Tamron 150-600 f/5-6.3 VC Availability

[mackguyver]

I can certainly live with it, especially since I don't _have_ anything longer than the 135L right now, although I do plan on getting a 70-200. Other than that, this is a lens for me to have that's decent and will give me a nice long reach when I choose to go down to the beach and try and get some good surf photos, or try my hand a bit at birding now and then.

You're certainly an ideal customer for this lens! If I was still in that boat, I'd jump on this in a heartbeat.

 

[Don Haines]

I had the pleasure of trying one out and using it this afternoon, - it's in the UK shops folks! LCE pricing it at £1170. It was about the same size roughly as my old Canon 100-400 L lens, the weight was much as I expected it to be, - considerable heavier than my current 400 f5.6L, but not a problem, I hand-held it on a 7D to take a number of shots, it felt nicely balanced and the IS worked well. It focused very swiftly without hunting despite fading light. In short, I want one! But here's the dilemma. I've been told that if I use it on a F/F body the images might be soft at the edges. Someone else said there could be distortion at the edges of the images used on a F/F. Both advised that being an independent brand it might be better to use it on a crop body, despite perhaps, a lower IQ and/or more noise from a cropped sensor. Even more disappointing was the advice to go for the proprietary brand equivalent-range lens on a crop body rather than risk the Tamron, - and this from a sales rep. who was going to be selling it! Whilst I could happily accept the advice to go for the crop body, (if I was really to gain from that, - greater reach but more noise or lower ISO ceiling as against possible soft edges or distortion using a F/F body), being advised that the manufacturers' own lens would be a better bet in respect of IQ (at double the cost) deflated me somewhat, given the hype been given to this lens, and the affordable price. And the sales reps. advising me hadn't tried it for themselves of course. Indeed they might not have personally tried similar long lenses on both crop and F/F bodies to be able to justify their contention. Would be interested in other's ideas on this, before I commit!

Nice shop to avoid....
The lens could be soft at the edges.... unlike the 100-400 which is renowned for a razor-sharp image across the entire view.... NOT!
They say the lens works better on a crop body?!?!?!?!? That would definitely be a first for Tamron if it were true...
Use an equivalent range zoom lens????? Did they say who makes one? How come nobody else knows of an equivalent lens?
And all this from people who have not tried the lens.... WOW!!!!!
Nice shop to avoid!

Hi,
Of course this lens work better on a crop body... eqv. 240-960mm with AF...

Anyway, base on the limited online review, I expected this lens will have vignetting at 600mm wide open on FF (I suspect this is the case when they announce that the lens include an image processing software) and I also don't expect it to be sharp at the corner at 600mm on FF also... at this price, I can live with that as long as image quality and AF is good at 600mm...

Probably will get this lens to replace my 400mm F5.6L + 1.4x TC for birding.

Have a nice day.

I guess I didn't explain myself well... Lenses are always sharper on the FF cameras, but there is more reach with crop and when at the long end of the lens, more pixels on target with a crop camera than a FF camera. If it is a really soft lens it may resolve LESS detail on a crop camera than on a FF camera, but if it is a reasonable lens (or especially a sharp lens) it may resolve more detail on a crop camera that a FF camera...

From what I have seen so far of this lens, it seems to be somewhere between reasonable and sharp and I would guess that it would resolve more detail on a crop camera than a FF camera.... but that's just a guess. When mine comes I will find out for sure..... but one thing seems fairly certain, the 150-600 has to be better than my rather soft 120-400 from Sigma....

 

[Drizzt321]

I can certainly live with it, especially since I don't _have_ anything longer than the 135L right now, although I do plan on getting a 70-200. Other than that, this is a lens for me to have that's decent and will give me a nice long reach when I choose to go down to the beach and try and get some good surf photos, or try my hand a bit at birding now and then.

You're certainly an ideal customer for this lens! If I was still in that boat, I'd jump on this in a heartbeat.

So far the early stuff is mostly pretty positive, but I'll wait a bit to see some more reviews by a wider selection of people. Also, I'd like to save up a bit first, maybe get the 70-200 f/2.8 IS v2 first.

 

[jthomson]

So, just checked and there is no USA availability today.
It does appear to be in stores in Europe, although the European launch date was never announced.

 

[Albi86]

So, just checked and there is no USA availability today.
It does appear to be in stores in Europe, although the European launch date was never announced.

Can I ask you which stores? EU Amazons don't have it and I can't find it on price search engines either.

Anyway, the release in US was probably moved to monday, I guess.

 

[jthomson]

So, just checked and there is no USA availability today.
It does appear to be in stores in Europe, although the European launch date was never announced.

Can I ask you which stores? EU Amazons don't have it and I can't find it on price search engines either.

Anyway, the release in US was probably moved to monday, I guess.

http://www.wexphotographic.com/buy-tamron-150-600mm-f5-6-3-sp-di-vc-usd-lens-canon-fit/p1547626

 

[Albi86]

So, just checked and there is no USA availability today.
It does appear to be in stores in Europe, although the European launch date was never announced.

Can I ask you which stores? EU Amazons don't have it and I can't find it on price search engines either.

Anyway, the release in US was probably moved to monday, I guess.

http://www.wexphotographic.com/buy-tamron-150-600mm-f5-6-3-sp-di-vc-usd-lens-canon-fit/p1547626

Well, they're also still preorders

Anyway I'm happy to see some EU prices. 950 quids means it will be around 1050 Euros and doomed to go down quickly. The street price of the 24-70 VC is now around 800 Euros.

 

[jthomson]

http://www.wexphotographic.com/buy-tamron-150-600mm-f5-6-3-sp-di-vc-usd-lens-canon-fit/p1547626
[/quote]

Well, they're also still preorders

[/quote]
Actually the Canon version is in stock

 

[Don Haines]

B and H in the United States still list the 150-600 as a pre-order..... but if you sort their lenses by "most popular", the 150-600 comes up as number 25 out of 848 lenses..... not bad for something that hasn't hit the market yet!

Camera Canada also lists it as pre-order...

 

[Albi86]

http://www.wexphotographic.com/buy-tamron-150-600mm-f5-6-3-sp-di-vc-usd-lens-canon-fit/p1547626

Well, they're also still preorders

[/quote]
Actually the Canon version is in stock
[/quote]

My bad, you're actually right

 

[Roo]

Available in Oz next month at a recommended retail of au$1399.

Hmmm.. just in time for the Moomba Masters water skiing and the Australian Grand Prix in March.

 

[Hannes]

I had the pleasure of trying one out and using it this afternoon, - it's in the UK shops folks! LCE pricing it at £1170. It was about the same size roughly as my old Canon 100-400 L lens, the weight was much as I expected it to be, - considerable heavier than my current 400 f5.6L, but not a problem, I hand-held it on a 7D to take a number of shots, it felt nicely balanced and the IS worked well. It focused very swiftly without hunting despite fading light. In short, I want one! But here's the dilemma. I've been told that if I use it on a F/F body the images might be soft at the edges. Someone else said there could be distortion at the edges of the images used on a F/F. Both advised that being an independent brand it might be better to use it on a crop body, despite perhaps, a lower IQ and/or more noise from a cropped sensor. Even more disappointing was the advice to go for the proprietary brand equivalent-range lens on a crop body rather than risk the Tamron, - and this from a sales rep. who was going to be selling it! Whilst I could happily accept the advice to go for the crop body, (if I was really to gain from that, - greater reach but more noise or lower ISO ceiling as against possible soft edges or distortion using a F/F body), being advised that the manufacturers' own lens would be a better bet in respect of IQ (at double the cost) deflated me somewhat, given the hype been given to this lens, and the affordable price. And the sales reps. advising me hadn't tried it for themselves of course. Indeed they might not have personally tried similar long lenses on both crop and F/F bodies to be able to justify their contention. Would be interested in other's ideas on this, before I commit!

This seems to be the standard LCE standpoint on third party glass

 

[candc]

i pre-ordered one from bhphoto about a week ago, the item is now listed as available march 31? i guess whatever they had in stock went out to those on the list before me and now i have to wait til the next batch arrives?

 

[Rienzphotoz]

i pre-ordered one from bhphoto about a week ago, the item is now listed as available march 31? i guess whatever they had in stock went out to those on the list before me and now i have to wait til the next batch arrives?

Yeah, till last Thursday (16 Jan) I remember seeing the availability as 17th January 2014 ... when I come back to check on it on the 17th Jan, it said 21st March 2014 ... even in Japan Amazon, it is showing the lens availability, for shipment, after 1 to 3 months ... a bit strange ... possible manufacturing delays?

 

[Albi86]

i pre-ordered one from bhphoto about a week ago, the item is now listed as available march 31? i guess whatever they had in stock went out to those on the list before me and now i have to wait til the next batch arrives?

Yeah, till last Thursday (16 Jan) I remember seeing the availability as 17th January 2014 ... when I come back to check on it on the 17th Jan, it said 21st March 2014 ... even in Japan Amazon, it is showing the lens availability, for shipment, after 1 to 3 months ... a bit strange ... possible manufacturing delays?

Available for preorder on Amazon UK (1150£) and Amazon DE (1222€ - weird price). In stock at Amazon DE via 3rd party seller for 1299€.

 

[Rienzphotoz]

i pre-ordered one from bhphoto about a week ago, the item is now listed as available march 31? i guess whatever they had in stock went out to those on the list before me and now i have to wait til the next batch arrives?

Yeah, till last Thursday (16 Jan) I remember seeing the availability as 17th January 2014 ... when I come back to check on it on the 17th Jan, it said 21st March 2014 ... even in Japan Amazon, it is showing the lens availability, for shipment, after 1 to 3 months ... a bit strange ... possible manufacturing delays?

Available for preorder on Amazon UK (1150£) and Amazon DE (1222€ - weird price). In stock at Amazon DE via 3rd party seller for 1299€.

Yeah, I just saw that, but he's got "only 5 in stock" for Canon mount ... and the pre-order ones are charging EUR 1399 for Nikon and Sony.
http://www.amazon.de/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1/278-8776059-9711608?__mk_de_DE=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Tamron%20150-600%20VC

 

[Albi86]

i pre-ordered one from bhphoto about a week ago, the item is now listed as available march 31? i guess whatever they had in stock went out to those on the list before me and now i have to wait til the next batch arrives?

Yeah, till last Thursday (16 Jan) I remember seeing the availability as 17th January 2014 ... when I come back to check on it on the 17th Jan, it said 21st March 2014 ... even in Japan Amazon, it is showing the lens availability, for shipment, after 1 to 3 months ... a bit strange ... possible manufacturing delays?

Available for preorder on Amazon UK (1150£) and Amazon DE (1222€ - weird price). In stock at Amazon DE via 3rd party seller for 1299€.

Yeah, I just saw that, but he's got "only 5 in stock" for Canon mount ... and the pre-order ones are charging EUR 1399 for Nikon and Sony.
http://www.amazon.de/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1/278-8776059-9711608?__mk_de_DE=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Tamron%20150-600%20VC

No surprise, 3rd party teles are often cheaper in Canon mount.

Also, the price is going to go down fast after the first wave of preorders and early adopters has been served. The 24-70 VC is now around 800€ vs 999€ at the time of launch.

EU Amazons are also a bit weird about lens pricing. Sometimes you find insanely good deals, some other times they're out of the world. I'm curious to see the real street price of this lens, i.e. when most small online retailers start having it in stock.

 

[Don Haines]

i pre-ordered one from bhphoto about a week ago, the item is now listed as available march 31? i guess whatever they had in stock went out to those on the list before me and now i have to wait til the next batch arrives?

Yeah, till last Thursday (16 Jan) I remember seeing the availability as 17th January 2014 ... when I come back to check on it on the 17th Jan, it said 21st March 2014 ... even in Japan Amazon, it is showing the lens availability, for shipment, after 1 to 3 months ... a bit strange ... possible manufacturing delays?

I think it's lack of stock... This lens appears to be wildly sucessful. I bet they didn't plan for it to sell so well.

 

[HankMD]

i pre-ordered one from bhphoto about a week ago, the item is now listed as available march 31? i guess whatever they had in stock went out to those on the list before me and now i have to wait til the next batch arrives?

Right now I only see that date given for the Nikon version, none for EF mount.

 

[candc]

spoke with someone in the buying dept at bhphoto, said they did get a shipment in that went out to the first ones on the pre-order list, they are expecting another shipment in by the end of the month but don't know the quantity if it will cover all the backorders.

looks like this lens will be in short supply for a while