Tamron 150-600mm AF servo issues?

[Lightmaster]

anyone here noticed this:

http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1273142/0

 

[josephandrews222]

I remember reading a thread or two like this. My recollection is that the 'defect' does not affect all Canon bodies...with some models unaffected. True?

 

[Lightmaster]

7D, 1D Mk IV and maybe older rebels are "affected".

but not the 5D MK3 or 6D as far as i know.

i really would like to know if there is an issue or if it´s only the usual bunch of idi*ts ("canon only" acolytes and people who have not touched the lens but write bullshit on forums).

with this affordable 600mm it´s only natural that a lot of people buy this lens, who have no experience at all with such focal length and/or birding.

so i expect a lot of blame coming from people who simply don´t know how to handle the lens at 600mm.

there are a few dozend reviews of this lens, some from people i really respect, and nobody mentioned this.

it´s all too common that you have a thread where 3 people seem to have issues and then half a dozend newly registered members step in who have the same or worse issues.
self promoting a thread i call it...

then the usual m*r*ns appear who say things like "my 10000 euro lens does not have the problem your 1000 euro lens has. you see it´s crap!".

then a few more participate in the thread, who have no clue either and have not touched the lens, but accept that the lens is faulty and scream for a fix.

in the end there is maybe on or two guys with a real problem because of a faulty copy and it´s completely blown out of proportion.

i don´t say it´s the case here.... but often it is.

 

[lycan]

I think it's a problem with older bodies, so if you have one you will have to do the extremely painful and fatiguing thing of bumping the AF button to regain focus

Anyway, people not satisfied are always more vocal than those that are happy

 

[geonix]

7D, 1D Mk IV and maybe older rebels are "affected".

but not the 5D MK3 or 6D as far as i know.

i really would like to know if there is an issue or if it´s only the usual bunch of idi*ts ("canon only" acolytes and people who have not touched the lens but write bullshit on forums).

with this affordable 600mm it´s only natural that a lot of people buy this lens, who have no experience at all with such focal length and/or birding.

so i expect a lot of blame coming from people who simply don´t know how to handle the lens at 600mm.

there are a few dozend reviews of this lens, some from people i really respect, and nobody mentioned this.

it´s all too common that you have a thread where 3 people seem to have issues and then half a dozend newly registered members step in who have the same or worse issues.
self promoting a thread i call it...

then the usual m*r*ns appear who say things like "my 10000 euro lens does not have the problem your 1000 euro lens has. you see it´s crap!".

then a few more participate in the thread, who have no clue either and have not touched the lens, but accept that the lens is faulty and scream for a fix.

in the end there is maybe on or two guys with a real problem because of a faulty copy and it´s completely blown out of proportion.

i don´t say it´s the case here.... but often it is.

Hello all

I hope you are right with that assumption Lightmaster. I use the 7D and have just yesterday preorderd one of these Tamron 150-600mm.

I also saw a lot of reports and reviews on the lens and was suprised that almost all of them gave a very good verdict. But I also noted that a lot of these reviews were done with full-frame bodys.

So far, the longest lens I use is the canon 300mm f4 with 1.4x III TC. So I don't have any experience with super teles. What would be different in handling such a lens, apart from the fact that it will be much more difficult to keep the object in the viewfinder?

 

[Lightmaster]

for me.... personally... first rule of the supertele club: use a tripod.

for me it is much much more difficult to handhold a 600mm then a 300mm.

i am well over 1.90cm, 105 kg.. 4 days a week i go to the gym.
so weight is not the problem.
but even the smallest vibration will kill sharpness at 600mm.

then DOF is not that big with supertele lenses.
so when the AF is slightly off it has much more effect as with a 70-200mm, for example.

atmospheric effects reduce sharpness much more then with shorter focal length.

i get constantly sharp images with my 70-200mm even without taking care of my technique.
would i do the same at 600mm i would bring home only 5% keepers.

 

[Albi86]

No issue at all on 5D3.

Of course you should expect the AF speed of the 70-200/2.8

 

[AlanF]

for me.... personally... first rule of the supertele club: use a tripod.

for me it is much much more difficult to handhold a 600mm then a 300mm.

i am well over 1.90cm, 105 kg.. 4 days a week i go to the gym.
so weight is not the problem.
but even the smallest vibration will kill sharpness at 600mm.

then DOF is not that big with supertele lenses.
so when the AF is slightly off it has much more effect as with a 70-200mm, for example.

atmospheric effects reduce sharpness much more then with shorter focal length.

i get constantly sharp images with my 70-200mm even without taking care of my technique.
would i do the same at 600mm i would bring home only 5% keepers.

The 300 f/2.8 II + 2xTC III has rubbish autofocus on the Canon 7D. So, I sold the 7D for the 70D and the AF became fine. The Tamron 150-600 focusses well and reliably on the 70D and the 5DIII.

I have posted in the Bird Portraits thread in the last 24 hours loads of hand-held shots with the 150-600/5DIII, most of which are very sharp, even down to very slow shutter speeds, and nearly all of mine were keepers. Maybe your hands are shaking because you work out too much.

 

[Old Sarge]

I am old so my memory is problematic but I believe I read something about this on the 7D and there was a work-around. Seems to me it was on one of the numerous pages written about this lens here on CR.

 

[Lightmaster]

Maybe your hands are shaking because you work out too much.

well... possible that my chest moves too much while breathing.
that is the price you have to pay for a good looking pectoralis.


but as most professional photographers use a tripod too.... im not too concerned.

ps: i took a look at your images and the ~300-400mm images look good.
sure it´s the sweet spot of the lens.
but i think the one 600mm could be better from a tripod.

the last one at 1/25s is great for handholding .. but i guess in my case luck would play a big role. if you can constantly shoot that quality handhold at 1/25s @ 600mm gratulations!
but i doubt many can...

 

[Lightmaster]

No issue at all on 5D3.

have no issues with my 1DX or 5D MK3 either.

the reports are from the 7D and 1D MK3, MK4.

 

[Otara]

There has been a major delay in getting the lens here in Australia, in that an order I made in early February has been delayed to April. Everything Ive read indicates there was an issue, and some level of correction has been carried out, which has caused the supply delays. As stated, they seem to be only with some bodies, but the 7D would be a pretty popular camera for this lens, so it will be important to fix it.

Latest update is that it might be here next week, so will be able to check for myself, have a 6D and 7D.

Otara

 

[Lightmaster]

There has been a major delay in getting the lens here in Australia, in that an order I made in early February has been delayed to April. Everything Ive read indicates there was an issue, and some level of correction has been carried out, which has caused the supply delays. As stated, they seem to be only with some bodies, but the 7D would be a pretty popular camera for this lens, so it will be important to fix it.

imho that is pure speculation.

it´s just the amount of demand for the lens that makes it hard to get one.
the third batch of lenses sold here are exactly the same as the first.

the pre-orders where so high that amazon did not even change the status of the lens when they got the new shipment.
it is still listed as "not yet available" since early february... but i got mine.

if tamron thinks there is an issue, tamron sure would not deny that there is an issue.
i mean.. they are not nikon.
as i wrote, as far as i know tamron has not acknowledge an issue with the lens yet.

i doubt that tamron would lie to it´s customers while working in secret on a revision.

if someone has an official statement form tamron that says otherwise i would like to hear about it.

anyway i wrote them an email today, asking about a new revision or possible firmware update and now i am waiting for a response.

 

[mackguyver]

No issue at all on 5D3.

have no issues with my 1DX or 5D MK3 either.

the reports are from the 7D and 1D MK3, MK4.

That's really surprising, I would have thought the issue would be with the Rebels and the older X0D bodies, but maybe their simpler AF systems work equally as well with the Tamron as they do with Canon lenses.

 

[Lightmaster]

No issue at all on 5D3.

have no issues with my 1DX or 5D MK3 either.

the reports are from the 7D and 1D MK3, MK4.

That's really surprising, I would have thought the issue would be with the Rebels and the older X0D bodies, but maybe their simpler AF systems work equally as well with the Tamron as they do with Canon lenses.

70D is reported to work well.. and that´s nearly the same AF as the 7D, right?
so this puzzles me a bit.

 

[Don Haines]

No issue at all on 5D3.

have no issues with my 1DX or 5D MK3 either.

the reports are from the 7D and 1D MK3, MK4.

That's really surprising, I would have thought the issue would be with the Rebels and the older X0D bodies, but maybe their simpler AF systems work equally as well with the Tamron as they do with Canon lenses.

70D is reported to work well.. and that´s nearly the same AF as the 7D, right?
so this puzzles me a bit.

On the 60D there is an option in the menu to discontinue the search for autofocus if autofocus is impossible. If you turn it off, the AF on the 150-600 is terrible and you have to manually get it close for AF to work. I think it is because the AF is a bit slower that the camera is expecting and it "times out". If you enable it, then AF works properly.

 

[Lightmaster]

No issue at all on 5D3.

have no issues with my 1DX or 5D MK3 either.

the reports are from the 7D and 1D MK3, MK4.

That's really surprising, I would have thought the issue would be with the Rebels and the older X0D bodies, but maybe their simpler AF systems work equally as well with the Tamron as they do with Canon lenses.

70D is reported to work well.. and that´s nearly the same AF as the 7D, right?
so this puzzles me a bit.

On the 60D there is an option in the menu to discontinue the search for autofocus if autofocus is impossible. If you turn it off, the AF on the 150-600 is terrible and you have to manually get it close for AF to work. I think it is because the AF is a bit slower that the camera is expecting and it "times out". If you enable it, then AF works properly.

yeah but as written in the threads... that does not really help as it seems.

On the 1DIV CFn 111-5 (may be different depending on body) "Lens Drive when AF impossible"
0 = focus search On
1 = focus search Off

Default is usually set at 1.
Try setting to 0.

A few people did have this being their problem on the 70D but the 7D and 1D4 users that I have seen post have confirmed they have that setting to "on". I know Tony did as he surely knows his cameras.

 

[Don Haines]

I have also had AF problems with the lens in low contrast situations. Photographing a snowy owl from a distance and with the sky the same colour as the bird, it had problems getting focus. The 70-200 worked better, but still had problems. The SX-50 was a total write-off.....

The point being, what are the conditions that AF problems are occuring under? Is it the fault of the camera, the lens, or the lack of contrast in the suject matter? You really need controlled tests to elevate this from a "he said... she said..." level.

 

[TrabimanUK]

The point being, what are the conditions that AF problems are occuring under? Is it the fault of the camera, the lens, or the lack of contrast in the suject matter? You really need controlled tests to elevate this from a "he said... she said..." level.

+1

 

[Lightmaster]

I have also had AF problems with the lens in low contrast situations. Photographing a snowy owl from a distance and with the sky the same colour as the bird, it had problems getting focus. The 70-200 worked better, but still had problems. The SX-50 was a total write-off.....

The point being, what are the conditions that AF problems are occuring under? Is it the fault of the camera, the lens, or the lack of contrast in the suject matter?

i guess they are not all noobs. some have a 5D MK3 or 1DX too.
so they should be able to keep that in consideration.

i have no issues at all. but then i don´t have a 7D or 1D MK4.