pretty little birds, what setup?

[StudentOfLight]

It will take some time to get used to the Tamron and learn its way, unlike oem lenses like canon brand lenses every third party lenses has some goofy quirks about them on different bodies. For example lots of 7d2 owners need to micro adjust the tammy but on the 70D the servo tracking is a bit slow, i am not sure what the quirk s on the 5d3 body. Join the tamron 150-600 fb group and they will help you get setup and going fast with the lens.

The good news is the Tammy loves full frame bodies and works well on the 5D3 compared to crop stuff.

Anything at 150-400 can be shot beautifully wide open with fast autofocus and tracking, you may find your old 100-400 not getting much use anymore because the Tammy is that good. After 400 and to 600mm it will get soft wide open but if you step to f8 it is easily a great optic. The Tammy like every lens likes to be closer to the subject than further away and you will see a big difference it plays but if you shoot a bird for example super far out then don't go to 600mm, take the lens back to 400mm and shoot the bird so it will be a sharper crop later on. Scaling back to 400mm wide open also is the way to shoot bif with it and turning on the focus limiter helps your autofocus speed amazingly. Give it a good few months of shooting before you judge the lens, once you get it down you will love it no question. No need to play with extenders or anything with it, just walk and shoot.

It seems that you saying that the Tammy 150-600mm is best used between 150-400mm for all purposes - from BIF to birds far away? If so, wouldn't the 100-400mm be preferable?

I use mine on the 5D-III and I'd say it is good even wide open from 150-500mm at 600mm I feel the need to close down to f/9 or f/10 to get nice sharp results. So it does have some advantage over the new EF 100-400mm at the very least from 400-500mm.

Note: this advantage only applies to full frame shooting. If you shoot on a modern APS-C body and close down your aperture (e.g. f/9 - f/10) then this would soften your images due to diffraction.

Here is a nice roundup of the lenses on the market:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TawKGClbECU

 

[RickWagoner]

This is a Broadwing hawk taken with the Tammy. The bird was under seriously dark cover, so much as i used a monopod to get it. 1/160 shutter speed at 600mm f8 about 70 feet away from me with vc on. If i was closer i would of pulled more feather detail for sure but i did not want to spook him.

 

[AlanF]

Rick, I had a lot of fun with the Tamron 150-600mm for about a year on a 5DIII. I used to travel with it rather than the 300mm f/2.8 II plus TCs, and I did quite a lot of testing. The copy I had would outresolve at 600mm and f/8 400mm at f/8, as you can see from some chart centres below. But, when you weren't looking at the finest detail, there was hardly any difference among uprezzing 400 by 1.5x (top goose head), 500mm by 1.2x (middle goose head) and 600mm 100% crop of the goose head. The background is nicest at 600mm.

 

[candc]

I ordered the Tamron, eBay 850 dollars and VAT to pay once it arrives, total about 1000 dollars brand new.
Since I already have the 100-400 old version and I am shooting with a 5D3, the new version did not enter into this contest.
[/quote]

I like the tamron. The af is a bit slow on the long end but it is very accurate. Its good wide open through 400+ but if you are shooting 600 then set it to f/8 and leave it there. 1/250sec is a good speed to use for perched birds and stationary wildlife. I just use single shot but Don't fiddle around, just squeeze it through.

 

[martti]

An upgrade: The lens is blocked at the Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris.
A reminder about NOT doing business through the French Post.

 

[Ozarker]

An upgrade: The lens is blocked at the Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris.
A reminder about NOT doing business through the French Post.

Don't worry Marrti, the French are sure to... surrender it soon. ;D

I'll be very interested in how the lens performs for you. I'd have never considered a Tamron until getting the SP 15-30. It has really impressed me, so I'm ready to consider the Tamron long zoom... maybe save me about $9k on 600mm.

 

[DominoDude]

...
I've tried various configurations of the AF AI-Servo and Single shot, various configurations of one spot and clusters. The camera can stay on the bird for a while, then a branch moves and it locks there and then loses all interest to the birds.

...

Tossing in my two cents worth of knowledge:
Since you're using BBF, ditch the Single shot and have the BBF to work as AI-Servo while pressed and when you release you have the Single shot. On fairly stationery birds you should be able to nail the focus that way, and if you sense that focus is slightly off hit the BBF again until you have focus. This is my method with a single focus spot. (I mostly use clusters on BIFs, they tend to interfere too much with nearby branches otherwise.)
If I have the time, I try to pre-focus the guesstimated distance before I put the camera to my eye, it shortens the time the camera has to spend on focusing.
All this applies to me shooting with the Canon 7D, but should be applicable also to your body.

Also try to crank up the shutter. When I shoot with the 400/5.6L I rarely go with slower speeds than 1/640s. If I can it's 1/800s or faster. Dial up the ISO and let noise take the penalty. Should work even better for you on a FF body.

Good luck, and may the light be with you and the shutter finger steady!

 

[Ozarker]

This is a Broadwing hawk taken with the Tammy. The bird was under seriously dark cover, so much as i used a monopod to get it. 1/160 shutter speed at 600mm f8 about 70 feet away from me with vc on. If i was closer i would of pulled more feather detail for sure but i did not want to spook him.

Hi Rick! Do you happen to have Lightroom CC? That is a great shot and I think the dehaze slider would make it even better. So nice to see a bird doing something like that. Nice capture!

 

[JMZawodny]

I'm sorry, but the big whites cost so much because they are superior lenses. In my book the 500mm f4 is the best bang for the (insert unit of local currency). It handles the 1.4x extender well as well as crop sensors. So my recommendation mimics my recommendation for audio equipment. For audio, buy the best speakers you can afford. For photography, buy the best lens you can afford. Amplifiers and camera bodies come and go, but good speakers and lenses are forever.

 

[martti]

You do realize that "The best that you can afford" means different things for different people?

 

[Ozarker]

You do realize that "The best that you can afford" means different things for different people?

I have afford Focus.

 

[JMZawodny]

You do realize that "The best that you can afford" means different things for different people?

Naturally, it means different things to different people. My point is that it should be viewed as a long term investment. I still own and use a pair of Polk Audio SD-1a speakers that I purchased ~34 years ago, but I've had a few different receiver/amplifiers during that time. If you are willing to spend X on a body you should be willing to spend 3X on a lens - especially with versions of lenses that have come out in the last couple of years, there is very little room for improvement there as compared to the sensor and AF technologies in bodies.