Is this user error? Tamron 150-600mm AF hunting when taking photos of birds in flight.

Okay my new and first super tele photo lens Tamron 150-600mm G2 AF and Canon EOS 6D Mark II combination. My first time out with the combination I chose to try hand holding it. (not by the camera body alone to avoid bending the camera mount). My photography skills are rusty broke my back 6 yrs ago and feel well enough to get back out again. Anyhow I put the camera in full auto or P and took my photos. I'm sure that setting was pushing the fully auto settings to the maximum limits. It obviously chose 1/500 which is technically wrong for that lens especially hand held. The camera was set to Single shot not servo and the focus area was set to ( - ). Lens aberration correction was turned on if I recall. I read somewhere turning aberration correction off may help a third party lens depending on the lens model. The lens is hunting and sometimes stops with the image in viewfinder blurred. This happens when the shutter button is pressed halfway. What bothers or concerns me is that sometimes fully pressing the shutter button doesn't reset or do anything to get AF working again. The battery appears to have enough charge. This happens when taking photos of birds in flight with a sunny plain sky or blank plain indoor house wall. For example indoors a ceiling with a smoke detector the AF locks on good and takes a sharp photo. Is this the lens or a camera setting? I did get some photos of birds in flight. This was also my first time using the lens. When its taking great photos I fall in love with the lens despite the size and weight. I'm not in a super big hurry to return it yet. Interesting the photo data says 1/500 which is less than the focal length of the lens. Would this shutter speed or hand shake / wiggle make camera refuse to take a photo? The photos do look under somewhat under-exposed to me. A very tiny crop is all I did to a few photos. One struggle I'll need to over come is changing setting with such a heavy lens mounted to the camera body. Next struggle is displays in sunlight. I'll try setting up some custom functions ahead of time based on the weather forecast.

Here is my guess. The 6D does not have a wide coverage AF sensor array. As such, unless the bird is in the area a sensor is covering, the camera has nothing to lock onto. Hence doing nothing, or more typically hunting. To determine if this is part of the problem, manually select an AF point, or choose a zone. Then do your best to keep that focus point over the subject. It should easily now find the subject, and lock.

If it still is having a problems.... have the lens checked. But my guess is narrowing down the focus point issue will help. Newer cameras have broader focus point coverage. The new Canons cover over 90% of the viewing area. I am sure with more practice you will get better results..... its a lot cheaper then dropping money on a new camera body.

If I were you, I'd use these settings:

Select just the center focus point, and keep it on the bird as best you can
Use AI Servo as the focus mode
Evaluative metering
Auto ISO (in M mode) with at least 1/1000 of a sec and widest aperture that gives decent quality with you lens
or, if auto ISO is a problem, AV mode with the same aperture and a high enough ISO to keep the shutter to at least 1/1000
Shoot bursts using continuous drive mode

Hope this makes sense to you. Others may suggest alternatives to this, but this has worked best for me as well as most others I know.

I've never had good results letting the camera select the focus point. Even with my 7d2, and on my old 50d it was pretty much impossible.

Shooting birds in flight is a skill that improves with practice and experience, just keep working at it. At least initially you'll get a lot more bad shots than good, and even the most skilled shooters get their good share of misses.

Try switching to back button focus as well. Separating the focus and shutter release functions from each other makes it much easier once you get used to it.

Some user error and some hardware limitations, it sounds like. The camera needs contrast in order to auto-focus, which is missing in clear skies or a blank wall, where there won't be anything for it to pick up on; so, if you don't manage to hold your subject so that the AF sensor is "on" the bird the whole time it's seeking, you'll wind up with it 'giving up'. As Mark mentions above, if your subject is so far out that it is only covered by one or two AF points at a time, you're going to wind up with a ton of misses.

Also, using Auto/P exposure modes is likely going to wind up with the camera choosing exposure settings (particularly shutter speeds) that are less than ideal for shooting in-flight shots. I would strongly suggest moving to, at least, Tv so that you can specify the shutter speed you want to ensure. Shooting M gives you the most control, but may feel daunting up front; but is going to be your best goal to work toward for IF shots.

You don't really describe the rest of your settings (such as AF mode) or what custom settings you may use in the camera, but there are likely a few other things you can do to get better control of the system. Take a look through your manual and also check on some of the other settings Tom mentions above.

All of that said, the 6DII is not exactly an auto-focus powerhouse and isn't really geared toward that type of shooting; so the system is going to struggle a bit compared to other bodies that have faster AF systems. The 150-600s also, really, only have adequate AF motors, as well, so combine that slower motor with a less accurate AF system and you're going to simply wind up with a lot of lens hunting trying to capture and hold a moving subject.

All in all, most of what you're seeing should be able to be addressed with technique and handling; but expect to be working harder with it under that combination.

When you only have the AF systems with the lower range of possible settings, especially the older cameras like my 50D, one setting to check is the "AF possible" setting. With this set to off the camera won't try to drive the AF system if the lens is not seeing enough contrast on an edge to focus. This can be caused by the lens either being so far out of focus there is no visible contrast on any edges, or there are no edges to focus on. This stops the AF racking the focus back and forth when you drop off the subject. The only drawback is that with something like a 600mm lens you won't be able to jump from close to mfd to infinity and have the AF work. IIRC the Tamron G2 is like my Sigma 150-600C and allows for full time manual focus, so all you need do in that situation is give the manual ring a quick twist.

I use this and BBF only as my default settings. With my Sigma 20-40mm that I use as a standard zoom it will AF pretty much from mfd to infinity without issues, apart from in low light levels.

Alan

Okay thanks. I doubt its the camera body. I put the CN 70-200mm on the same camera body and went out for a 2.5 mile hike. That lens snapped into focus almost ever time. I'll try making some custom settings. Slightly higher ISO and at least 1000 second shutter speed and turn off the camera body aberration correction and also try the Tamron's AF pan setting on the lens.

Has the camera had a firmware update since the Tamron 150-600 came out?

I updated the Tamron 150-600mm G2 using the tap in console. Haven't fully tried it since the tap in update. My photos are not retouched and look a little under exposed to me. That is a large long lens so maybe an ISO or aperture adjustment will help get more light in. This is my first large tele photo lens and with a lot more technique, effort and practice on my part. I was hand holding, steadying it the first time zoomed in at 600mm lol. Then I probably need to make some custom function camera body settings for a lens that big and its aperture. I think the Tamron 150-600mm G2 may someday reward me for my efforts. Most of my lenses are Canon and only 2 are Tamron brand. Tamron 24-70mm G2 AF behaves like a champion. I love the Tamron 24-70mm G2 lens build and performance and its warranty for the price. I'll need to put the camera body firmware into a large empty memory card then run the update as directed on the manufacturer's website to avoid messing up the camera. To the best of my limited knowledge I don't know if the third party lenses can or will show up in the lens profile. My Canon brand lenses are in the list though. I just have to write down the lens specifications on paper then open the software and check mark those boxes using the utility on the desktop.

I have used the G1 and G2 and 6D and 7D2


Birds in flight take practice, specially at 600mm. That said, it's a lot harder on a 6D that has a few focus points vs 7D2 or newer cameras that have sensor wide focus points.


The center focus point on the 6D is really good, but you have to get it on the bird and keep it there, which is very hard at 600mm when they are moving fast and small in the frame. The 6D is decent at higher ISO so don't be afraid to raise it up a bit and see how it goes, it will let you use a faster shutter speed (try 1/1000) and avoid some of the blur that you see in the first photo.

vision35 wrote in post #19120717
Okay thanks. I doubt its the camera body. I put the CN 70-200mm on the same camera body and went out for a 2.5 mile hike. That lens snapped into focus almost ever time. I'll try making some custom settings. Slightly higher ISO and at least 1000 second shutter speed and turn off the camera body aberration correction and also try the Tamron's AF pan setting on the lens.

There is a huge difference between using a lens at 600mm and 200mm. I would think you would find the Tamron working pretty much as well as the canon 70-200, just not quite as fast hitting focus. The thing is that you will really need to practice with the lens a fair bit before you have your technique down. Remember that the Canon 70-200's are some of the best performing zoom lenses in the world, and you have now trebled the magnification, with all that entails, not least to the depth of field. Also lets face it to get to 600mm in a Canon EF lens is going to set you back £/$13000.

Alan

vision35 wrote in post #19123711
The Tamron 150-600mm G2 is a great lens. I'm at fault / user error. I'm learning everything I can and modifying camera settings as well. Hand held at 600mm

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Looks like you're getting a pretty decent handle on it; those results look good to me