They aren't photographers so why would you trust results of a guy who seats behind a desk and rents lenses over someone who takes photos for a living...
AnthonyRay wrote:
Seriously?
You make that sort of blanket judgement about any line of work?
Yeah, I can see starting a car magazine because I knew absolutely nothing about cars, didn't really care about them, but liked the pretty colors they come in.
Or are you just trolling?
DmitriM wrote:
I am serious... Do you have something to say or you just like to disagree with people?
AnthonyRay wrote:
Where do you see me "disagreeing" with you?
I do think its wrong to say that you know empirically that Roger is not a photographer because he runs a company that rents lenses.
My Brother. A locally well known family doctor and surgeon for over 40 years.
Knows nothing about flying or planes? Or is a famous pilot and restorer of vintage aircraft? Your call.
One thing my half century plus on this planet has taught me, is to never judge a book by its cover.
DmitriM wrote:
Well, is he or is he not a working photographer? What's the point of the argument if I am right?
You are welcome to put be back to my place if you give facts disapproving my statement. Otherwise it's a pointless argument.
Rogers tests are incredibly helpful and non biased, and we should be glad he takes the time to do them and to publish the information. He does state quite strongly that these are lab test and that real world use is more important.
But if a lens cant perform in a lab its going to struggle oin the hands of a photographer.
Many of these 150-600s are going to be bought by people as a first 'long lens' once their kit lens or 55-250 isnt cutting it for reach.
600mm, especially on crop, with little experience is a recipe for disaster more often than not, I expect a huge amount of poor images and complaints about this. We have enough about the 100-400 let alone a 3rd party lens with 50% more focal length.
I am not a professional working photographer, nor do I ever intend to be one, although I enjoy photography. I simply found out that I enjoy learning about the equipment and optics every bit as fascinating as using it to produce the images.
I don't think of it as much different than back when I was a kid and thought I wanted to be a race-car driver. I did some driving, but found I much preferred being the mechanic and making the equipment function perfectly. With the the difference that most race car drivers really appreciated a good mechanic
Rogers tests are incredibly helpful and non biased, and we should be glad he takes the time to do them and to publish the information. He does state quite strongly that these are lab test and that real world use is more important.
But if a lens cant perform in a lab its going to struggle oin the hands of a photographer.
Many of these 150-600s are going to be bought by people as a first 'long lens' once their kit lens or 55-250 isnt cutting it for reach.
600mm, especially on crop, with little experience is a recipe for disaster more often than not, I expect a huge amount of poor images and complaints about this. We have enough about the 100-400 let alone a 3rd party lens with 50% more focal length. ...Show more →
Yep.. for those of you jumping into a 600mm lens for the first time, especially one that is a max of f/6.3 at that focal length, you're going to want all the shutter speed you can muster, at least 1/1000th even with the image stabilization, and unless you like noisy photos this will mean you'll be limited to shooting with it on a nice day with lots of sun light. Just something to keep in mind. The camera will probably try to keep the shutter speed up automatically if you're shooting in Av mode, but just keep an eye on it.
molson wrote:
It would have been interesting to measure what the actual focal lengths of these lenses are, versus what the manufacturers claim...
Roger did mention that the Sigma 50-500mm required 420mm to match the 400mm FOV of the other lenses. So it would seem that the Sigma 50-500mm is more impacted by focus breathing at less than infinity.
RCicala wrote:
I am not a professional working photographer, nor do I ever intend to be one, although I enjoy photography. I simply found out that I enjoy learning about the equipment and optics every bit as fascinating as using it to produce the images.
I don't think of it as much different than back when I was a kid and thought I wanted to be a race-car driver. I did some driving, but found I much preferred being the mechanic and making the equipment function perfectly. With the the difference that most race car drivers really appreciated a good mechanic
Thank you so much for the time you took to furnish the review on this lens. Your reviews are very much appreciated and to be honest the ones I most want to read. I could care less how many pictures you take, it's your expertise in gear that I value. Not alot of photographers have or want the access to equipment or degree of knowledge on equipment that you do.
hoodlum90 wrote:
Roger did mention that the Sigma 50-500mm required 420mm to match the 400mm FOV of the other lenses. So it would seem that the Sigma 50-500mm is more impacted by focus breathing at less than infinity.
At infinity the Sigma is only 465mm, the Canon 385mm and apparently the Tamron is around 580mm. Sigma seems to have the largest discrepancy from stated and actual max FL.
Will Patterson wrote:
Yep.. for those of you jumping into a 600mm lens for the first time, especially one that is a max of f/6.3 at that focal length, you're going to want all the shutter speed you can muster, at least 1/1000th even with the image stabilization, and unless you like noisy photos this will mean you'll be limited to shooting with it on a nice day with lots of sun light. Just something to keep in mind. The camera will probably try to keep the shutter speed up automatically if you're shooting in Av mode, but just keep an eye on it....Show more →
Will Patterson wrote:
Yep.. for those of you jumping into a 600mm lens for the first time, especially one that is a max of f/6.3 at that focal length, you're going to want all the shutter speed you can muster, at least 1/1000th even with the image stabilization, and unless you like noisy photos this will mean you'll be limited to shooting with it on a nice day with lots of sun light. Just something to keep in mind. The camera will probably try to keep the shutter speed up automatically if you're shooting in Av mode, but just keep an eye on it....Show more →
For moving subject such as birds in flight and at 600mm yes, you will need at least 1/600 shutter speed (1/1000 minimum speed is overkill probably). However at 400mm the Tamron can be shot at f5.6 according the chart that Roger provided in his testing link.
The biggest problem for us BIF shooters is the weight and length. Can this lens be handheld without shaking issues? Do I need to think about upgrading my tripod head to a Wimberley/Gimbal type? Do I need to buy a battery pack for my 7D and/or 5D to balance the weight of carrying such a heavy lens. These are the questions I am considering.
At infinity the Sigma is only 465mm, the Canon 385mm and apparently the Tamron is around 580mm. Sigma seems to have the largest discrepancy from stated and actual max FL.
Is this the same for both a full frame and an APS-C crop DSLR or do the numbers change accordingly?
sfink161 wrote:
For moving subject such as birds in flight and at 600mm yes, you will need at least 1/600 shutter speed (1/1000 minimum speed is overkill probably). However at 400mm the Tamron can be shot at f5.6 according the chart that Roger provided in his testing link.
The biggest problem for us BIF shooters is the weight and length. Can this lens be handheld without shaking issues? Do I need to think about upgrading my tripod head to a Wimberley/Gimbal type? Do I need to buy a battery pack for my 7D and/or 5D to balance the weight of carrying such a heavy lens. These are the questions I am considering. ...Show more →
All good questions, and you can now afford all of those options due to the price point of this lens!
sfink161 wrote:
For moving subject such as birds in flight and at 600mm yes, you will need at least 1/600 shutter speed (1/1000 minimum speed is overkill probably).
1/1000 is hardly overkill for 600mm. Many of the best BIF shots at 600mm that I have seen were taken at 1/2000 or 1/3200.
The biggest problem for us BIF shooters is the weight and length. Can this lens be handheld without shaking issues? Do I need to think about upgrading my tripod head to a Wimberley/Gimbal type?
It is about the same weight as the 400 DO, which I have no problem handholding.
Do I need to buy a battery pack for my 7D and/or 5D to balance the weight of carrying such a heavy lens.
RCicala wrote:
It will take me a while to write everything up, but I thought I'd give a quick summary on MTF data:
At 200-30mm, the Tamron 150-600, Canon 100-400 IS, and Sigma 50-500 are generally in the same ballpark. The Tamron 200-500 lags behind the other three.
At 400mm the Tamron 150-600 and Canon edge out the Sigma 50-500, although not massively. The Tamron 200-500 still lags.
At 600 the Tamron has a significant drop in sharpness, although it's certainly still acceptable. And, well, none of the others are still shooting at 600. Of course, at 600mm so many other factors are involved in getting a sharp image that I doubt the drop-off would be particularly noticeable. ...Show more →
Saw the full review, this new tamron 150-600 really seems to be pretty impressive.
Kinda makes the 100-400L not seem terribly sensible. If you want light and reach with uber top optics the 70-300L is it and if you want a lot of reach without quite the cost or weight of 300 2.8 + TCs and all the 15-600 seems to do the trick better than the 100-400 (as the tamron seems to look much better than the mess the 10-400L is with a 1.4x TC).
What camera are you using? Showing us a 1200x800 pic and saying it's a 100% crop doesn't tell us much without knowing either the camera (FX/DX/megapixels) or a pic showing the whole frame. I ask because they look like pretty well framed and complete pictures.
100% crops on a lower resolution camera will make the lens look nicer than 100% crops on a high megapixel one, like a d800e (which makes most lenses look bad once you start pixel peeping!).
And as far as all the people complaining about lab testing, or sharpness testing at all, not being worth anything. That's hogwash and silly, except for one point. How lenses perform against each other under ideal conditions will tell us a lot about how they'll perform under less than ideal conditions. So many people forget that others don't use lenses in the same way they do, and benchmarks matter.
Where lab tests fail, and the only area for complaints in my opinion, is the inability to test at the longer distances. Instead of 13-30 feet like the lensrentals test, I'd like a 600mm lens to be tested at 100+ feet. But that'd be a big target they'd have to print!
The one thing I havnt ever felt with a 3rd party lens is that it locks and tracks with autofocus like a canon does. I guess thats possibly the only reason you would look at the more expensive 100-400 now.
Jan 20, 2014 at 03:01 AM
Lars Johnsson Offline • • • • • • • Upload & Sell: Off
RobDickinson wrote:
The one thing I havnt ever felt with a 3rd party lens is that it locks and tracks with autofocus like a canon does. I guess thats possibly the only reason you would look at the more expensive 100-400 now.
But when you put an extender on the 100-400 to get closer to 600mm. Then it will not lock or track as before
One thing I haven't seen mentioned. There's a youtube video of the 150-600 autofocusing back and forth (on purpose) between a tree and the far away background, and it seems to be pretty fast. Not having one of these long zooms myself, I can't say for sure, but I can't imagine the 100-400 would be much faster.
Locking maybe not, but as far as tracking, isn't that more of a function of the camera?
sfink161 wrote:
For moving subject such as birds in flight and at 600mm yes, you will need at least 1/600 shutter speed (1/1000 minimum speed is overkill probably). However at 400mm the Tamron can be shot at f5.6 according the chart that Roger provided in his testing link.
The biggest problem for us BIF shooters is the weight and length. Can this lens be handheld without shaking issues? Do I need to think about upgrading my tripod head to a Wimberley/Gimbal type? Do I need to buy a battery pack for my 7D and/or 5D to balance the weight of carrying such a heavy lens. These are the questions I am considering. ...Show more →
If you can get good BIF shots at 600mm at 1/600 of a second consistently then you are doing good. Personally even for large eagles and swans I like to be at 1/1000 minimum and as Tony mentioned, the best shots by the best BIF photographers are usually up at 1/2000 or even faster. This is with using the best IS system in the business in the 600II lens. I'm not sure how Tamron's version will compare.
As per handholding, everyone will have to see for themselves what works. Personally, I already handhold the 1DX/600II combo (even with TCs attached). However, I also sometimes work off a monopod or tripod with Gimbal when I feel the situation warrants it. That said handholding for BIF can't be beat if you can manage it.
