Question for Owners of early run Tamron 150-600 lens

[lescrane]

I read posts on various sites about Tamron 'fixing' autofocus problems by replacing a chip and firmware. Is this true or not? Has anyone here sent back their lens for this?

I got my lens with the first shipment in January. Generally it focuses fine on my 70D. Have had some problems acquiring BIFs in low contrast settings but a)am not an experienced BIF photographer, still have only done this occasionally b)not sure if this is 'normal' doesnt seem much different than the 100-400's I used to rent

Any feedback would be appreciated. I don't want to send the lens back for no reason.

 

[mpphoto]

I'm curious about this too. Bryan at The Digital Picture made a post today about Tamron updating the firmware for this lens.

http://www.the-digital-picture.com/News/News-Post.aspx?News=11539

My copy of this lens (purchased in February) usually works OK, but there was one occasion when it just wouldn't autofocus right. I'm thinking AFMA would have been the cure, but it would have been the first time I ever made an AFMA adjustment and it wasn't something I wanted to try in the field . If this firmware update really does make a difference, I'll consider sending mine in.

 

[candc]

I have one of the first ones shipped and I am very happy with it but its a bit too slow for bif and there are some AF issues on the long end.the article says you can ship it to tamron for the updste. I wonder if that's free? I am going to check into it. Thanks for posting.

 

[HankMD]

Mine works just fine. But then I don't do BIF with my 6D. The most vocal users seem to be those pairing it with the 7D. Lots of anecdotes, seemingly little systematic testing. This is complicated by the fact that inexperienced users are picking up long lenses en masse for the first time in history. As it is, I have no plan to send my in for update until there's solid evidence of a benefit. This evidence would have to come from expert shooters with access to both the old and new firmware lenses.

 

[candc]

i spoke with the tamron usa warranty dept. i am going to send the lens to them for the update. i have to pay the shipping to their facility but that is the only cost to me. sounds like this update should take care of the issues i am seeing mostly on the 70d in ai servo. it works better in one shot mode using the center point. hopefully this update will be an improvement. the fact that there is an update to improve af on canon bodies suggests the issue is not imaginary or due to inexperience. i will post when i get it back and test it out.

 

[lescrane]

just checked the thread. tx for all your input. will check the link to digital picture. I will send lens back during my "down" season for birds.

 

[candc]

i got the lens back from tamron yesterday, i haven't had a chance to do any real shooting with it but i gave it a quick test and the af seems to work fine now. it was a problem before at 600mm when trying to focus on distant subjects and the camera was prefocused on something close. i highly recommend any one owning the early run lenses to send it in for the update, its a big improvement.

 

[[email protected]]

I sent mine in and now perceive better focus. I did not systematically test before and after, nor did I previously have a specific problem.

 

[candc]

got to do some real shooting with it today and the af is definitely improved. tried it on some vultures in the bluffs. it was able to keep up with soaring birds and pick them out from the background. that's more than it could do before the update