Newbie needs help: Tamron 150-600mm

[PicaPica]

hello,

i am 16 years old and from germany.
i bought my first DSLR 8 month ago, with a kit lens and a 100L macro. i am very happy with my 550D and the macro lens.

i always wanted to get into wildlife photography and so i bought the tamron 150-600mm.
yesterday i got the tamron.

now as i wrote i am newbie, i have no experience with such telezooms and i guess im a bit spoiled by the quality of the 100L macro.
1200 euro are a lot money for me, im going to school and that´s what i saved over the last year.

so i would like to ask you guys to have a look at the images and tell me if i have a good copy or not.

these are the first snapshots i have made just for testing the image quality.
some are handheld some with a monopod.
no resize, 100% crops. sometimes sharpening.

thanks for your help.

http://i.imgur.com/ijFvGiU.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/JSITzPp.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/VzknZ0s.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/PTlZCCD.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/R0ySQcp.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/n3c2Bv5.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/BCrwkV3.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/tEsmKGo.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/nd1WMpt.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/wbQ46b7.jpg

oh i see the exifs are gone.. all at 600mm with f6.3, f7.1 or f8.0

[Skatol]

It appears that your copy is perfectly fine.  Be careful of shutter speed.  Be sure to include the crop factor when using the 1/focal length rule for setting your shutter.  Stabilization is nice to have but is no match for high shutter speeds for wildlife photography.  Enjoy your lens, look forward to seeing some future posts.

[PicaPica]

thanks for your reply.

as i wrote im maybe a bit spoiled from the 100mm f2.8 L macro.
and i have no experience to compare the tamron with.

but  doesn´t this look a bit soft?

1/640s and monopod. iso 800.
im always willing to accept when someone says that my skills suck...
i will work on that.

it´s just that 1200 euro are a lot money for me and i want to be sure the copy i got is good.
 
http://i.imgur.com/zb0R6aI.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/08IZlw8.jpg

[Drizzt321]

What aperture? The Tamron is quite good for the price, however to get best sharpness you typically have to stop down to f/8-f/11 depending on the focal length.

Plus, while 1/640s is reasonably fast, if you are hand holding you need to use excellent technique to avoid a tiny bit of camera shake. Really, while a monopod can help with the right technique, a tripod is often best as it provides the stability needed for super-telephoto lenses.

[Skatol]

Long lens technique takes some practice.  As Drizz stated you may want to stop down to at least F/8.  You linked a couple of photos that are very sharp which leads me to believe it is technique that is giving you the soft images.  To minimize the appearance of softness and camera shake you would need a minimum shutter speed of 1/1000 (1/600 * 1.6 crop factor = 1/960).  Even with IS you still need a stable platform and/or good technique to shoot with slower shutter speeds.  I am not saying your skills suck.  You state that this focal length is new to you.  All I am saying is it will take some practice to achieve the results you are looking for.  600mm requires a completely different technique than 100mm.  Keep practicing, check your settings and see what the differences are between the soft and sharp images.  Once you understand the limitations and compensate then I think you'll be very happy with the lens.  I have a Sigma 150-500 and generally don't use it unless it is a sunny day.  It just doesn't allow enough light to keep the shutter speed high enough.  This is my experience, others may have better technique and therefore better results.  I get my best shots with my 600 mounted on a gimbal.

[PicaPica]

thanks guys.

i agree that it´s my technique that needs improvement.
 
thought with a monopod and a shutterspeed of 1/200s or 1/400s plus the IS should be enough.
and in the viewfinder it seems that i can hold it pretty stable. but maybe that´s misleading.

i read that some can hold the tamron at 1/80s an get sharp images... but i guess i need some extra speed (faster then 1/400s) because i am not that good yet. not even with a monopod.

I am not saying your skills suck.

i did not think you meant to say that with your reply.
only mentioned it because, when my skills sucks it would be better then a bad copy.
i know that i have to practice a lot, but sending in the lens would be a bummer.
 

[Skatol]

Here are a few articles that may be of help.
Just Google "long lens technique".
http://www.naturephotographers.net/ejp0801-1.html
http://www.moosepeterson.com/techtips/longlens.html
http://www.outdoorphotographer.com/how-to/shooting/long-lens-techniques.html

[PicaPica]

Here are a few articles that may be of help.
Just Google "long lens technique".
http://www.naturephotographers.net/ejp0801-1.html
http://www.moosepeterson.com/techtips/longlens.html
http://www.outdoorphotographer.com/how-to/shooting/long-lens-techniques.html

thanks for the links.... first link is like he describes me.

Judgment day comes when you get your first few rolls of slide film back from the lab and look at them with your loupe. "There must be something wrong with this lens - I had it on my tripod and the image looked sharp in the viewfinder but most of these photos are fuzzy!" This is an all too common occurrence.

by the way.
i know that i should rest my left hand on the lens barrel.

but to be honest i applied a bit of pressure. that´s wrong, right?
i should just lay it on the lens barrel and not apply a bit force (use my arm muscles) to press it down?

[samkatz]

congrats on your purchase. your shots look fine. Remember with a long lens any movement will be magnified. So  proper shutter speed, IS/VC, technique, tripod/monopod will help.  Don't forget sometimes the birds move too and that can't be fixed...faster shutter speed of course will help "freeze" movement.

you can also do 2 stage sharpening, one in RAW, then unsharp mask in photoshop or some plug in or stand alone

[Skatol]

by the way.
i know that i should rest my left hand on the lens barrel.

but to be honest i applied a bit of pressure. that´s wrong, right?
i should just lay it on the lens barrel and not apply a bit force (use my arm muscles) to press it down?

I personally find it more comfortable to apply pressure under the barrel.  I doesn't feel as natural to maneuver the lens while resting my hand on top.  This is a personal preference.  The whole purpose is to dampen the vibration so slight pressure should not be a problem.  Applying pressure to the point where you sacrifice mobility is not advisable.

[SlydeR]

I agree...some of you pics are very sharp...and you do need to start from somewhere....once you are willing to perfect your technique, you can only get better...

I've been waiting soooo long for B&H to have this lens in stock...I've just about given up

[IMG_0001]

I'd add that factors that you don't really bother for with a normal lense can influence shots at such long focal lenght. For example, if the air is damp, your images won't look sharp or saturated. Heat haze often makes things very mushy and any movement you make will also be magnified. As other have said, fast shutter speeds are often required anyways to avoid blur from subject movement for which no monopod, tripod or lens stabilization can compensate.

Good luck.

[TexPhoto]

The pictures look good to me.  As some have already mentioned, technique is important.  Do you have mirror lock, have you tried it?

Something to keep in mind is with ultra long lenses, you are often photographing things so far away, atmospheric issues come into play.  I shoot a 400mm f2.8IS with a 1.4X and sometime 2X converter.  At something like a surfing competition, I will often be disappointed by the image quality at 800mm.  But much of that image quality is the amount of moving heated atmosphere boiling between me and the subject.  In fact my 800mm photos in the early morning are much more crisp than later in the day.

Look at these 2 images and you will see the difference a few hundred yards of atmosphere can make.


Untitled by RexPhoto91, on Flickr


Untitled by RexPhoto91, on Flickr

[Mt Spokane Photography]

After looking at most of the images, your issue with the birds is that the shutter speed is a bit slow, use 1/1000.  Birds sitting in a tree are going to be moving, and IS will do nothing for a moving subject. 
 
In the case of the birds on the concrete, the camera has likely chosen to focus slightly in front of the bird and on the concrete.
 
For the cases where you are shooting a still object, things look fine. 
 
There are some of things you can do to sharpen up the images. 
 
1. Stop down to f/8, most lenses, including the 100L are sharper when stopped down at least one stop.. 
2.  Increase shutter speed for anything that could be moving or blowing in the wind.  IS cannot freeze a moving subject.
3.  Watch out for situations where the camera may not be focusing exactly where you want.  The actual AF sensor is larger than the red square in the viewfinder, and it will focus on the closest object it detects.  It may also prefer horizontal objects to vertical ones.  Cameras with spot AF like the 7D can let you choose to reduce the size of the AF sensor and better pick out your target to focus on.
 
4.  Don't expect a modestly priced lens to match a $10,000 lens like the 600mmL.

[PicaPica]

thanks again for you help.

i noticed the problem with the heat shimmer yesterday.

i tried to photograph a bird on our roof (around 14.00 pm).
i was a bit shocked because no matter what i tried (tripod, 1000/s, shooting 20 pictures) all was unsharp.
i knew it was no back/frontfocus problem because the whole image was unsharp and it looked kind of strange.

it puzzled me for a while, first i thought flawed IS could be the issue.
until i realized that it was a very warm day for march and that heat shimmer was the problem.

Don't expect a modestly priced lens to match a $10,000 lens like the 600mmL

no no that´s of course not what i expect.
only wanted to know if the quality is ok for the tamron.

i think i will spend my next money on a Benro GH2 gimbal.
i hear it´s pretty good and affordable (after some saving ) for me.

i read there is also a carbon benro GH2 yet, for 80 euro more.
but im always a bit concerned about carbon.
someone told me he killed a very expensive gitzo by dropping (knocked over by wind) it on sharp rocks.
something his aluminium tripods would have withstand without a problem.

but on the other side my benro carbon monopod is nice and very light... so im unsure.