A Trial of a Tamron 200-500mm lens

pathfinder

I have been looking for a smaller, lighter lens with a zoom range from tele to long tele and the Tamron SP200-500 f5.6-6.3 Di LD (IF) seemed ideal. I have had good luck with most of Tamron's Di series of lenses - this lens is suitable for APS or full frame cameras.

It does not have IS, of course, but it only weighs 2.7 pounds. Compare that to a Canon 500f4 IS L that weighs 8.5 pounds.

The Tamron lens is 9 inches long. The lens hood must be another 9 inches long also - a very effective lens hood I must say. The filter diameter is 86mm and the filter can be rotated without reaching down into the lens hood by a dial. The minimum focus point is 8.2 feet -much closer than the Canon 500 F4 L IS minimum focus point is 14.8 feet.

This is a serious telephoto that will fit on a motorcycle for travel out west....... which was one of my primary criteria.

Anyway, it arrived late this pm and so I took it out to the garden to shoot in the early evening shade on a 20D which we all know will not AF at f6.3 according to Canon. It was not very bright - I set my ISO to 800, f 6.3 to f9 or so, and shot without flash in AV mode, handheld 1/320th to 1/100th at 500mm. In short, I did everything I could to create unsharp, poorly focused images. But I think this lens has real promise if used with more appropriate technique. A tripod and flash for instance.

The truth is that the 20D WILL AF at f6.3 at 500mm with this lens if the light is not too dark - I think it will AF in normal shade easily and quickly. Interesting. I did not see any birds of interest so I shot butterflies as they are in abundance right now.

Handheld freeform, ISO 800 20D f6.3 1/320th ( way too slow of a shutterspeed) It can't possibly be any good!! But look at this image....Nice Bokeh!!


It was not a fluke either - here is another shot. These are both the full images without cropping, so my composition could be improved by cropping, but I thought you might rather see the whole frame.

1/200th f6.3 ISO 800 500mm 20D


These shots have had my usual post processing - YES - they have been sharpened with Smart Sharpen in PSCS2 - that is how I usually process all my shots. There has been zero noise reduction and look how nice a 20D image can look at ISO 800:):

I know this is not a very serious technical lens evaluation. I am not shooting brick walls to evalute pixels.

I was wanting to see if this lens has possibilties for wildlife, and I think it has great possibilities. I frequently see wildlife along the back roads of New Mexico and Colorado and used to be limited to 200mm. Now maybe I can reach the antelope again:):

I'll even bring this lens to Florida with me this fall, Harry!!

(If you think this is more appropriate for Accessories than the Wildlife Thread, Harry, feel free to move it. I just thought it might be interesting to wildlife shooters in particular.)

Here's a mourning dove for ya- shot at 1/100th f9 ISO 800 500mm - The slight blur IS due to camera movement not lens resolution limits.


Here is a review of the Tamron 200-500 lens http://www.photozone.de/8Reviews/lenses/tamron_200500_563/index.htm

gluwater

Great review Jim. Looks like a keeper from these shots. I can't believe you shot those hand held at those shutter speeds. I'd be interested to see what kind of quality you would get with a 1.4TC on it. The Tamron non SP Pro TC will allow you to AF on the 20D but I'm sure it will hunt a lot.

Dick on Aruba

You must be a very happy person right now. Your pics are just looking great.
Well..congrats!

Thanks for sharing this valuable information.

Dick.

DoctorIt

How bout a shot of the lens mounted to a camera?

Motorcycle-friendly 500mm!?! How is it on the motorcyclists wallet, though? Very cool, thanks for the review

Awais Yaqub

Great congratulations !

gluwater

DoctorIt wrote:

How bout a shot of the lens mounted to a camera?

Motorcycle-friendly 500mm!?! How is it on the motorcyclists wallet, though? Very cool, thanks for the review

Under $900 not bad.

pathfinder

Doc - There are several pictures of the lens at the technical review at [URL="http://www.photozone.de/8Reviews/lenses/tamron_200500_563/index.htm']Photozone.de[/URL]

But, just for you....




Check out that lens Hood!!


From above - the 20D + the lens body without the lens hood is less than 12 inches long


With the lens hood it is long, but it is black too:):


Less than $875 for 500mm, or the equivalent of 800mm on a 20D body. Not exactly cheap, but compared to most good 400+mm lenses not too pricey either.

I plan to pack it in a duffle in a towel across my rear seat attached to the 20D in a water tight dry bag duffel

Tee Why

The Tamron looks to be a nice supertelephoto zoom.
Thanks for the impression of the lens.

Vich

Sorry,

I'm not as impressed. I saw some photos from this lens by a member on another site and cringed. It was of a bald eagle and the fringing around the white head was immediately noticable, as was the softness. The softness could be explained by technique, but the fringing was severe and I doubt I would keep that lens.

Sounds like you're just trying it (ie: not committed yet). These samples are a little small to really tell, but examine the bright edges and see what you think.

Pezpix

Been hunting down a comperable telephoto zoom for a friend, and the Tamron 200-500 has been one of those lenses in my checklist of comparisons.

Of course, the Sigma 50-500 would be a comperable lens in price and bang for your buck, but like the Tamron 200-500, it too is stuck with an 86mm filter (ick!)

Quality-wise, the bokah of both seems comperable to each other as well. Sharpness is obviously not on par with a prime lens, but very satisfactory until you reach around 400mm. From there, a bit of viginetting and Chromatic Abb is expected. I'd say you found yourself a great value travel super-telephoto zoom lens. Good job!

Now, where is the review for the Sigmonster 300-800?

DoctorIt

thanks for the pics PF

based on the above comments, i'd be curious to see a real back to back shootout of the bigma and this tamron. i think overal size and price make them both very comparable and both would fit into the description of: "travel supertelephoto".

pathfinder

DoctorIt wrote:

thanks for the pics PF

based on the above comments, i'd be curious to see a real back to back shootout of the bigma and this tamron. i think overal size and price make them both very comparable and both would fit into the description of: "travel supertelephoto".

Doc,

there is a reasonably good review of both the Tamron SP200-500 and the Sigma Bigma 50-500 at the Photozone.de link I gave - here - http://www.photozone.de/8Reviews/index.html

I looked at the two reviews side by side, and my take was that the Tamron has slightly higher resolution figures than the Bigma - I said silightly - but may have slightly more chromatic aberration than the Bigma also. I have not really noticed the CA that much in my images, but I will keep an eye out for it. If significant CA was present in the images I posted, Smart Sharpening should really make it obvious in the original files and I saw none.

The lens hood on the Tamron looks like a telephoto lens hood should; the lens hood for the bigma has been emasculated to allow the field of view of the 50mm portion of its zoom. That may or may not matter when shooting into the late afternoon sunsets.

Both lenses are capable with proper technique. Shooting at 500mm without proper technique means the lens qualities are really unimportant, relative to the camera shake and mirror slap etc.

I just look forward to being able to carry a real tele and tripod with me, even on a motorbike. There is no way you could carry a real super tele like a EOS 500f4 L IS in anything less than 4 wheels.

Is this lens perfect? - certainly not!! - but can a capable craftsman use it to create quality images?? - I certainly think so!!