New Tamron 150-600 G2

Shaun Liddy wrote in post #18599513
Keltlab,

At first I suffered sharpness issues. It came down to several things.

1) Needed the dock to adjust center of focus point, mine was front focused from the factory.

2) Be mindful of the elements around you.

Our mornings right now are clear but the grass is wet with dew. When the sun comes up, the water starts to turn to vapor and don't really see it by eye. But shooting the sheep 300-500' away at 500-600mm they are soft. Shoot them in the evening and they are sharp.

3) The IS does a good job, but my better steadied on something hand held shots are following aprox 1/4 shutter speed to focal length (500mm = 1/125) - those I steady myself and lens against something.

True hand held shouts with no support are roughly 1/2 shutter speed to focal length.

Thanks for the advice and the details! I'll see what I can do and hopefully post some images to the thread!

Bluejay and Mockingbird

Keltab wrote in post #18599477
I have this lens and really enjoy it. However, some of y'all's shots are a good bit sharper than mine. Are most of these on tripods? Or am I just that much worse holding the lens? I am impressed by the sharpness and want to learn to use the lens better than I am now.

Thanks in advance for your help!

I can't handhold mine at the long end. I find a monopod only marginally helpful. For me, a tripod is almost a must to avoid motion blur. At the long end, I try to stay with f/8, if I have enough light, for a slightly sharper image.

"Limpkin": (Aramus guarauna) with apple snail.

Keltab wrote in post #18599477
I have this lens and really enjoy it. However, some of y'all's shots are a good bit sharper than mine. Are most of these on tripods? Or am I just that much worse holding the lens? I am impressed by the sharpness and want to learn to use the lens better than I am now.

Thanks in advance for your help!

I echo Shauns advice.My Shots are all handheld however it does take some time to get used (I used to own the V1 of this lens) as the lens is a bit heavy. Additionally shooting at 600mm is not forgiving at all. Make sure you can maintain a fast shutter speed (1/400 or faster) and try to shoot in favorable lighting conditions.

Sibil wrote in post #18599748
I can't handhold mine at the long end. I find a monopod only marginally helpful. For me, a tripod is almost a must to avoid motion blur. At the long end, I try to stay with f/8, if I have enough light, for a slightly sharper image.

I use mine primarily for birds, and I have custom settings dialed in (on 7DII) at f/8 and 1/1000 sec. with auto ISO. I adjust these as necessary and possible, given lighting conditions, but those are my default settings. It is fairly easy in PP to reduce any noise from the high ISO that can be selected in poorer light, and the fast shutter speed and slight stopping down really seem to help with sharpness. These settings also make it unnecessary to make adjustments when suddenly going from stationary subjects to BIF shots.

pknight wrote in post #18599953
I use mine primarily for birds, and I have custom settings dialed in (on 7DII) at f/8 and 1/1000 sec. with auto ISO. I adjust these as necessary and possible, given lighting conditions, but those are my default settings. It is fairly easy in PP to reduce any noise from the high ISO that can be selected in poorer light, and the fast shutter speed and slight stopping down really seem to help with sharpness. These settings also make it unnecessary to make adjustments when suddenly going from stationary subjects to BIF shots.

Makes sense. I also use mine for mostly bird photography and often end up doing basic noise reduction which really causes some feather detail loss.

Soaking up the morning sun

Got a chance to shoot the humming birds that are around my front deck. There are 4 of them right now, but the best shots were of this one.

First one might be on the edge of over processed?

Second one makes me think I need to fine tune the 60' range a little better. Looks front focused to me. Upper left corner where the hot spot is on the dry dead brush seems more sharp.

Rehype,

About how far away are you on most of these shots?

Shaun Liddy wrote in post #18604126
Rehype,

About how far away are you on most of these shots?

Hey Shaun,
For most of those shots Id say between 10-20 feet.

Just a couple of birds in flight...!

Spring is here my property.