I have been in the market for a longer range lens for birding. I don’t really shoot birds that often so I could not justify the Canon 600L f/4. At the same time I wanted the reach for the few times that I did shoot. When I read the reviews on the Tamron 150-600, I was intrigued. Firstly at the price point and secondly how well this lens was being received in general, especially with the pricing in the same ballpark as the veteran Canon 100-400L IS USM.
This is not a technical or lab review. I am no expert at equipment reviews. Its just a record of my experience with the lens on the back of using lenses like the Canon 70-200L 2.8 IS , Canon 600L f/4 and Canon 300L f/2.8 IS .
Hope it helps you appreciate the value of the lens and aid in any decision making you may have around this lens.
BUILD AND PHYSICAL (6/10)
Lens is packaged well and looks impressive out the box. Better than most kits lenses but nothing close to a 100-400L in terms of build quality. No case is included which is not unexpected given the price. Lens feels light in your hands. Its not often that you are able to hand hold a 600mm zoom lens. The zoom ring which works opposite to most canon lenses is a bit of an irritation but not major. This lens is so light that I took the shot below of the ostrich chick handheld with the vibration control off.
AUTOFOCUS & VC (5/10)
The autofocus system is not the fastest. Given the f-stop of f5-6.3 I was not expecting superfast but decent enough speed in good light. I would not recommend it to shoot birds in flight as I think it will struggle with AI-Servo mode. It works perfectly well for take off and landing shots of birds if pre-focused as can bee sen from the images of the bee-eaters. In game parks for wildlife I think it works fairly well in good light for slow moving animals. I needed the extra reach for the cheetah shot but had the cheetah been running instead of walking focus would have been a problem. I found that the VC works well and makes a difference when using handheld. Maybe about a stop and a half comfortably. Manual focus ring works really smoothly.
IMAGE QUALITY(7/10)
This is not an ‘L’ lens however I found the image quality quite acceptable. It is most certainly not as sharp if you are used to the Canon 300 f/2.8 IS. Not a fair comparison in terms of price I know, but I am comparing it because it is what my eye uses as a benchmark. After using the Canon 300L f/2.8L and 600L f/4 most lenses just did not work for me however I really enjoyed the images this lens produced. Colour saturation was also great. I would say that it’s performance is close to a good copy of Canon’s 100-400L but with the extra range. I happily shoot up to 500/550mm. I find the images a bit softer after that.
Bottom Line
My overall impression is that this lens is great value for money. I don’t really keep many non-L lenses and this is one of the few that I will hang onto for that affordable extra reach with acceptable image quality. I find myself taking it out more often these days. Really happy with my purchase.
