Bird Pictures With my D3200 and New Tamron VC 70-300mm f4-5.6

Will Gibson1 · Aug 30, 2014

Just out shooting and i spotted a couple of birds. Pretty impressed with the quality of the lens although the d3200 kinda lets it down with the noise, little bit of pp on lightroom, cropping and the normal stuff for birds. comment your thoughts o

n the combo. Thanks

Will

Photographed in Brisbane Australia

DigitalPhilosopher · Aug 31, 2014

The one piece of criticism I have is that the background (and the foreground as well) are too busy and distracting, Partially, that's not your fault (an f/5.6 lens will inevitably be worse than an f/2.8 about this). You could still improve the situation by picking your placement and framing. Avoid shooting through foliage. On #4 is really pronounced, while even on those it's not (e.g. #2), it's producing a softness effect.

Will Gibson1 · Aug 31, 2014

Cheers mate, wasn't much i could do but i will try harder next time. Thanks

LynniePad · Aug 31, 2014

Rather pleasing results.

Was the +1.33 EC a result of experimentation? or your standard settings?

One tip with the Tamron 70-300mm VC. Just watch that the VC switch doesn't get accidentally turned off. Happened to me the other day and I wasted an hour stalking birds with no VC. The switch detent isn't very strong.

Will Gibson1 · Aug 31, 2014

The EC was to add a little extra light to the photo (they were significantly darker before pp) and I'm just not happy going past USO 400-800 on a d3200. I have a tripod ring on my lens (the 80-200 f2.8) so It would be quite difficult to knock it as I hold it by the collar generally and end of the barrel, the grip on the 3200 also helps a bit.

Thanks for the advice, I was relatively pleased with the results too. Going to the national park next week to get some more birds, seems like I'm getting into birding. Better start saving for the 500/4 or maybe even the 800/5.6, jks :-D

Robert A F · Aug 31, 2014

I like the first one. The noise doesn't bother me.

Robert A F · Aug 31, 2014

I'll second that. The Tamron switch is too soft. Bad design on their part. It changes just taking it out of the bag.

HansN46 · Aug 31, 2014

Sorry Will, I'd like to be a little more critical not to bash you but to be constructive. I.m.o. you cropped them too much to be usefull. They become soft and I think they actually are not sharp (not in focus?). #4 comes close and I recomposed it and with a little sharpening it looks more acceptable to me.

Good luck, H.

--
It's a great art to make ONE real pro-image with any cam; it's very common to make MANY average images with a pro-cam!

David Lal · Aug 31, 2014

Way too soft for me and it looks like blown highlights as well. I noticed that for most of the shots the lens was racked out to 300mm. Most 70-300s are soft at the extreme of their focal length. I suggest getting physically much closer and not going beyond 200mm or so.

David

Will Gibson1 · Sep 3, 2014

Cheers everyone for the advice and constructive criticism, overall relatively happy with the tamron 70-300mm but i have regrets of not saving for a 300mm f4. For $350 i still see it as a good buy. Thanks again

will

Will Gibson1 · Sep 3, 2014

Will be heading out on the weekend to a national park to get some more birds and wildlife, the comment about softness sparked my interest because i was thinking they looked quite soft too. I'm gonna see if stopping it down and slightly raising the shutter speed might help, although ill no doubt have to raise my ISO. Might try shooting from a tripod too if i have time. will report back with pictures and comments about its performance.

LynniePad · Sep 3, 2014

Will Gibson1 said:
Will be heading out on the weekend to a national park to get some more birds and wildlife, the comment about softness sparked my interest because i was thinking they looked quite soft too. I'm gonna see if stopping it down and slightly raising the shutter speed might help, although ill no doubt have to raise my ISO. Might try shooting from a tripod too if i have time. will report back with pictures and comments about its performance.

Here's an image to give you some encouragement. Hand held; cropped to about 4000 x 2667.

I don't usually stop down to f/11, but that's where spot metering took me as I was using SS priority.

Tamron 70-300mm

Brev00 · Sep 3, 2014

Will Gibson1 said:
Will be heading out on the weekend to a national park to get some more birds and wildlife, the comment about softness sparked my interest because i was thinking they looked quite soft too. I'm gonna see if stopping it down and slightly raising the shutter speed might help, although ill no doubt have to raise my ISO. Might try shooting from a tripod too if i have time. will report back with pictures and comments about its performance.

Do not be discouraged. The 70-300 vc is a fine lens. It does tend to like a well lit subject like this heron:

or this hummingbird clearwing moth:

These are from some handheld walkabouts. Shooting a shaded subject is going to present issues, however, especially if there is some strong backlighting in the scene. So, my recommendation is to look for strong but even lighting. Good luck.

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David Lal · Sep 3, 2014

Will Gibson1 said:
Will be heading out on the weekend to a national park to get some more birds and wildlife, the comment about softness sparked my interest because i was thinking they looked quite soft too. I'm gonna see if stopping it down and slightly raising the shutter speed might help, although ill no doubt have to raise my ISO. Might try shooting from a tripod too if i have time. will report back with pictures and comments about its performance.

Will, you've got to find a way of getting in closer at 200mm to avoid driving the lens into its weakest 300mm area. It could even be that a cropped shot at 200mm will be better than an uncropped one at 300. The advice by Brev about finding strong light is probably very good too.

I also owned a budget 70-300 once and regretted not putting the money towards a Nik 300/F4. Eventually that's exactly what I got and gave the zoom to one of my nephews.

Good luck. Patience and camouflage clothing will help a lot I expect.

David

JoeNap2 · Sep 3, 2014

You're going to suggest a versatile $350 lens for a low-end camera should not be bought because it makes more sense to spend $1500 for a specialized lens that will sit in the closet for 29 out of 30 days? And, BTW, the Tamron is just fine at 300mm for its price.

One thing about using a long lens... it's just like plunking targets at 300 yards with a rifle. Technique... BRASS. Breathe Relax Aim Sight Squeeze... easy on the shutter release.

D7000 w/Tamron 70-300 at 300mm

David Lal · Sep 3, 2014

JoeNap2 said:
You're going to suggest a versatile $350 lens for a low-end camera should not be bought because it makes more sense to spend $1500 for a specialized lens that will sit in the closet for 29 out of 30 days? And, BTW, the Tamron is just fine at 300mm for its price..

Yes. For a 350$ consumer lens your images aren't too bad. Not sure the price tag has anything to do with absolute image quality though.

Here's one of mine using a 'cheap' Sigma 105:

What can you do with 100mm or so?

LynniePad · Sep 3, 2014

JoeNap2 said:
... And, BTW, the Tamron is just fine at 300mm for its price.

One thing about using a long lens... it's just like plunking targets at 300 yards with a rifle. Technique... BRASS. Breathe Relax Aim Sight Squeeze... easy on the shutter release.

I have to agree on the capabilities of the Tamron at 300mm; it's not bad at all. Obviously, some of my first shots with the lens were at 300mm, and resolution tests didn't reveal much fall-off between 200mm and 300mm. The shots that I've posted have been between 200mm and 260mm, mainly for framing purposes rather than worries about going to 300mm.

Yes, "shooting" a camera is very much like using a rifle; I did a fair bit of target shooting in my younger days, and "The Squeeze" was definitely the way to go. -The actual point of release should be slightly unpredictable.

I swear that some newbie photographers don't know about the half-shutter. Certainly, several offers of "I'll take the two of you together" have resulted in very poor results, from stabbing wildly at the button. I usually don't bother these days, unless it's a tour guide or someone who also has a half-decent camera.

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Bird Pictures With my D3200 and New Tamron VC 70-300mm f4-5.6

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