Tamron 150-600mm F/5-6.3
Discussion
I have my eye on this looks like a great lens.
As far as I am aware it is not available yet in Nikon mount, and not tested by DXOmark or anyone else
I have a few worries/questions about it.
Everyone is saying it outperforms the Canon 100-400, making a no brainer buy for a telephoto zoom in this range for a Canon user, but this is not a very high bar as the Canon 100-400 is an old, underperforming lens. The new Nikon 80-400 VR II is a far superior lens to the Canon, and is also a faster lens than the Tamron, does it out perform the Nikon at 400mm ? And the Nikon can add the TC14 to get to 600mm.....
I have also seen that people are saying you need to stop down to f11 at 600mm for critical sharpness on the Tamron.
All the really nice Canon test shots I have seen have been bright sunlight shots. I remain very suspicious that handheld at 600mm at f11 is not realisticly achievable even with VR in overcast dull uk conditions.
I am therefore a bit suspicious its not such an obvious slam dunk in Nikon mount as it is for Canon.
As far as I am aware it is not available yet in Nikon mount, and not tested by DXOmark or anyone else
I have a few worries/questions about it.
Everyone is saying it outperforms the Canon 100-400, making a no brainer buy for a telephoto zoom in this range for a Canon user, but this is not a very high bar as the Canon 100-400 is an old, underperforming lens. The new Nikon 80-400 VR II is a far superior lens to the Canon, and is also a faster lens than the Tamron, does it out perform the Nikon at 400mm ? And the Nikon can add the TC14 to get to 600mm.....
I have also seen that people are saying you need to stop down to f11 at 600mm for critical sharpness on the Tamron.
All the really nice Canon test shots I have seen have been bright sunlight shots. I remain very suspicious that handheld at 600mm at f11 is not realisticly achievable even with VR in overcast dull uk conditions.
I am therefore a bit suspicious its not such an obvious slam dunk in Nikon mount as it is for Canon.
dele said:
and see how it pans
:groan:My hunch is that it's moderate quality glass on a demanding state-of-the-art DSLR, and will therefore kill off the finer points of the D800's performance. If you bought a D800 because its performance is important to you then you might be better off staying with Nikon pro glass. The cheaper and more zoomy a lens is, generally, the less good it is. Not that this is a bad lens, but I don't think it can be as good as the D800 is.
and I accidentally bought Sigma 150-500 INSTEAD of Tamron 150-600. ExPat2B said:
Everyone is saying it outperforms the Canon 100-400, making a no brainer buy for a telephoto zoom in this range for a Canon user, but this is not a very high bar as the Canon 100-400 is an old, underperforming lens. The new Nikon 80-400 VR II is a far superior lens to the Canon, and is also a faster lens than the Tamron, does it out perform the Nikon at 400mm ? And the Nikon can add the TC14 to get to 600mm.....
IMO the 100-400L is a very fine lens, all the copies I have used have been very sharp even at 400/5.6.And according to Roger over at lensrental ( http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2014/01/tamron-150... )
"One note for Nikon shooters: I’m sorry I won’t have time to run the same tests on Nikon cameras when the Nikon mount is released. However, the new Nikon 80-400 AF-S zoom is, as near as we can tell, equivalent to the Canon 100-400 IS as far as resolution goes, so you should be able to extrapolate pretty easily."
The 150-600 seems to be as good as all the competition up to 400/500 , takes a dive over 500 but thats where the competition cant even reach.
Tracking/servo AF is jittery though so not as good as the canon.
RobDickinson said:
ExPat2B said:
Everyone is saying it outperforms the Canon 100-400, making a no brainer buy for a telephoto zoom in this range for a Canon user, but this is not a very high bar as the Canon 100-400 is an old, underperforming lens. The new Nikon 80-400 VR II is a far superior lens to the Canon, and is also a faster lens than the Tamron, does it out perform the Nikon at 400mm ? And the Nikon can add the TC14 to get to 600mm.....
IMO the 100-400L is a very fine lens, all the copies I have used have been very sharp even at 400/5.6.And according to Roger over at lensrental ( http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2014/01/tamron-150... )
"One note for Nikon shooters: I’m sorry I won’t have time to run the same tests on Nikon cameras when the Nikon mount is released. However, the new Nikon 80-400 AF-S zoom is, as near as we can tell, equivalent to the Canon 100-400 IS as far as resolution goes, so you should be able to extrapolate pretty easily."
The 150-600 seems to be as good as all the competition up to 400/500 , takes a dive over 500 but thats where the competition cant even reach.
Tracking/servo AF is jittery though so not as good as the canon.
I have seen some very soft pictures come out of a 100-400....maybe this is a cause.
jimmy156 said:
Interesting choice, any reason you chose that combo over the Sigma 120-300 2.8 + TC. Supposed to be a cracking lens and similar in price to the 300mm prime if memory serves.
Already have a 70-200mm Tamron F2.8 that im actually really impressed withDon't think there's much need for anything between 200 and 300, you could argue I don't need the 300mm but I'm greedy
RobDickinson said:
IMO the 100-400L is a very fine lens, all the copies I have used have been very sharp even at 400/5.6.
Seconded, I've been very happy with mine and shoot a lot at 400mm and almost always wide open. Admittedly I did some micro-adjustment in camera to get the best out of it, but it's very sharp even after being dropped onto gravel from waist height! Only thing I don't really like is the push-pull zoom, it does tend to suck dust into the lens and the locking ring is starting to get a bit stuffed up after 3 days on a (very) dusty rally stage...but for the price and size I really can't complain.I use a 100-400 on a Canon 5d Mk2. Its a nice lens but the pictures I get from it don't stand up to close inspection. It is perhaps unfair to compare with the 400 5.6 prime or the 100mm 2.8 lens which are the other Canon lenses on that body. Its ok if you can fill the frame but as soon as you have to crop its not so good. I checked it for decentering and its fine....
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