Tamron 150-600

[bmpress]

Soon after reading your test of this new Tamron, I sold my Canon 100-400L and ordered the new 150-600. But nobody has any, not B&H, not Adorama, and not my local camera store. And nobody is hinting at when it will ship. My question is whether this is a standard business practice by Tamron, or are they going out of business?

[Bob Atkins]

Tamron are not going out of business!

It's possible they underestimated demand for the lens or they've had some production issues, but Tamron are doing pretty well and I have no reason at all to suspect they are in any sort of trouble.

They're sending me a new 16-300 for testing this week, so they're certainly still making lenses!

I'll see if I can get any info from them on the 150-600 availability issue and I'll post it here if I can.

[Bob Atkins]

I talked with Tamron today and as I guessed, it's the popularity of the lens that's holding things up. The lens is pretty much backordered worldwide. The lens is in production and is shipping and shipments are coming into the US, but they usually sell out (via pre-orders) as soon as they hit the stores. The fastest way to get one is to pre-order it and wait. If you just wait for it to show up in stock, everybody who has pre-ordered will get their's first so it will take quite a bit longer. If you're already on a list, there's nothing you can do but have patience! The only consolation is that if it wasn't a great lens, you'd be able to walk into any store and buy one!


Tamron 150-600/5-6.3 Di VC USD from Adorama - $1069

Tamron 150-600/5-6.3 Di VC USD from B&H - $1069

[bmpress]

Wattayouno??? Just got a notice that the lens has been shipped. One of the things I plan to do is compare it to the Canon SX50HS at 600mm to see just how much better it is. I have shot some pretty good pictures with the little camera which only cost me $380 last year.

[bmpress]

FYI...I just finished shooting with this Tamron at stationary objects, and found it to be much sharper than my old Canon 100-400 at 600mm compared to the Canon at 400mm. So for me, it is a keeper. Next I will try it on flying birds to see if the focus is fast enough.

[peter45]

Tamron are not going out of business!

It's possible they underestimated demand for the lens or they've had some production issues, but Tamron are doing pretty well and I have no reason at all to suspect they are in any sort of trouble.

They're sending me a new 16-300 for testing this week, so they're certainly still making lenses!

I'll see if I can get any info from them on the 150-600 availability issue and I'll post it here if I can.

When you get the Tamron 16-300 for a test I will be watching closely Bob, as I might have to keep my 60D and just sell the lenses, they are too heavy for my neck and back when walking around all day. I thought this lens might be the way to go. Watching and waiting.
Cheers.

[Bob Atkins]

I'm sadly a little behind on publishing reviews at the moment. I'm moving house and so I've been really busy over the last couple of months!

I have looked at the Tamron 16-300 and it's much as you'd expect from a lens with that wide of a zoom range (18.8x). There's significant barrel distortion at 16mm which flips to pincushion by 24mm and out to 300mm. Center sharpness is pretty good wide open at 16mm and sharpness holds up as the lens is zoomed, though it does soften slightly at 300mm. Best center/edge performance is at around f8. Corners at 16mm are pretty good, though by 300mm there's again some softening.

Bokeh looks quite nice and the macro magnification is decent at 1:2.9 (15" at the 300mm setting).

It's a little slow since the maximum aperture is f6.3 all the way from around 125mm to 300mm.

If what you want is a single lens to do everything - and you're prepared to compromise slightly in terms of overall sharpness and lens speed - then the Tamron 16-300 is a good choice. It has the widest range you can get and it's certainly optically good enough for typical amateur use. It can't compete with a bag of prime lenses of course, but you wouldn't expect it to.

At $629 it's not cheap and a lens like the Tamron 70-300/4-5.6 is better and cheaper at $449 (and it's one of my favorite lenses), but of course it doesn't have the wide zoom range of the 16-300 and it's bigger and heavier - which is why I'm sure that many people will go for the 16-300.

Tamron 16-300 at Adorama

Tamron 16-300 at Amazon

Tamron 70-300 at Adorama

Tamron 70-300 at Amazon

I hope I'll have time to write up a more complete review soon - but I'm still spending most of my time sorting out my stuff and packing it into boxes ready for the move!

[peter45]

Thanks Bob, I hope the move goes well.

[peter45]

A quick one, know you are busy. Read a review of the Tamron 16-300mm that stated some lens noise came over in the video, and it is not a good video lens. True?
Thanks.

[Bob Atkins]

That's not something I noticed and not something I've seen many complaints about. I think some people has issues with AI servo focusing using some EOS bodies, but my understanding is that Tamron now have revised the lens firmware to eliminate that.

[dashabout]

Has anyone else received their Tamron 150-600 lens?  I've had  one on order from Adorama since May and all they will tell me is that they have no information about when it will ship.

[Bob Atkins]

Just looking at the Adorama website, they have the 150-600 for Canon EOS listed as "on the way to our warehouse and is expected in a few days". This contrasts with the Nikon Mount lens which is listed as "currently back-ordered by the manufacturer".

So there is hope!

• Tamron SP 150-600mm F/5-6.3 Di VC USD for Canon EOS

[dashabout]

Must be that posting to this forum is good luck. Shortly after I posted my question I received a shipping notification from Adorama and the lens arrived this week. So far its very impressive and worth the wait.

[KeithB]

Any more thoughts on the 150-600, Bob? I just had my Sigma 100 - 500 stolen and I might be in the market for a new super telephoto. I *think* I had some focus issues with the Sigma, but it is hard to tell somethimes.

So, which would you choose, Bob, the Sigma or the Tamron?

ETA:
DPReview reports that it is really sharp with a full frame camera, but not so sharp with an APS-C, any thoughts on why this should be?
http://www.dpreview.com/lensreviews/tamron-150-600-5-6p3

[Bob Atkins]

Sorry I'm a bit late in replying.

First I have no idea why anyone would suggest that format affects (center) sharpness, other than FF always (assuming comparable pixel counts) gives better results than APS-C because the image has to be enlarged less. A pixel is a pixel (all else being equal) so the APS-C image should be at least as sharp as a FF cropped to APS-C size (probably sharper because of higher pixel density)

I'd certainly take the Tamron 150-600 over the Sigma 150-500 simply because of the extra focal length (and the fact that the Tamron I tested was sharp). Of course Sigma now have two 150-600 lenses, the "S" at around $2000 and the lower spec'd "C" (no price or availability yet). I've yet to try them (maybe early in the New Year?). However I suspect the Tamron will still be the least expensive. The Tamron 150-600 is about $200 more than the Sigma 150-500, but I think it's worth the extra $200 for the extra 20% in focal length.

I did just look at the Sigma 150-500 and found it too was pretty sharp, though it did soften a bit wide open at 500mm. Certainly not a bad lens, but the extra 100mm of a 600 can be very useful.

See Tamron 150-600 at Adorama