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free Jared poen fronos
photo.com and this is a review of the
Tamron 150 to 500 mm F5 to
6.7 Z mount lens now I say the z-mount
lens because we did a review of this
type of lens the 150 to 500 mm for the
Sony e-mount a few years ago but there's
actually some differences between those
two lenses and I will tell you all about
that when we get further into to the
review but what did I photograph this
time around with this lens well I took
it out to a lacrosse match which was
done on an overcast day which forced me
to bump the iso up of the Nikon z9 the
images turned out pretty well but I
didn't want anybody being like Oh it's
not perfect because you didn't shoot in
the right light well the next day I went
back where it was a game at noon and it
was bright and sunny so I did that but
also the final thing that I photographed
was at St Joseph's University baseball
they had a home game outside these guys
aren't wearing helmets so we have a
better chance of getting sharper faces
and sharper eyes so that's what I shot
and I shot it all with the Nikon z9 now
this Tamron 150 to 500 is the only
third-party super zoom lens available
for the Z Mount at the time of recording
this now Nikon has two different Native
lenses the 100 to 400 which is a z lens
and the 180 to 600 mm lens which I
reviewed a little while ago as well
those are the native options this is the
only Mega Zoom currently available that
way but let's take a look at the outside
of the lens talk about the feel let's
talk about the weight and the first
thing you notice is this is a heavy lens
when I was shooting with this and I'm a
strong guy you can tell from my muscles
I'm strong this is a heavy awkward lens
and as you zoom it it becomes even more
awkward and less balanced in my opinion
when using it in the real world so let's
talk about the weight it weighs in at
3.79 lb or
1.72 kg the funny thing is that it's a
half a pound less than the Sony e-mount
version which is interesting because
usually I find that the Sony ones tend
to be lighter but I guess somehow Tamron
was able to shave off some weight with
this lens right here now for comparison
the 180 to 600 Nikon weighs in at 4.72
lb or
2.14 kilograms and my arm speaking of
kilograms is starting to kill like
Stephen I'm not even trying to flex and
look at this muscle right here you I'm
not even flexing and this is how heavy
the lens is you could work out with this
if you've got bird arm arms like Dan
anyway let's look at the outside of the
lens so we have a tripod collar right
here that is removable and has an ARCA
Swiss plate built in which is great if
you're a burder it's great if you want
to go on a tripod because then you have
that already built in you just pop it on
to the tripod now I shot it without this
um it just for me I can handhold this
but it is awkward and honestly it would
be even more Awkward if you put it on a
monopod because you put this on a
monopod and it's just awkward when you
try to zoom it why is it awkward when
you try to zoom it because it's not
exactly a loose throw meaning when I try
to turn it can I turn it with ease with
this it's not that easy to turn it now
in one way that's good because there is
no lens creep they got they got rid of
the lens creep but it's not super easy
so you got to crank it when you're
trying to zoom it and that to me is a
pain in the butt that I wish it was
looser now one of the things you can do
is you can tighten it what's this thing
called again Stephen Flex Zoom lock the
flex Zoom lock so if I zoom out to 500
and I just want to lock it I'm going to
flex lock it's not locking I'm flexing
Stephen why isn't it anyway you go like
this now it's locked in there and you
can't turn well you can actually turn it
if you're strong like me I'm turning it
while it's locked in the reason you
would do that is say you want to be at
500 mm you know you don't want to zoom
you can just push this out and and lock
it I don't like this feature at all I
rather have some kind of lock switch for
it um because this sometimes I find
myself accidentally locking it when I'm
trying to zoom and if you do this too
many times more than two you're not
shaking it you're playing with it so you
want to be careful that you don't play
with it too much so here as I turn it
you can see how large this lens gets it
just it's a heavy lens I'm going to keep
coming back to that time and time again
now let's look at the filter thread we
have an 82 mm lens cap so I have an 82
mm filter thread you have your lens hood
that pops on bayonet style you has nice
rubber on the end locks in like this put
it back out I use it every time I'm
taking pictures and I just got to line
it up straight you got to it should just
be easy to line it up
straight there we go and it clicks in
and now it's on the lens on the side of
the lens you have some switches you have
a nonlinear SL linear switch now this is
for the those of you who want to go
ahead and manual focus it's different
ways and different speeds of doing the
manual focus maybe that comes in handy
if you're trying to video birds at a
distance or just get track a bird like
that I try to rely on autofocus as much
as possible but you have that option
with that switch you have an AF to
manual you have your uh distance limiter
when it comes to autofocus but what you
don't have is a VC option for turning
off the vibration compensation all of
that is done inside of the Nikon body
these switches are different from what
you find on the Sony I'm not sure how
they shaved off some of the weight but
that is the switches there so you have
your Zoom ring we talked about you've
got your manual focus ring right here
that's normal you've got your USBC
docking plug right here for those of you
who want to update if you ever need to
do that and you have a lock on the back
that only locks this lens in at 150 mm
so if we unlock it I'm not getting any
I'm really not getting any any creep so
I I would prefer a looser throw over a
tighter throw let me jump in here real
quick because I want to show you this
photo taken with the Tamron Lens and
edited with fropack 4 starting with c41
then we've got Coppertone DeLorean
Kaleidoscope saltwater taffy thick with
3 C's and tin type but check this out
exclusive to frop pack 4 we've got four
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mask and you saw that the skin already
got smoother but look at this off on but
let me click on masks because it's not
just doing one thing it's creating seven
different masks with one click of a
button and let's say we want that face
to soften a little more we can raise the
amount of softness let's say we want to
bring those eyes out we can go up to
Iris and we can add add more exposure to
make them come out a little more look at
the skin right here we've got after and
we've got before what a major difference
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you're just tired of other people's
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and four as well as the Adaptive presets
and you can save even more now let's get
back to the video now remember this is a
5 to 6.7 so as you zoom the the aperture
is changing it's a variable aperture
lens so you need to always take that
into consideration in the lighting
situation that you're in cuz when I was
shooting in that terrible light outside
with the lacrosse I had to bump the iso
up to 8,000 or 10,000 just to compensate
for that 6.7 but where does the aperture
change as you zoom well at 150 mm of
course you're at F5 at 5.3 you're at 190
mm 5.6 is 275 mm F6 is 350 mm 6.3 is 400
MM and at 6.7 is
475 mm but now let's jump into some of
the pictures because that's really what
you're here to see um remember I shot
with the Nikon z9 in this situation but
this is a z-mount lens so it will work
on your z8s it will work on any of your
Z Mount cameras so the first shoot that
I did was that lacrosse game out at St
Joseph's University and being that
lacrosse players wear helmets it's very
difficult to see their eyes but pregame
their eyes are out because the helmets
are not on during the national anthem so
this is what you see at 150 millimeters
and then when you zoom out to 500 this
is how tight you can get for a portrait
now I zoomed in on the eye and this one
looks like it's pretty good I'm at 4,000
ISO but it doesn't look critically sharp
in my opinion and I don't know if that's
an issue with the lens or a an issue
with the Nikon focusing system and I say
that because with the 180 to 600 Nikon I
had no issues with the autofocus and I
think that it was so much sharper and so
much better that it leads me to believe
that I I just I you're going to see with
some other images that I got that it
just didn't seem like it had critical
sharpness in most situations most people
won't notice a difference but I do need
to point out the differences between the
native Nikon lens that seemed to be
pretty good or much better than what I
found with this Tamron now when the game
started it was really overcast there was
a lot of rain that day and there was no
sun out at all so I'm bumping up the iso
to 10,000 in this case I'm at 1 1600th
of a second at 5.6 I 100% could drop my
ISO a little bit lower and go to one say
1,000th of a second but I wanted to keep
it faster because I was more interested
in freezing the action because I didn't
want some motion blur to tell me that oh
it's motion blur and and not focus so I
wanted to make sure it was nice and
sharp you can look at the background
here and see that at 5.6 a lot of the
background is more prevalent it's more
and focus so that's one of the things
you get when you're at 56 or 6.7 also in
terms of aperture blades you've got
seven of those opposed to the 180 to 600
that has nine of them if that matters to
you keep that in mind but as we zoom in
here I think this one did pretty good
it's also harder to see at 10,000 ISO
whether you are super duper duper sharp
and that's why I decided to go out for
another game the next day this time at
Drexel University because it was at noon
and it was super bright and sunny which
also makes it a little difficult to see
their face when the sun is hitting the
helmet and in shade but this time the
focus looked much better Tac sharp on
this one now I did run through a bunch
of different focusing modes trying to
find one that that locked onto the face
better there's the 3D tracking there's
the all-encompassing there's the old
Dynamic area AF there's the making the
Box smaller so that the Nikon knows to
just look in this area and I ran through
them all trying to find the one that
worked worked best for me in this
situation but I think this one looks
really good um this time we're at F6 so
the background yeah the people are there
but they are blown out pretty well
because they're at a distance continuing
on we've got some more action photos we
zoom in on the face this one looks nice
and sharp from a distance so that's
totally a good thing the colors are fine
the um the contrast that I'm able to
pull out of it because I added
Kaleidoscope from fropack 4 makes it
look pretty good but that critical Sharp
sharpness um is a thing that is a
concern for me and also the awkwardness
of using this lens as you zoom it just
feels like the balance is off and that
heavy aspect of it comes into play the
more you handhold and the more you shoot
it's just awkward when you're trying to
shoot and zoom because of how tight the
zoom ring is and that's why I'm not a
big fan of how this thing zooms and
maybe that's why I was a little awkward
with getting the shots I wanted to get
and might have missed some of the things
because I was fighting with the lens now
inside of the time run lens you do have
their linear style motors which is
supposed to help give you faster focus
and it does give you fast Focus uh but
does it give you accurate focus is the
more important question in some cases it
did and in other situations I felt that
it just wasn't critically sharp and
that's what I'm looking for especially
when you look at the 180 to 600 from
Nikon that in my opinion is critically
sharp more times than not now because
the players had helmets on I knew I
wanted to go shoot something else where
players didn't have helmets on and
that's why I went out to a baseball game
at St Joe's University it's a great
place to shoot cuz I have clear shots of
the mound just like a photo just like
this and we zoom in and again I'm only
at 2000 ISO and it just doesn't seem
super duper sharp on the face and yeah
I'm zooming in a little bit but that's
what I'm doing I'm looking for that
critical focus in most situations if we
printed this you'd never question
whether in Focus or not but the next
photo of the third baseman catching a
ball it's focused on the glove and not
on the face now that's something that
the Sony's that's something that the the
Cannons get right is that they will find
the face over the distraction of the
glove but it also depends on which Focus
mode you end up using because I know
from talking to Nikon Shooters they run
through a lot of different focusing
modes because some of them work better
than the others depending on the sport
that they're shooting let me jump in and
say do you like podcast well if so we
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off the rails to get our podcast head on
over to fronos photo.com podcast or
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YouTube Spotify as well as Apple
podcasts now let's get back to the video
now one of the issues I ran into with
having an external zoom lens was this
play at second base
the reason that my composition is not
perfect here is when I was tracking the
subject running stealing the base from
going from first to second I was panning
panning and I was zoomed out because I'm
all the way out at 500 and I was trying
to get close to the fence so that it
wouldn't show up in my image but as I
panned to the left I hit a pole and that
caused me to not be able to follow
through with the play and by the time I
rearranged myself and just started
shooting I ended up not with great
composition and also it's not perfectly
sharp here um it's just not it was a
good play at second base but because it
was external zooming in this case and I
hit that
pole that's a little bit on me but also
it didn't pick up that Focus super fast
once we reacquired the subjects now I
love trying to get good shots of the
pitcher uh where I have somebody in the
foreground like the batter and the
piture is out of focus just to show you
some of the depth that you get this
picture had a really cool wind up you
can see the the ball stretched out over
the back it's probably not good because
good hitters will know where his fingers
are on the ball and know that a
curveball is coming and then take him
yard
like way downtown bang um but whatever
it makes for good photos as he's looking
here um you can just see again the
distance of the pitcher throwing the
ball is out of focus the batter and the
Umpire is out of focus these are the
angles you look for when you're trying
to capture those moments but also a
quick tip is follow through on the play
in this case with the pitcher I decided
to go vertical I took a bunch of shots
as he was pitching and I followed
through because the ball went right back
up the middle to the pitcher and that's
why I was able to capture the ball
almost going into his glove and then
also bouncing off of his glove because I
followed through the play that's one of
the mistakes I used to make is not
following through the play it's much
cheaper because we're not shooting film
so it doesn't matter how many photos you
take it just takes a little longer to
edit them so how much is this lens well
it's a $1,200 lens it's pretty expensive
for what it is but how much is the 180
to 600 Nikon that one's 500 bucks more
at $1,700 and then of course there's the
100 to 400 that's another option that
one's in the $2,000 plus doll range and
isn't really comparable here in my
opinion due to the price but before I
tell you who it's for and if I think you
should buy it two tests to run through
we got the wind tunnel test and the
sniff test let's back up here and give
it a huff and a puff and a
blow ooh I'm sorry it's an extreme
failure of the Wind Tunnel test you
failed the wind tunnel test let's sniff
it oh my God Stephen I haven't smelled a
lens like this in a long time that gave
me this note do you know what note that
is what yeah don't buy
it I I haven't said that in a while and
I I just I did not like this lens I
haven't said that in a long time and I'm
sorry Tamron I I I I didn't find that
this was great especially when you
compare it to the 180 to 600 which yes
is $500 more and is larger but I rather
have the 180 to 600 and I rather have
you guys save up your money to spend on
something like that even though it's
slightly larger weighs more and is a
little bit more expensive it's just a
better lens I there were just things I
just didn't like I just I struggled with
the focus and I thought it was the
camera but it really wasn't the camera
as much as the lens some situations good
other situations not as much 1,200 bucks
and and $1,700 yes $500 is a big
difference if you can swing it I would
save up and get that other lens this is
just a tough lens for me to recommend
right now because I didn't feel it I
felt it over on the the Sony side
because the e-mount lens just worked
better and that was a couple years ago
it just focused better for whatever
reason so I don't know why that is I
hate to say it that I don't really
recommend this one if you do feel that
you know it gives you what you need and
yes critical sharpness is important to
me but maybe I'm zooming in further than
you might it could be a good option if
you're going to shoot Birds if you're
going to do some Wildlife stuff if you
wanted something that's smaller then the
180 to 600 this this could be for you
and you want to save 500 bucks and it's
not that big of a deal it's good enough
for you then sure we've got links down
below where you can purchase it that's
for you to decide but I'm here to help
you just just to tell you what I think
about it after using it in the real
world so that's it this time around guys
thank you very much for watching Jared
poen fronos
photo.com see you