Birds with Tamron

[Alan]

The new Tamron 16-300mm lacks the quality/sharpness of my Nikon 300mm - no surprises there.

But then it was only bought as a 'walk around' lens - maybe I should have gone with the Nikon 18-200 as originally planned - but there is no way I could have got close enough with it for these photos, which are all reasonable to heavy crops as is.

Bit of learning to do yet

Pied Cormorant

@300mm f/81/800 400 ISO





White bellied Sea Eagle @300mm f/8 1/1250 400 ISO



Tern

@300mm f/8 1/4000 400 ISO

[Isac]

These don't look too bad Alan. I've been wanting to get the 16-300 Tammy as my walk around lens but I'm a bit hesitant to spend over $700 for what may turn out to be just average. Would you recommend it?

[Alan]

Thanks Isac.

For an all purpose lens I guess it's ok. I've been using an el cheapo kit lens, so it's an improvement on that. My Nikon 70-210mm gives me sharper images. And my Nikon 300mm is amazingly sharp.

My 60mm macro is also fantastic as is my Sigma 10-20mm

However, I'm not going to carry all that glass on my beach walks with 3 poodles. Sooo I'll just have to work within it's limits and not try to take pictures of birds in flight at stupid distances and expect to crop the image like I can with the Nikon 300mm fitted with a 1.7TC on a Tripod

I need better holding and panning techniques and/or to brace it against something when I am using it at full zoom.

I braced the camera on a railing for the cormorant photos and still only two photos out of 6 were really sharp

(Most of my future photos will be taken with the Tamron, but I'll try to indicate which other lenses I've used so you can judge for yourself)

I'm just about to put up some waves and water animals.

Cheers

[Isac]

Very much appreciated Alan. I don't know about you but all that typing would have taken me at least 2 cuppas and biscuit or two. I'll have a look at future posts to see the quality. The 7D I use is not renowned for its image quality so with a half decent lens I get away with it. My Tamron 17-50 has a reputation for being the sharpest in it's class and hasn't let me down yet. Thanks for your reply. I do agree that as age encroaches on us we do need a little support

[Alan]

No worries

I'm sure you've read the reviews of the Tamron compared to the Sigma 18-300.

My reading of them was that even though the Sigma produced slightly 'better' images it seemed the Tamrom won out for all it's other features.

Cheers

this is the Eagle without processing

[Isac]

It's still pretty good considering the distance. I assume at 300mm.

[P Plates]

They're great results for this lens. I particularly like the second of the cormorant shots.

[Alan]

Yes @300mm Isac

Thanks Gabby

[Barkly]

Alan do you manually focus - and set at infinity with these BIF pics? Auto focus makes my 70-300 oly lens hunt for focus and is very slow so I miss the pic more often than not.

[Alan]

No Terry. The camera is always set to Auto Focus Continuous. The Tamron also has manual over-ride in Auto, so if it's having difficulty finding focus it's quick and easy to help it along.

Birds against a clear sky obviously make focusing easier than when there is a busy background - then you need to reduce the number of focus points

I've found the Auto Focus to be really fast with this lens

I'll post up a pic of a poodle running towards me soon, where the camera/lens combo had no trouble following focus.

Cheers