Tamron SP 150-600mm F/5-6.3 Di VC USD for Canon DSLR Cameras (Tamron 6 Year Limited USA Warranty)

This lens is amazing for the price. But it is not perfect. Looking backwards, the only comparable lenses are professional primes such as Canon/Nikon 500-600mm lenses. This lens gives you 80-90% of what those lenses bring. Older third-party superzooms are notably inferior. Looking forward, Sigma has a 150-600mm that provides clearly better IQ (how much better is debatable), but costs $900 more and is 2lbs heavier. The additional weight and bulk is a bigger concern for me since this lens at 4lbs already stretches my limits. This lens is great through 450mm and very good to 500-550mm. Its noticeably softer wide open at 600mm but sharpens up when stopped down to f/8 or f/9. The IQ at 600 is akin to having a very good 400mm with a 1.4x teleconverter attached. The Tamron is good enough at 600mm that I shoot 90-95% of my shots at that focal length. The biggest knock against it is the autofocus. It is slow to lock on and makes it difficult to shoot birds in flight. It is noticeably inferior to my Canon 70-300L, which is much quicker with greater accuracy. But the Canon only goes to 300mm. What it means is that I will need to improve my technique to get the keeper rate up. Regardless, I consider it a fair trade off because the images that are in focus are excellent and could not be obtained by lenses with shorter focal lengths.

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Lets face it, this lens is not a prime lens. Its not super fast. Since it is not super fast, it may occasionally loose focus on continuous focus (AF-C) mode. It also does not work very well in low light situations, but one really cant complain too much because we all know it is only a 5-6.3 lens. I find that I am having to push my ISO between 1000 to about 2000 in mid to lower light situations. Other reviews seem to also agree that when you extend the focus to somewhere around 500-600mm, photos can be a little soft, so keeping aperture around f8-f11 seems to work fairly well to compensate. The issue I personally see is that when ISO is pushed to around 2000, and f-stop is closer to the f11 position, pictures do seem a bit grainy, especially if you trim the photo even more after the shot. I own a Nikon D7000 (1.5 DX sensor camera). I would not recommend trying to use a teleconverter of any type on the DX format cameras. I could not make any recommendations for a FX frame. BTW, yes, the lens does work fine with my DX camera body. Other than issues mentioned above, I still really like this lens, and am glad to own it. Ive had it now for about a month. For the price, this is a great option for being able to reach out a full 600mm without use of a teleconverter. I had recently parted with my 300mm f4, and Im glad I did, because in my opinion, with teleconverter, the 300mm did not really perform any better. The build of this lens feels solid, yet the lens isnt super heavy. I dont know the exact differences, but my Nikon 70-200 2.8 vr ii actually feels heavier by comparison. I am able to hand hold the lens when extended to 600mm position. Despite the somewhat slower focusing, Ive still managed to get some awesome bird photos (even hummingbirds hovering over flowers). Scope creep can be an issue when carrying the lens, but there is a handy-dandy lock to prevent this from being a huge problem. THIS NEXT PART HAS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH MY OVERALL STAR RATINGS ON THIS LENS: I am a bit annoyed that authorized dealers (and some unauthorized dealers that are scalping the lens and re-selling) are selling the lens at a marked up price that is way above the MSRP price of $1,069. I made the decision to pay a little more from an authorized dealer on Amazon because I was really wanting the lens for an upcoming trip. I had been on back-order for this lens for over 5 months before breaking down and paying a slightly higher price. I had discovered, after talking to a local Tamron authorized dealer, that Tamron may be having a few supply chain production problems with the lens. I think it is obvious to everyone that Tamron certainly did not mass produce this lens prior to its release, and now they are slow to keep up with demand. I personally feel that some dealers are taking advantage of this situation and gouging many of us at a marked up price. My advice... just wait until you can get it at a fair market price. Take this information or leave it... its up to you... but again, THIS PART HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH MY OVERALL STAR RATING. Bottom line, the lens is worth having.

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Works great with my Sony A7Rii as long as the battery has enough juice. Yeah, I dont know exactly what the limit is, but when I was having some issues with focus, I noticed my camera battery was almost dead. Stuck a newly charged battery in the camera and it was back in business. I think the lens is quite sharp at 600mm...and thats where I typically use it. Note, the Sony LAEA3 Tripod Camera Mounts is necessary for using this alpha mount lens on an e-mount Sony camera. Update: Lowered my ratings by one star. Still have issues with focus when lighting is not great. Finally checked resolution with a good lens test chart. Its quite good up to about 525mm....beyond that the clarity goes downhill with 600mm being noticeably worse. Bottom line...dont zoom all the way out. Stop in the middle between 500 and 550mm. Still, the resolution at 525mm is really good. As I still have my Olympus micro 4/3s camera, the Olympus E-M1...I decided to test the 75-300mm Olympus lens and compare to this Tamron. At 300mm, the Tamron and Sony beat the pants off the Olympus duo. Not close. I compared side by side using Lightroom. Even at 600mm, the Tamron is still clearly better than 300mm on the Olympus. I note that many in the micro 4/3 community like to claim that 300mm is equivalent to 600mm full frame. That is pure baloney. 300mm is 300mm. All the micro 4/3 does is crop the center of the image...it does not magnify the image...which you can verify when looking at the images from each camera. I used a 200% view to compare the images from Tamron and Olympus each set at 300mm and they were exactly the same size. Maybe the $2,500 Olympus prime 300mm could compete with the Tamron zoom. I would certainly hope so. I dont have the bucks to buy one to run my own test...not after buying the Sony camera.

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The lens is ok for what it is, not the best but close, i have used for wildlife, landscape, parks, surveillance, Moon, hiking, real estate, nice lens, BUT, keep in mind that DUST-DIRT-LINT moisture ? does get in these lens , once your warrantee runs out !!! it is very expensive to keep sending it in for dust removal, SO buyer be ware !! I own 13 cheaper telephotos, 9 extremely expensive, like the, 800mm, (sigma 150-600), 400mm, ( Nikon 1200-1700mm) and havent seen any dust inside these, I havent used the Tamron very much, probably 400 shots, I carry it in a JJC neoprene bag-pouch, then slide that into the BIG BUMBLY LowPro 13X32CM case, these have on dust-dirt-lint- and I feel they are very safe to carry, Bulky! yes! but worth every penny, Oh as of 1 /14/2016 this spectacular lens went back for dust-large lint, inside it to be thorough cleaning, ??? Maybe I just got a LEMON, maybe Tamron should just replace it, Yet to be seen, ? once it comes back I will be going on a trip to Sand Point Idaho, Priest Lake region, then to Colorado for skiing shots, SO ! in all, ?? Would I buy another one ?? only when they warrantee it for eternity for cleaning. The seals that protect it ,?? should be re-engineered, other brands seem to work, OK ! I could go on and on whining about it, but it still is a Magical lens to have, I have shot running deer, charging Grizzly, Lions, Zebra, Air shows, and no problems, beautiful crisp brilliant shots, weddings from a distance just spectacular, , For now ! Ill up grade a review once I get to Idaho, In closing, enjoy the magic, work your settings, use your tripod J .R. Massachusetts

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