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Replace Canon 100-400 V1 by tamron 150-600G2, good choice?

Started Apr 2, 2018 | Questions thread
DanInSoCal Senior Member • Posts: 1,158
Re: Replace Canon 100-400 V1 by tamron 150-600G2, good choice?
2

As with many things, the answer is likely "it depends". I own the 150-600G2, and I use it on an older body (50D). I have never used the 100-400 I or II, but I was considering the 100-400II and chose the Tamron.

The weaknesses of this lens are size/weight (especially with the hood), aperture, and the autofocus. The autofocus is, well, I can't help it, slow AF. No way it will do birds in flight, for example. The autofocus is very accurate, though, if you take the time to get the USB tuning puck and carefully adjust the focus over the recommended distance ranges. Sharpness is excellent, even at 600mm. You get to a max aperture of f/5.6-f/6.3 quite fast, so not good for low light. Be ready to jack up ISO when in shade.

So if you take this for what it is -- a relatively inexpensive way to get quite good sharpness, excellent image stabilization, and reach, at a sacrifice of autofocus speed and number of photons, this is an EXCELLENT lens. It is no match for a big white prime, and will almost certainly be outperformed optically by the 100-400L II in that range (personally, I would not consider the original 100-400, it's too old, and only 2 stop stabilization, push-pull design, etc etc).

Happy shooting,
Dan

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