Home Forums Gear Photography Just how good is the Tamron 150-600mm Di VC USD lens?

Just how good is the Tamron SP 150-600mm Di VC USD lens?

I was in Florida for a week of bird photography last week. It included many opportunities to shoot birds on the ground, in flight and even while flying beside a boat 10 miles out in the Atlantic Ocean. I shot the lens handheld utilizing the Vibration Compensation feature, on a monopod and on a tripod with the aid of a gimbal head. The lighting varied from clear front lit skies to cloudy and backlit at times. I feel that I walked away with the highest percentage of “keepers” this trip as to any other trip prior to this one.

I was shooting the Tamron SP 150-600mm Di VC USD lens on either the Nikon D-7200 or the Canon 7Dii. I wanted to get a good feel for which body the lens performed better on, if there was a case. It performed great on both bodies (I have both Canon and Nikon mounts of the lens) and I feel going forward very confident of any situation that will present itself. The lens focused fast, locked on to the subject and tracked extremely well, even in challenging light. The few times it did not track well was more from the bird taking a sharp turn or me panning too fast and not keeping the bird in the focus area. In all the situations I was using Continuous or Servo focus and selected a center zone area in the camera. On the boat one day I chose to shoot handheld entirely and the relatively light weight of the lens allowed me to not feel strain or get tired even as the boat rocked. The boat trips especially impressed me with the focus speed and lock on of the lens. We were often shooting fairly flat gulls and Gannets that lacked the contrast one would hope for in flat light. I had many of the other photographers comment and even try the lens because they were unhappy with their current lenses.

After doing the field testing they were impressed to find that there were aggressive rebates on the lens as well. I am sure if they could have gotten cell service they would have called Mark or Joel up at Camera Land to order their lens and take advantage of the $120 rebate! Of course for the best pricing I would have told them to mention the 24 Hour Campfire!

All the images below were made using the Tamron SP 150-600mm Di VC USD lens.