jjbird wrote:
Hi folks,
After years of lurking this is my first FM post. Since Jan 17th, I have been testing this lens on BIF. Living near L&D 14 on the Mississippi river I have spent many hours shooting Eagles. Please take a look at the my results over the last few weeks. http://jjbird.smugmug.com/Photography/Tamron-150600-Lens/i-GKtJqV8
I really like this lens and find it to as sharp or better than my tried and true Canon 100-400L.
My copy does have a issue when used with my 7D in the Ai-Servo mode, it does not keep focus, as a work around I must keep bumping the focus button (I use back button focus) to keep focus. My other body is the Canon 6D, and Ai-Servo tracking works fine. I also tested this lens on the Canon 70D and Ai-Servo tracking was also worked fine. On a 1D Mark4 it did not work. This has all been reported to Tamron. This could be a firmware issue with certain Canon bodies. I am hoping for a fix from Tamron as I do not want to return this lens. ...Show more → IndyFab wrote:
Personally it amazes me they would of not beta tested these with all potential Canon camera's, find the flaws, correct them before they try to cash in on the lens.
Bad business decision ... they new...
By the way jbird great shots..
I'd hope that Sigma also tests the lens with high quality cameras like the D4/D4s.
jjbird wrote:
Hi folks,
After years of lurking this is my first FM post. Since Jan 17th, I have been testing this lens on BIF. Living near L&D 14 on the Mississippi river I have spent many hours shooting Eagles. Please take a look at the my results over the last few weeks. http://jjbird.smugmug.com/Photography/Tamron-150600-Lens/i-GKtJqV8
I really like this lens and find it to as sharp or better than my tried and true Canon 100-400L.
My copy does have a issue when used with my 7D in the Ai-Servo mode, it does not keep focus, as a work around I must keep bumping the focus button (I use back button focus) to keep focus. My other body is the Canon 6D, and Ai-Servo tracking works fine. I also tested this lens on the Canon 70D and Ai-Servo tracking was also worked fine. On a 1D Mark4 it did not work. This has all been reported to Tamron. This could be a firmware issue with certain Canon bodies. I am hoping for a fix from Tamron as I do not want to return this lens....Show more →
Those are some wonderful shots!
I think what we've been seeing with this Tamron is the difference between people that know how to handle a lens of this length, and those that um, are "learning". Is there copy variation? Most probably. Is the lens capable of sharp focus at 600mm? Apparently. Is it a game changer lens? To some degree, yes. A bargain most certainly.
For a lot of people - BIF types, sports, it's quite likely it's not going to meet their expectations when it comes to AF speed and accuracy - the one spot it appears lacking. It also retails for about the price of an EF 24-105 f4L IS!
However, I'd say your shots finally put this lens firmly into the "next on the list" slot for me. For my purposes (typically one-shot), it will suffice!
AnthonyRay wrote:
I think what we've been seeing with this Tamron is the difference between people that know how to handle a lens of this length, and those that um, are "learning". Is there copy variation? Most probably. Is the lens capable of sharp focus at 600mm? Apparently. Is it a game changer lens? To some degree, yes. A bargain most certainly.
For a lot of people - BIF types, sports, it's quite likely it's not going to meet their expectations when it comes to AF speed and accuracy - the one spot it appears lacking. It also retails for about the price of an EF 24-105 f4L IS!
However, I'd say your shots finally put this lens firmly into the "next on the list" slot for me. For my purposes (typically one-shot), it will suffice!
I suspect your first couple of sentences are not the case. I think it will generally be the photographers with lots of experience using long telephoto lenses to their fullest capacity who will be most disappointed and unwilling to accept a significant performance defect. Yes, all lenses have copy variation, but there's more going on here than just copy variation.
That said, I agree with your assessment of the lens being sold at a bargain price and having used it, it still has excellent potential if Tamron manages a "fix."
As a follow up to my above post showing my BIF images, I would like to thank everyone for your nice comments on my images. I am vary disappointed in the AiServo issues with my 7D and am not wanting to use my workaround (constant focus bumping) on a regular bases. Can I get by until Tamron addresses this issue ? Sure I can because I really enjoy using this lens. As I stated above AiServo mode works fine on my 6D, so today when shooting I will not have to be bumping focus all the time.
I have shot many in focus sequential shots with my 6D and if any of you would like I will post them on my website. My question is how best would you like to view them? I think I have some sequential shots 9 to 11 images in a row. This is a great website and I am enjoying my involvement.
Thanks again for your comments,
Jay
jjbird wrote:
As a follow up to my above post showing my BIF images, I would like to thank everyone for your nice comments on my images. I am vary disappointed in the AiServo issues with my 7D and am not wanting to use my workaround (constant focus bumping) on a regular bases. Can I get by until Tamron addresses this issue ? Sure I can because I really enjoy using this lens. As I stated above AiServo mode works fine on my 6D, so today when shooting I will not have to be bumping focus all the time.
I have shot many in focus sequential shots with my 6D and if any of you would like I will post them on my website. My question is how best would you like to view them? I think I have some sequential shots 9 to 11 images in a row. This is a great website and I am enjoying my involvement.
Thanks again for your comments,
Jay...Show more →
Welcome Jay, and thanks for your contribution to the conversation.
-Cam
JJ, I think it's really interesting that it works on the 6D. Have you made Tamron aware of this? I've just had an email back from Tamron UK stating that they were unaware of the issue and took a contact number for me and sent the email on to Germany (european hq, maybe?).
jjbird wrote:
As a follow up to my above post showing my BIF images, I would like to thank everyone for your nice comments on my images. I am vary disappointed in the AiServo issues with my 7D and am not wanting to use my workaround (constant focus bumping) on a regular bases. Can I get by until Tamron addresses this issue ? Sure I can because I really enjoy using this lens. As I stated above AiServo mode works fine on my 6D, so today when shooting I will not have to be bumping focus all the time.
I have shot many in focus sequential shots with my 6D and if any of you would like I will post them on my website. My question is how best would you like to view them? I think I have some sequential shots 9 to 11 images in a row. This is a great website and I am enjoying my involvement.
Thanks again for your comments,
Jay...Show more →
You also mentioned that it worked with the 70D? My two primary bodies are the 6D and the 70D. So I should be fine? Thanks for your investigations!
A big thanks to JJ for actually presenting some really good shots and giving an honest and detailed opinion of the AIServo.
So far we have AIServo issues I think reported on the 7D and 1D4 (by Tony). I think it may also be reported on the 1DX?? But interesting that 6D and 70D (same focusing system basically) seem to work okay.
Does anyone remember if 1DX and 5D3 have been reported to have the problem...if one does the other will also as AF is identical.
At least now after seeing JJ's shots I can be confident that in the right hands this lens is very sharp and capable but constant bumping is annoying. That said, I sometimes have to bump focus on the 1DX and 600II (or 300II) but that is because my settings are designed to lock on and not let go and if it does let go, I have to bump or it won't go back till it is too late. This is just one way of doing things, based off of J.Neiger's and Arash's technique for handheld BIF. Case 2 on 5D3/1DX with sliders even more to the left.
I do notice though that in Jay's shots as soon as the light went away, the IQ did degrade quite a lot. Now this also happens with the 100-400 (and I guess every lens to some extent). However, I was a bit surprised at how much of a difference there was in the Tamron shots between good light and average/poor light. Of course this also has to do with the body being used as a 1DX will do much better in these low-light conditions if you properly raise the ISO. The 7D not so much but the 6D should do very good as would the 5D3.
cameron12x wrote:
Hmm, I could be wrong, but I thought these two AF systems were very different from each other?
The 6D basically an extension of the 5D and the 70D very similar to the 7D?
Actually, you are right, I forgot the 70D used the 19pt system and was thinking it was just the 6D/5D system with dual pixel. So I guess it is the 7D/70D system that may be the biggest issue.
AnthonyRay wrote:
I think what we've been seeing with this Tamron is the difference between people that know how to handle a lens of this length, and those that um, are "learning".
How so, guys? Genuinely interested to hear why you think this?
Some people are obviously better photographers, or have benefited from better shooting conditions/subjects than others so far with this lens.
This will be surely be the same with any other lens/camera set up, on any other thread?
So I'm not sure if your comments are aimed at this scenario, or that you are saying the 'issues' with this lens are down to 'learners' not knowing what they are doing.
In which case please share with us your experinece of how this lens works for you. What is your set up? Thanks to the contributors to these threads we appear to have possibly identified a trend in which bodies are affected and which aren't. Being a 7D owner myself, and having the 'issue' it's reassuring to hear other 7D owners are reporting the same issue. A 6D owner says it doesn't happen on his, but it does on his 7D. Maybe he's a pro-photographer on his 6D, but can't shoot a barn door once he has the 7 in his hand...
surfinrobin wrote:
Maybe he's a pro-photographer on his 6D, but can't shoot a barn door once he has the 7 in his hand...
Well, the 6D is likely to either hit it's target, or miss the barn door completely, while the superior tracking ability of the 7D is more likely to get closer when it misses, giving the perception of worse performance?
My intended use for the lens is as follows with my two bodies:
6D: Almost exclusively static shots where high image quality is of utmost importance.
70D: Static shots + some action/sports/BIF when appropriate.
So far, I've tested with the 6D and am completely happy with the lens. It delivers what I want. I could keep the lens just for the 6D and not worry about action/sports/BIF. It's worth it at this price point to reach ~600mm of quality pixels and also have the flexibility of a 4X zoom factor.
My next round of testing will be exclusively with the 70D.
arbitrage wrote:
Actually, you are right, I forgot the 70D used the 19pt system and was thinking it was just the 6D/5D system with dual pixel. So I guess it is the 7D/70D system that may be the biggest issue.
Already tested it in AiServo on a 70D and it worked fine.
Jay
Imagine if the Nikon version comes out and it has no issues - get ready for a real turf war!!