Following my review of the Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6USM L IS and a later update review of the Canon EF 300mm f/4 L IS USM, I decided to rent and review the new Tamron 150-600mm zoom lens that has been getting such great press since its introduction late in 2013. Rental supply levels have finally gotten to a point where you can actually get one of these in your hands and mine arrived on Friday, April 4. Yesterday, I took it to Orlando Wetlands Park to test it in the type of environment I'd most likely be using this type of lens.

First, a word about how I use my lenses: I am first of all a dog show photographer and an action photographer of dogs in the show ring. That's my business. I also do animal portraits, people portraits and the occasional wedding when forced to against my will . For fun, I also do nature and wildlife photography and I dabble in macro. For me, camera gear has to be able to meet my professional needs as well as my personal "fun" needs. For the fun stuff, I've been using my Canon EF 70-200mm F4L IS with or without a Canon 1.4X telextender and I've been fortunate enough to be able to capture some good-quality images with that combination. But, especially for nature and wildlife shooting, that combination hasn't given me the amount of reach I'd like so I've been looking for something that will give me more reach, just as good image quality and won't break the bank.

Let's start with the obvious: the Tamron 150-600 zoom is a monster compared to what I've been using. It's long at 150mm and even longer at 600mm. And it's heavy weighing in at 69 oz. vs the Canon 100-400 at 49 oz. Frankly, I thought the Canon was heavy to lug around in the wild. Yesterday, I decided to try the Tamron out by using it the way I prefer to work for my wildlife photography: hand-held while hiking the trails at the park. The day was in the low 80s with bright sun and I covered a little over 3 miles. Carrying that sucker is a chore LOL. But it did get a lot of interest from the other photographers there and at least I wasn't lugging it around on a tripod as well.



This image of a Snowy Egret was shot just as I started my hike @ 600mm and F11. I decided to shoot this lens for optimum image sharpness and I had enough light to do that. I shot aperture-priority @ F11 and set my ISO at between 400 and 640. At this setting, my shutter speed was 1/800 and hand-holding was difficult but not impossible.

This Anhinga having a bad hair day was 50 yards away and I captured it at 600mm and 1/200 hand-held. The VC on the lens works amazingly well.



The Little Blue Heron hiding in the reeds was captured at 350mm and 1/1250. I found that between 300mm and 500mm to be the sweet spot in terms of image sharpness but I have no complaints about the performance of this lens at 600mm as long as you can stop it down and pay attention in post-processing. All of these images were processed in Capture One.



This Red Shouldered Hawk had just caught his lunch -- see near his feet -- and he was about 50 yards away from me. 600mm @ 1/1600.



Yes, it's possible to capture birds in flight. For old guys like me, it's very difficult but here's one of a Red Shouldered Hawk in flight quite a bit away from me. But, it can be done.



Roseate Spoonbills in the midst of a mating ritual. 600mm @1/2000.



And this Great Blue Heron perched on a tree limb being watched carefully by the Wood Stork in the background. Captured at 250mm and 1/3200.



Frankly, I'm very impressed overall with the image quality this lens produces. When you factor in it's price of $1,069 the value is truly amazing. Is it big and heavy? No question. Is it hard to hand-hold? Also, no question but it can be done if you have good technique. Still open is the question of whether or not it can be used for action photography in the ring (outside not inside) and for some of the other things I shoot but for nature and wildlife photography, this lens is the best value out there and it produces very good image quality under the right conditions and with some effort. Today, I'll shoot some stuff using my tripod and see if I can shoot the dogs playing in the yard to test it's ability to shoot action. More on that later.

Jim