I have been using this Tamron 150-600mm zoom lens for about four days now and I am getting more used to it. Again, try as I might, I can’t find anything to dislike about it. I have noticed on some forums that a couple of users had trouble panning and keeping flying birds in focus. As you can see from a couple of pictures of the Ring-billed Gull, that there is no problem. At least with my setup. Perhaps it is the fault of those owners’ cameras.
Another thing that zoom purchasers fear, including myself, that there is considerable fall-off when zoomed to the extreme end of the lens. So far, I have taken several images when zoomed out the full extent and I have found no noticeable deterioration of the quality. Here are several photographs that I took today, just driving through a local park. They have been edited and cropped as I do normally. They were all hand-held, from the driver’s side of my car.
American White Pelican – 1/1000 sec. @ f6.3, ISO 200
Easy work here with the Pelican. About only fifty feet away, placidly floating on the calm waters, just inviting me to photograph him.
Ruby-crowned Kinglet – 1/500 sec. @ f6.3, ISO 2000
The little Kinglet gave me the most problem. It never stayed in one place longer than two seconds. I was about twenty feet away and he was moving constantly in the brush. In this image, I really never got it in super good focus, but I loved the pose anyway.
North American Cardinal – 1/1000 sec. @ f6.3, ISO 500
No problem with focus here with the Cardinal, but harsh shadows came into play that I had to work with during editing.
Spotted Sandpiper – 1/1250 sec. @ f6.3, ISO 200
For this Sandpiper, I did get out of the car. He was moving along the shoreline pretty fast and I didn’t want to collide with a tree. I was more interested in getting a useful image to use for identification, than I was for esthetic purpose. Trying to ID Sandpipers usually drive me up the wall, as they are all so similar.
Ring-billed Gull
Ring-billed Gull – 1/1250 @ f6.3, ISO 200
Photographing this Gull was the most fun. There were several. In fact, these images were probably two different individuals. I parked along the bank of the river, and just used my camera out the driver’s side window. As they flew by, I just acquired the bird in the lens and held the shutter button down. By the way, I had never photographed a gull before.
Enjoy the photos, because I had a heck of a good time getting them. Click on any of them to see enlargements.
Texas Tweeties by Bob Zeller 