I ran it through wide open, but also at f/6.3. The Sigma is f/6.3 wide open after 220mm so we tested at 300 and up both wide open and at f/6.3 to level the playing field. I won't have the numbers crunched for a bit, but the first look showed at f/6.3 the Tamron and Canon were better than the Bigma at 400mm. When they were all wide open (the Canon and Tamron giving up a half stop to the Sigma if I recall correctly) things were pretty even.
Picked up my copy yesterday. I got lucky and was able to purchase the first of a total of 5 that were delivered to Precision Camera in Austin, Tx. Here's a couple of my first shots.
Canon EOS Rebel T4i/Tamron SP150-600mm f/5-6.3 Di VC USD @ 600mm, 1/1000, f/7.1, ISO 800.
Distance is approximately 10m with some intermediate and out of focus branches, twigs and leaves. Hand held, rested on a bench. With a tripod and clear line of sight, these images would likely be cleaner/sharper.
I'm not a pro at all. I'm a relative newcomer to digital photography and this is my first real telephoto lens. I also own the Tamron SP70-300 f4-5.6 Di VC USD.
Yes, due to really annoying branches. I can post some uncropped if you like.
On edit: Here's an uncropped version
For some odd reason, these don't look near as sharp on this webpage as they do on my computer or even on Photobucket or another website that I post on. Very strange.
LandPirate, thanks for posting these as they seem like a typical neighborhood shooting scenario that I would practice. The image quality brings to mind those taken by the Bigma when I owned it years ago. but that lens didn't hit 600mm.
Click the link, under each photo it will tell you the camera and lens combo. To see exact exif info, click the "i" when you hover over the image. To see the original full res image, hover over the image and click original.
Thanks for shooting those. At 6.3 it looks a bit soft. At f8 it looks pretty good. I think 600mm at f8 looks better than the 100-400mm 5.6 with a 1.4x at f8. The 300mm with 2x I think looks better at 5.6, which is not much surprise.
With pulling up two of Big Countrys picture originals, side by side on the monitor, between the 100 400 with 2XIII and Tamron 150 500 I prefer the Tamron on the different selections I compared. On one comparison they were about even but on the others I thought the Tamron had slightly better detail. I compared them literally nose to nose with surrounding fur.
Same comparison between the Tamron and Canon 300 2.8 with 2XIII I thought the Canon 300 combination won out not by alot on some but more difference on others. It was actually alot closer than I expected.
Thank you very much Big Country for these shots. You covered both the scenarios that I was I was most interested in seeing.
The new images are so helpful, thanks big country! I just decided I'm getting the tamron and selling my 100-400. It looks like the shots with the higher iso and adequate shutter speeds show a great amount of detail and any soft images can be attributed to slightly too slow a shutter speed. This set is much more reassuring than the dog photos, thank you so much for putting the time into the tests. Thank god for third party lens makers and the advancements in computerized lens deign. I believe canon would charge at least double for this lens and probably more based on the new Nikon 80-400 price.
A huge thanks to big country for doing the zoo tests.
I haven't anylyzed every image but went through bunch of both the lion and tiger back and forth. My preliminary opinion on the IQ:
1)300 +1.4TC
2)300 + 2.0TC
3)100-400 bare
4)100-400 + 1.4TC
5)150-600 (at least when shot at 600).
I guess the world still makes sense after all. That said the IQ from the new lens is very good for and with better light the differences would shrink. The dull light that big country had today is not good usually for my 100-400 and I don't think it would be very good for the 150-600. Usually my 300II can make light like this work a little better and that shows in most of the images.
There are a bunch of 300II and 2.0TC tiger shots that have motion blur so I ignored those (near the very end of the set).
I think this is a dynamite lens and comes close to the 100-400 with 1.4TC but not quite. However, for people wanting to get to 600mm it is a very cost efficient way to do it and I think people will be happy with it.
That said, I want to hear what the issue was with the 1DX that big country alluded to in his earlier posting. Also want to hear about the AF because in reality that is really where the extra cost of the 300II combo pays the biggest dividends even more than in the IQ department. The 300II even with either TC attached is a speed demon for AF on the 5D3 and 1DX. The 100-400 falls far behind and the 100-400 + 1.4TC even further behind. I would guess the Tamron is also going to be in the 100-400 range but hopefully it is as good at AF as the bare 100-400 as that is still fairly decent for most things.
many thanks to both Big Country & Roger Cicala for sharing their thoughts/images on the new lens.. very helpful! I agree with arbitrage's summary ^ on the aforementioned lenses
As far as the 1dx goes, it was one of those brown out moments. Apparently when i packed my bag last night, the camera was left on and one button or another was touched so the camera stayed on all night. When i got the zoo, the battery was drained.
I also agree with your assessment arbitrage, i think this lens is a great economical option. For the price it's hard to beat.
But financially if you have other options, then you should weigh those as well.
But at the end of the day, someone with some smart shopping could buy a rebel, kit lens and this tamron and be out of pocket less than a new 100-400. Which honestly, I would encourage people to do looking to get into birding/wildlife photography.
big country wrote:
As far as the 1dx goes, it was one of those brown out moments. Apparently when i packed my bag last night, the camera was left on and one button or another was touched so the camera stayed on all night. When i got the zoo, the battery was drained.
I also agree with your assessment arbitrage, i think this lens is a great economical option. For the price it's hard to beat.
But financially if you have other options, then you should weigh those as well.
But at the end of the day, someone with some smart shopping could buy a rebel, kit lens and this tamron and be out of pocket less than a new 100-400. Which honestly, I would encourage people to do looking to get into birding/wildlife photography. ...Show more →
Oh that is good, I thought the 1DX had some issue with AF on the new lens!! I don't think the AF would be much different then how it was on the 5D3 anyways.
I had one on back order with Adorama (wasn't in this shipment), but was able to locate one at OneCall for a Monday delivery. I'll be continuing to watch these posts and reviews with interest.
Wow thanks for posting those. The lion shots seemed to favor the Canons slightly but the tiger shots looked fantastic with all of the combinations.
I live right near Grimsby Ontario which is pretty famous for having raptors migrate through it in Spring. Basically the Niagara Escarpment comes closest to Lake Ontario at Grimsby and because the lake is still really cold in the spring the raptors are forced to stay over land to ride the thermals. The lake and the escarpment funnel the raptors through about a 1-2 km stretch as they make their way up north. Really hoping to get my hands on a telephoto for it this year....Unfortunately my car is just out of warranty and I have a sinking feeling I may need a new head gasket...it goes in on Tuesday and fingers are crossed cause if it doesn't I'll be grabbing one of these.
Quickly I have a lot of respect for this lens. It arrived from FedEx and it was ice cold so I quickly wanted to see how smooth zoom ring and manual focus was...........very pleasant feel to both.
Extended out the zoom ring to full extension, there was no wobble or slop detected.
Looked down the front element, pretty wicked!
Mounted on camera, firm and secure, perfect actually, snug and reassuring fitment.
Randomly pointed to obtain focus, super silent and very quick
Turned on VC......don't hear a thing but man it works! Took a few shots at 600mm @ 1/50 with satisfactory results.
Not seeing at the moment any color casts as far as WB is concerned, Tamron has often been slightly warm for me.
Mounting foot and swivel are great, smooth rotation in ring and good feel to tensioner knob
Hood is lightweight, reverse stores on lens and mounts up easily with twist lock. Nice pinch style front cap provided.
oops forgot, need to download my free Silypix software which a link and license code is included
Just going to tell it like it goes for me. I spent $1069, I don't often pay retail for anything.
the EXIF finds this Tamron as a Canon 90-300 at the moment, interesting based on jeffries viewer exif
the EXIF finds this Tamron as a Canon 90-300 at the moment, interesting based on jeffries viewer exif
