Tamron SP 150-600 f/5-6.3 VC Review

slclick said:
neuroanatomist said:
Tamron has had QC issues in the past (e.g., second elements coming loose in the 24-70/2.8 VC). Assuming this review is of a pre-production lens (likely hand-picked for the reviewer), I'd prefer to wait for reviews of production copies of the lens, purchased through normal retail channels.

I do enjoy Dustin's reviews as he, like Bryan C. speak in real world terms and the review isn't coming off as a sales pitch. But I agree with Neuro and the off the shelf review vs promo-pre production review.

yep , they told me this was not cherry picked and just take out from those stock (not sure but i knew everything there will be golden sample and they knew how to cherry pick the good stuff) at least my copy on hand was looking like that . but if you get bad copy usually i will exchange one for it (like choose 3 lens while buying in shop and pick the most good one) not sure oversea shop will allow like that but in hongkong some shop does let you do so haha .

while tamron switch from japan to china those years , people epic and finding japan stock everywhere (i am the one of them anyway , then i get a 2-hand used A16 and sold it after i upgrade. while later in end 2013 i get a free one from buddy , made in japan =D) thats why i pointed at the review , location of manufacture was not a issue , main problem is how the quality control doing. But for personally comment , china was not a good place to handle high level quality control , that's why better grading lens are made in japan = = (true fact)
hope this time wont have that quality issue because i gonna to buy one (oh tamron plz)
 
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it might be a good lens, but the problem is the aperture of 6,3 at the long end. With clearly sunshine there a good results possible but try at bad weather to get a 1/1000 without pushing the ISO into highest heaven.
Also I think that this lens will not be very sharp at the long end and the long end is at least the reason to buy this lens.
 
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unfocused said:
The sample images don't blow me away, but they aren't bad. Nothing that a little sharpening in post couldn't fix. For most of us, there really isn't any other choice. The only relevant comparison is between this and Sigma's "Bigma." If it outperforms that, then it's a winner.

yep , i dont always shoot wildlife (i do product review and shooting event photo these years lol~)
for sigma i does not suffer from focus issue and now i only keep a sigma 35.4 art which are godly nice

lets professional and lab test do the job. but they are too slow then i doing it myself hoho~
some people from china said it does not sharp as their 500mm F4 and 600mm F4 lol~ but i told them i can put it into my bags and travel around. i am looking forward that comapre to sigma again , i cannot borrow a sigma in time to made head to head compare but at my experience sigma 50 500 was not sharp as tamron at wide open tele. but OS and vc are like 50:50 or 40:60 , both good. one thing my friend stick to sigma is : it have shorter MFD at certain focal length (like 300 or 250) which he always using for butterfly shot. thats tamron cannot provide . although it have more reach at 600mm , but angle of view are different though~
 
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Buschtrommel said:
it might be a good lens, but the problem is the aperture of 6,3 at the long end. With clearly sunshine there a good results possible but try at bad weather to get a 1/1000 without pushing the ISO into highest heaven.
Also I think that this lens will not be very sharp at the long end and the long end is at least the reason to buy this lens.

i found that most shot are at 600 ... (not long enough for small birds too)
for 600 F6.3 vs 600F4 and remember that F stop are different from Tstop (like canon 24 105 L was about T5.6 ) . which means tamron actually will have less light travel into the body, and the vignetting does affect metering too. VC cannot help to freeze target , which means smaller aperture = higher ISO needed . in bright sun , no problem for this lens . but for forest or bad weather it maybe a problem but personally i can accept 6400 ISO and event i using 51200 in my job photo (nearly complete dark concert...) . my boss was correct - he said frank you are luck that DSLR have ISO boost , on old years he using flim camera ......... ( skip ~ his talk was like forever lol~)

it worth the penny but cannot change the fact , it was not a fast lens (not focus speed , the T-stop)
 
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I was a little bit concerned with the quality of the 600mm images. I know that things are reduced and sometimes images are distorted by reduction and jpeg, but I feel that my 100-400L with a 1.4X TC looks as good or better on my 5D MK III with a 100% crop.
The comment about AF stopping at times was a bit concerning as well.
Like others, I'd like to have a low cost 600mm lens, and I know there will be compromises, I want to better understand what they are.

Frank - Did you try a TC on the lens with the 5D MK III?
 
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Mt Spokane Photography said:
I was a little bit concerned with the quality of the 600mm images. I know that things are reduced and sometimes images are distorted by reduction and jpeg, but I feel that my 100-400L with a 1.4X TC looks as good or better on my 5D MK III with a 100% crop.
The comment about AF stopping at times was a bit concerning as well.
Like others, I'd like to have a low cost 600mm lens, and I know there will be compromises, I want to better understand what they are.

Frank - Did you try a TC on the lens with the 5D MK III?

bad news , kenko DGX pro 300 blue dot (newest one) was not working either 1.4x or 2x , error 01
maybe old non report model will work (or tape mod)

but working on 600D , exif are not correct ( while i using with canon 70 200 2.8II it show F4 with 1.4 and 5.6 with 2x) but on tamron 150 600 it only show value without VC

i need to return lens within a few hours, it is 3:30 am hong kong now, i will online tomorrow ~
fixed the server , finish the review and now i finally can get a sleep HAHA~
 
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mackguyver said:
The link is working now - nice review of the lens. It looks like the performance is good but not great from this review, but I'm sure it's going to be finding a lot of spots in amateur & birder's bags given the price and size.

I'll wait for the DxO / PhotoZone / LensTip, etc. results before passing any further judgement.

my review really lack of lab test =[
and i was too bad in wildlife photography (really , this was like 3rd time to do it ....)

i found some really nice bird shot from japan but cannot using it without permission (still not reply me yet)
 
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Mt Spokane Photography said:
I was a little bit concerned with the quality of the 600mm images. I know that things are reduced and sometimes images are distorted by reduction and jpeg, but I feel that my 100-400L with a 1.4X TC looks as good or better on my 5D MK III with a 100% crop.
The comment about AF stopping at times was a bit concerning as well.
Like others, I'd like to have a low cost 600mm lens, and I know there will be compromises, I want to better understand what they are.

Frank - Did you try a TC on the lens with the 5D MK III?

I think the question is, is this "good enough" for those who want to have a super-telephoto available because there are times when even cropping won't do. That's sorta where I fit in. Most of the time I won't use a super-telephoto, but on the other hand, I'm finding I want something (200-400ish, maybe a bit longer) around to use it. Sure, there's renting, but after I rent a handful of times it's almost as if I should have just bought it. If this lens can deliver reasonably good images/video for $1100 in this range...it might just be worth it. The 100-400 w/1.4x will be a lot closer to $2k. And even if they release a new 100-400 with much upgraded optics that make the 100-400 w/1.4x or 2x TC much better IQ than this Tamron...the lens itself I'm sure will be quite a bit over $2k.
 
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I must confess, I've been very interested in this lens and anxious to read a review. Needless to say, I never expected it to even come close to the Canon 500 or 600 F4 IS's (of either the I or II generation), nor do I think did anyone else, even if the price came in at 2-3 times the now announced price. What I DID hope for though, is something that might at least match (or maybe even exceed) the resolving power of the 15 year old 100-400L and also provide a reliable auto-focus. Once the price was announced, that expectation was certainly made much more dubious, but I was still hoping they might pull it off, however unlikely that seemed. My two biggest fears would be that it would have lower IQ than the 100-400 IS and, even more so, that it would suffer from the perennial third-party lens sin of unreliable auto-focus. Much remains to be seen of course, as this is only the first review, but the troubling AF issues encountered by the reviewer certainly seem to indicate the AF may struggle and freeze, particularly at the long end. To me that is an even bigger deal breaker than IQ being less sharp than the 100-400L. Birds in general, and BIF in particular, don't give you many "second chances" to get the shot--AF just has to work. Lately Sigma, with its Sport and Art series of lenses are managing to change the expectations of users when it comes to both IQ and AF, and I was hoping that Tamron, with this lens might aspire to similar, lofty ambitions. Granted, this is only a first review and there hasn't been any side-by-side "apples to apples" comparison between it and a 100-400L, or 400 5.6L regarding IQ, and the AF issues might yet prove to be something wrong with this particular example, but the AF issues in particular are troubling, especially given the 5D III's stellar AF system. For those of us with cameras with lesser AF systems (even good ones like the 7D), it's bad news--if the lens can't focus well on a 5D III (or 1DX, 1D IV for that matter) then those of us with a 7D or 70D are going to have even greater issues--and then there's the AF systems on the Rebels!!!!!
Like everyone, I'll be interested to see Justin's review and even more interested to see Lens Rentals and Bryan's (The Digital Picture) reviews. However, it's starting to sound like this lens is aimed more at the level of the older Sigma and Tamron lenses, rather than the "affordable" L series or the Sigma Sport line. They may have "out bigma'd" the Bigma---but I was really hoping they'd set their sights higher. :-\
 
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dlleno said:


Exactly... An updated 100—400 +1.4x is sounding a lot better to be. Sure it will be 2x maybe 3x the price..

Indeed, I'm looking fwd to the new 100-400 II, but given it's also rumoured to be 5.6 max at 400mm, you'd lose AF on all cameras except the 5D III and 1D series cameras with a 1.4 TC. Of course, if the new 7D II has F8 AF like the 5D III and 1D series.... ;D
 
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mackguyver said:
Neuro, I'm pretty sure the lens was released in December in Asia, so this should be a retail lens, but until we can read the review we won't know for sure.

On loan from Tamron HK.

hksfrank said:
yep , they told me this was not cherry picked and just take out from those stock (not sure but i knew everything there will be golden sample and they knew how to cherry pick the good stuff) at least my copy on hand was looking like that

Yeah, not sure if I'd believe that, either. Certainly, it's in their best interests to make sure a reviewer gets loaned an excellent copy. Either way, the AF issues mentioned aren't encouraging.
 
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first, thanks Frank for making this available and answering our questions.

I think Frank shot these birds hand-held. If this is true, we cannot really benchmark the sharpness of the lens at all. The review is still valuable as a "hands on" assessment of how the lens will hadle in real life, but as far as sharpness, the user, and the conditions introduces a lot of variation. I personally will shoot with a monopod, rarely hand held. If I hold the assembly close to my body and breathe correctly, can usually go one stop slower than hand held.

I've been scouring the Chinese and Japanese websites and seen many bird shots, and they have overall been ok. As Frank and others said, it will help to have the "lab" tests to see how this Tamron compares to 100-400 Canon L, etc on the bench.

The autofocus speed is a big factor, esp. if you shoot BIF's, or other fast moving objects. If you tend to take fewer action pictures, you can live with slower autofocus.
 
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this lens seems pretty good for what its supposed to do, that is give you a big long zoom range in a relatively light and compact package that works in good light. that's not what i want, i want a really good 600 f/4 that doesn't cost $12000. i guess sigma is working on one (cr1). it seems that everybody that is interested in this lens wants 600mm so just make a prime!
 
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lescrane said:
first, thanks Frank for making this available and answering our questions.

I think Frank shot these birds hand-held. If this is true, we cannot really benchmark the sharpness of the lens at all. The review is still valuable as a "hands on" assessment of how the lens will hadle in real life, but as far as sharpness, the user, and the conditions introduces a lot of variation. I personally will shoot with a monopod, rarely hand held. If I hold the assembly close to my body and breathe correctly, can usually go one stop slower than hand held.

I've been scouring the Chinese and Japanese websites and seen many bird shots, and they have overall been ok. As Frank and others said, it will help to have the "lab" tests to see how this Tamron compares to 100-400 Canon L, etc on the bench.

The autofocus speed is a big factor, esp. if you shoot BIF's, or other fast moving objects. If you tend to take fewer action pictures, you can live with slower autofocus.

the sample 1 i was body going out through a branch and turn over like 90 degree and poin upwards to 2/F .__.
most picture are cropped , if i could get close enough it should be better result . but lens need to return within 1-2 hour later . later should be good sample out by some bigger media which have enough resources and pro photography people to do the test =]

i am still waiting canon tele lens L new version but i dont think the price tag will at 10xx . One reason i said Tamron 150 600 was not really really damn good as "miracle" - i said this once i knew the price tag. if the lens is unique and very good , tamron will mark it at a higher price on sale , just like 24 70 VC which super and only lens come with VC at standard range F2.8 . if canon new lens are good , then it will at least selling at 2K , people may stay with canon if able to afford and got better optics (also canon have in body correction may help sometimes) . seems impossible to see canon sell a new L at 1k tag (most new lenses are superb and price also super , that 24 70 2.8 II omg)

from reliable source there will be new super zoom for full frame too , to update the old 28 300 super zoom and also one for aps format.
 
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