoBatista]

The 400/5.6 will AF if you have a non-reporting TC such as the Tamron but it will hunt more than with the bare lens. For some odd reason the 7D AF system does not do very well with this setup. The XXD and the Rebel series seem to do OK.

If I was to get a 400mm F5.6 and use it with a 600d, witch TCs could I get that would still allow me AF with this body? Any tamron or kenko would do?

 

[Hor Kee]

The best result will be the Kenko Pro 300 AF 1.4x DGX

 

[Paul - Herts]

will that give AF with his 600D then?

 

[GYRob]

There are a few super shots posted in POTN but i think a lot of the shots iv seen are pushing the lens over what it can do .
Rob.

 

[Roy C]

will that give AF with his 600D then?

Paul, the Kenco DGX reports the correct EXIF details but still manages to fool the Cameras AF system into thinking it is not there. Therefore it will attempt to AF without the need to tape the pins (on any Canon crop Camera). This works reasonable well when you use one of the outside AF points but not as well when using the central AF point (this applies to all the croppers).

 

[Roy C]

There are a few super shots posted in POTN but i think a lot of the shots iv seen are pushing the lens over what it can do .
Rob.

I agree Rob, the nice shots are taken mostly in back garden set-ups where the bird is just about filling the frame but for shooting out in the wild where you cannot always get that near the images does not appear to stand a lot of cropping. This lens would be OK if you shoot from hides where you fairly near.With all these long teles it is a case of working within its limitations.
There also appears to be a problem with the AF when shooting BIF, seems like you have to manually pre-focus and then the lens will take over on AF but if you try to capture a flyers when the focus is way out it will not even try to lock on for some reason. Mind you this may be because a lot of folk are trying to use multiple focus points for the flyers. While single point expansion is fine for flyers it would be nice to use something like zone AF when the background is uncluttered but it seems as if that is not on with this lens. A lot of folk are hoping Tamron can fix this with a firmware update!

 

[Hor Kee]

I had a brief play with one at my local camera shop today. Tested it on my 650D which gave it up to 960mm equivalent focal length. Much heavier than my 400mm 5.6. Its VC did fine right to 1/125s at 600mm, thereby giving nearly about 3 stops of effective stabilization. However it was not easy to hold steady for long, the lens being rather heavy and long. Sharpness was quite good at 600mm f6.3, with a slight improvement at f8, but still lagged slightly behind the 400mm 5.6 when image was zoomed in. This confirms my concerns about cropping images shot with this lens. Overall a decent lens for the price, but I doubt it will replace my 400 5.6 and 300mm f4 IS.

 

[FernandoBatista]

I’ll bet the 400mm will have far better ability to be cropped, but a 600mm would need to be cropped less.
Taking that extra 200mm into account, witch would give you the better image if you're going for the 960mm FOV while shooting from the same place?
Will the 400mm take a 1.5x upsize and still hold better quality than the tamron natively?

I’ve a Tamron on order, it’s suppose to arrive next week but can just as easily get the 400mm, testing both at the same time would be difficult though, so it would be very helpful if someone who tried both could help me out before I make my final decision.

 

[micloi]

Taken in overcast conditions by a friend
1DIV, f7.1
552mm
ISO1600

Full frame and 100% crop. Resolves just fine even in bad light and high-ish ISO

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16187250/Tamron 150-600mm/1DIV/1div full frame iso1600 f7.1.jpg

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16187250/Tamron 150-600mm/1DIV/1div full crop iso1600 f7.1.jpg