Review | Tamron 150-600 F/5-6.3 Di VC USD G2
Thanks to Lightroom PH for lending me this awesome thing of a lens to shoot something very different from which this lens was designed. Lets admit that this lens really is for the birding folk. With the long reach plus adding a teleconverter, this monster will help you snag that beautiful photo of the bird you've been searching all your life. This time, I used the lens to take pictures of the next best thing, beauty pageant candidates.
Follow my article herein so you may know the travels I made with this lens. Let me narrate them according to events. All images were shot with the lens paired with a Nikon D800.
This set of photos were taken from the Miss Philippines Earth 2017 using the same lens at the Diamond Hotel in Manila. It was a cloudy day with some sunshine pushing through some clouds on most parts. No flash was used and I had placed it on a monopod. I was just 12-18 feet away from the ladies so I couldn't shoot whole body and I was stuck with the 150mm all through out.
The following set was taken in Zambales while I was covering for the Miss Tourism 2017 Fashion Show there. Setting was night time with a sketchy production lighting on stage. Nevertheless we shot without flash and prayed to God heavily and using a fast shutter speed and high ISO to compensate for the aperture provided. I was practically far from the stage maybe plus minus 35-45 feet away.
The following set here showcases my shoot with Ravilyn Dumdum, a candidate for the Miss Tourism 2017 and this was done in Zambales, the day after the fashion show. As you can see, we can be creative with the 150-600 aside from shooting birds with ease. No flash, on a monopod, may 18 feet away and shot 3/4 to eliminate the ground clutter.
The following set is from the Miss Philippines Earth 2017 pre pageant - the Resort Wear competition held at the Versailles Palace in Alabang, Muntinlupa. Here we also prayed a lot since we had rain earlier in the day and we had cloudy skies mid afternoon. The event was for 5pm with cloudy skies, I can't have big opening as an aperture, you are stuck with F/5 at least and with the left image, you are literally shooting from across the pool with 6.3 and cloudy skies. The dim image can still be enhanced with a little bit of brightness but hey, I don't want to complain anymore with a picture like that. The image on the right was when she walked towards me at close range maybe 15 feet plus or minus. Production people didn't have spot lighting across the pool, but this image here, they were generous enough to put a light on this area, only this area. Still no complaints. By the way, she won as Miss Philippines Earth - Air.
Another Miss Tourism Philippines 2017 event, this time in Vigan, Ilocos Sur for their official swimwear competition. I was soooooooooo far on this one as the stage was head high and in between the stage and the judges was a close to 20 feet already. Add up the tables for the VIPs pushing us media as far away as possible. Most of the media was brunched up close with the VIPs hoping not be booted out meanwhile I was perched on top of chairs, just below the sound stage and the spot lights. I was so far away that if you notice the group of women behind Miss Alaminos, I can do a group shot of all them at that area with the 150mm. With the great range this lens has, we can shoot easy. Of course shooting with high shutter speed is a must with higher ISO.
Miss Tourism kept us busy with provincial tours and this was in Jose Panganiban, Camarines Norte at a hotel function hall in the evening. Had the lens at 150mm again this time as the women paraded in front of me very close. say 8-12 feet. I could have shot them walking towards me at 25-30 feet away but this venue has insufficient lighting that I tried shooting anyway, only to delete them onsite as it would be unusable for printing even for an online magazine.
Miss Tourism this time went back to Manila for a press conference at the Astoria Plaza Hotel. They had the ladies parading opposite the pool and it was easy for this lens. The event was held mid afternoon so we had ample lighting adding to the ease of shooting.
I'm an event photographer and sometimes I need a long lens to do my job, but with this long lens, I found out that I only used the 150-200mm range of it. Only once did I exceeded the lens range when I was in Vigan. Most of it was shot close range. It was overkill already to have this lens for most of my event. On hindsight, this lens made me famous as they don't normally see this kind of a lens in the pageants. I dwarfed the competition with this lens. No one was there to challenge me in the long range competition. Maybe if I was assigned to the coronation for Miss Philippines Earth (held at the SM Arena), only then I will have a hefty competition with two guys in the media line up. There's this guy with a Nikkor 300mm with a teleconverter and another media person having a huge Canon lens so heavy and long that he would stand behind all of us at the press pit.
Ease of use I can say I didn't have time to understand all the Vibration Compensation it had. I had no time to learn those things, I just kept on shooting. Because I didn't study it closely, I had lots of misses in the beginning. Eventually I got the hang for this lens that it grew on me. I was slowly adapting to this lens thus I got better shots with this thing. What I can't adapt is to shoot it handheld, its so effin heavy.
Here was the situation. We were in Baluarte Zoo of Chavit Singson. The organizers said we would be on mini jeeps and passing through wildlife. So in my mind, It would be like the African Safari. So I took out my 24-70 and placed the 150-600 in its stead. I didn't bring my monopod since the jeep would have a bumpy ride I reckon. Only when we were underway that I noticed we didn't stop to watch the animals. We were escorted directly to a place inside his village and asked us to shoot the candidates upclose. I had to hand hold all my shots of the 29 ladies of the pageant. With no flash, no monopod, with stormy skies, I had to finally decide to use an external lamp on the side of the house we shot in. Lucky was the word I have to choose when I shot this image of Miss Filipino Community of Melbourne Australia.
My only negative thoughts on this (maybe Tamron people can explain to me further) are the following;
Slow focusing. I was so used to my Nikkor lenses that I felt a slight lag in focusing. I know this thing focuses faster than the G1 it replaced, but not fast enough to catch up to the Nikkor line up. A source inside said, I should not be comparing my trusted 70-200 VR2 with the the 150-600 focal range. Shooting with a longer focal range will lose against a lens with shorter focal range. Is this true? Feels true but I think I'll make a research more about this. If you have an answer to this riddle, email me at orangebearproduction@gmail.com.
Color. I'm a nikon user so they say I will definitely have lots of yellow and green on my images. In reality its yes and no. If my color profiles were factory set, then it would be so true. However I tweaked mine so I don't have this problem anymore using my Nikkor lenses. When I used the same settings with these Tamron 150-600, I had the yellow and green issues. I had to tweak my settings further to achieve the same color result and I still have to tweak some more in post (which I noticed in the duration of my testing). Once set, I fired away easy. I am no expert here so don't ask me about more details, more graphs, I'm just a regular photographer getting paid doing this and I'm not being paid to be an engineer of sorts. Photography is fun guys, remember that.
Construction. The plastic parts on the cap is flimsy. It easily bends even in your cargo pants' pocket. I noticed that when I returned to place the cap back on, it wont fit. It was weird but when I inspected it closely, theres a thin strip of plastic that got bent and it was in the way when you try to snap the cap back on. I simply pushed it back in its original position, problem solved. Had to do this 4 times in the duration of the testing. Also the plastic is easily scratched especially the hood. I am careful when handling my gear and especially more so with borrowed ones. Even with with that, I noticed I scratched the hood and it was very noticeable, I hope it can be buffed off so when I will own one, I can take the scratches out and sell it at a good price.
Overall, even with these three negatives, the lens is still a great lens in my book. I hope I can afford one to buy one. Even though I'm not a bird shooter, I'd like to have one in my lens arsenal for special occasions. Bruno Mars is coming in 2018, maybe then I will have a chance to shoot with this lens. I still have a year to get a media pass and to save up for this lens. Add also the prayers for a discount that Lightroom PH will give me so I can finally afford to buy this lens, maybe then I can shoot Bruno Mars at far end of the arena.
