Tamron 150-600 G2 Issue

Cheers again all for taking the time to reply
I always use single point focus but was reading the manual yesterday and it states use group for erratic subjects
So thought I’d have few test shots with group af but still seems the same,
I have used my test chart at 15ft using live view and the viewfinder
I shot a bird with single point exactly on the eye and it wasn’t any better
I’m in the north east so not very local
I am going to try that battery focus test later see how I get on,
Thank you again all for the time taken to help
I think your throwing in too many variables and as such I am convinced this is pilot error.

Can you post up a crop of live view and viewfinder af ? If they are the same we can at least discount af fine tuning and look at other issues. Long lens technique is a minefield.
 
I think your throwing in too many variables and as such I am convinced this is pilot error.

Can you post up a crop of live view and viewfinder af ? If they are the same we can at least discount af fine tuning and look at other issues. Long lens technique is a minefield.
my assessment to , looking at his flickr the A777 plane is sharp as a razor , I would reset to zero for starters or go back a bit to -5
 
Liam whereabouts are you based , if your in the north west I could do it for you .. or if not this is the proper way . Camera/lens on tripod locked down fairly stiffly , set camera to single focus point , one shot , lens wide open , turn off v.c . Use target at normal shooting range at 600mm .i reckon about 25-30 feet for small birds ,Take test shots adjust accordingly . . What we are not seeing is how your actually doing it , and if your tripod and head is steady enough to do it without movement
When I did my Tamron G1 I put some newspaper at the one of the garden to be a static test subject (assuming your garden is long enough).
 
Hey Liam,
I think after all your testing and troubleshooting, this sentence still holds the answer 'I've tried a friends Sigma 150-600 C and its entirely different, super sharp and crisp at 600mm'
I assume you tried that lens on your camera body? -- If so, I'd rather spend time selling the Tamron and saving for the Sigma rather than trying to resolve an issue which in my opinion is just the quality of the Tamron lens. I had the G1 and it was never sharp or of any quality at 600mm
 
I Have been looking at the Sigma Alternative and I can get one for £779 sold by amazon,
I think I should get at least £750 for the Tamron if I decide to go that route ?
Cheers
 
Hey Liam,
I think after all your testing and troubleshooting, this sentence still holds the answer 'I've tried a friends Sigma 150-600 C and its entirely different, super sharp and crisp at 600mm'
I assume you tried that lens on your camera body? -- If so, I'd rather spend time selling the Tamron and saving for the Sigma rather than trying to resolve an issue which in my opinion is just the quality of the Tamron lens. I had the G1 and it was never sharp or of any quality at 600mm

I have to beg to differ here, my friends G2 version is very sharp @ 600mm wide open and I've met a couple of people whose G1's have been quite sharp.
I've not read much about it with Tamron but I know firmware updates have solved problems with the Sigma 150-600C.

Liam I would contact einfinity and ask about getting the lens fixed in the UK and them covering the cost, I did read somewhere that they sometimes do this rather than ship it back to HK.
 
I Have been looking at the Sigma Alternative and I can get one for £779 sold by amazon,
I think I should get at least £750 for the Tamron if I decide to go that route ?
Cheers

Trying to sell the Tamron with a focussing issue will cause you nothing but grief, as I said in my previous post, contact einfinity if it' still in warranty.
Even it it's out of warranty, it may save you some money if Tamron UK will do a chargable repair.
 
Hey Liam,
I think after all your testing and troubleshooting, this sentence still holds the answer 'I've tried a friends Sigma 150-600 C and its entirely different, super sharp and crisp at 600mm'
I assume you tried that lens on your camera body? -- If so, I'd rather spend time selling the Tamron and saving for the Sigma rather than trying to resolve an issue which in my opinion is just the quality of the Tamron lens. I had the G1 and it was never sharp or of any quality at 600mm
Hi Geoff

I do hear this a lot and also hear the opposite a lot too. I do believe there is a large variance in the manufacturing quality of these lenses. In this review even the mk 1 version stacks up very well and even better than the sigma and the Nikon 200-500 lenses. I personally think technique is the biggest over rider here.

https://photographylife.com/nikon-200-500mm-vs-tamron-150-600mm-vs-sigma-150-600mm-c
 
Last edited:
Have you tried the TAP_IN console, that will alow you to focus the lens at 3 different places, I have seen people do this on their 150-600 G2 lens and they get tack sharp shots at 600 and the other 2 place`s that they adjusted the lens too.
Ok so this thing will cost you a little bit of money but it will work wonders.
 
I think it should be sharp at 600mm, here is one from the web at 600 - and it is G1, it does need good light though, it is not mine - is it ok to put a link?.
You should post a link to the photo, not the photo itself :)
 
I think it should be sharp at 600mm, it does need good light though

According to my friend his G2 @600mm is sharpest between f/8-f11 and his photos posted do prove it.
My Tamron 100-400 @400mm has the same sweet spot as his G2.
Yes it does need good light but with modern bodies with good ISO handling you should still be able to produce decent photos.
 
There’s no filter on the lens at all,
I haven’t tried the tap in console but I’ve been reading about them
They look very complex but they’re £75
Will this help solve the issue ?
I need to find a one that’s reasonably priced as the sigma dock is only £30 which is affordable unfortunately it’s not a sigma on this occasion
Thanks for the replies
 
Liam I have a Tamron tap in console that I’d be willing to lend you but I would want to be sure that af calibration is your lens issue.

If you can shoot that test chart twice, once manually focussed (or live view af) and one on the regular af and post 100% crops it would help a lot.
 
Hi Liam, just reading through and as a new owner of a 200-500, (first long lens) the advise on here is a must before you go spending or exchanging, you still have a few months on warranty, so if it is faulty they will/should cover repairs.

You really need to rule out adjustment and more so pilot error as if it’s the latter, the sigma or what ever will be the same. Follow @Brazo advice to rule out certain things and then it can be narrowed down.

Also to add, my hit rate for this long lens, was/is around 10% acceptable, getting better but it’s taking some learning.

A link to the Nikon AF for help
View: https://youtu.be/_N_bzhJAKms


Link to a video I find simple to understand for af fine tune, but before doing this you need to rule out user error, micro movement etc.
View: https://youtu.be/5cHhrWF-pqM
 
Last edited:
Liam what I can’t get my head around is your shot of the 777 is tack sharp , I can even read the emirates logo on the planes sides ... this simply points to user error on your part .. you really need to sit back take a deep breath and absorb some of the info that’s been posted .. my first action would be to reset the lens to zero .. then take a few shots in good light at a distance using a high shutter speed ,I have the sigma version and it is permanently set at a minimum of 1/1250 of a sec shutter speed otherwise the shots are blurry .. next just hold up the camera and lens next to your ear and check the VR is actually spinning up . If it is does your focus limiter work o.k or make any difference .. then if it’s nice tomorrow go out and find a duck pond or somewhere with seagulls and practise on them from a bit further away
 
Liam what I can’t get my head around is your shot of the 777 is tack sharp , I can even read the emirates logo on the planes sides ... this simply points to user error on your part .. you really need to sit back take a deep breath and absorb some of the info that’s been posted .. my first action would be to reset the lens to zero .. then take a few shots in good light at a distance using a high shutter speed ,I have the sigma version and it is permanently set at a minimum of 1/1250 of a sec shutter speed otherwise the shots are blurry .. next just hold up the camera and lens next to your ear and check the VR is actually spinning up . If it is does your focus limiter work o.k or make any difference .. then if it’s nice tomorrow go out and find a duck pond or somewhere with seagulls and practise on them from a bit further away

This :agree:, my first outing ended very poor, everything was soft, I thought great, got a dud 200-500, went down exactly the same route as you, searched AF fine tune etc, got advise to practise, sat at the local pond, took maybe 800 pictures of ducks, swans, all pretty boring but I could take pictures with various apertures and shutter speeds of the same thing, in roughly the same light.

My finding were “everything soft, was my fault” still don’t know what I’d done wrong, but it was 100% user error.
 
Last edited:
The other thing I will add is your shooting with a highly sensitive camera that will show up any errors more than something along the lines of a D300 .. . It may well be something in your actuall camera settings . Time to sit down and think it through , but good light IS main answer with these lenses as they start at f6.3 so we are on a loser before. Starting
 
Thanks all for the help, it’s overwhelming and appreciated,
I have a spare day before I have to leave so I’ll be sure to nip over to the local wildlife trust and try it out,
As far as the tap in console is concerned I’d be intrigued to see if this would fix any glitches there may be or maybe a simple software update,
Just being double the price of the sigma alternative it’s a bit much at £75,
Either way all the help is appreciated and I’ll do my best to get out this weekend and have a few shots fired off
 
Not being rude Liam but you're still not listening.
Try a static subject, on a tripod, single and point and manual focus on a tripod. That's the only way to test any lens. Set to f8 to give yourself a fighting chance and use auto iso with a shutter speed of at least 500th second to rule out camera shake. Use mirror up mode too.

Don't bother with wildlife shots until you're sure you haven't bought a s***ter.
 
Hi Geoff
..... I personally think technique is the biggest over rider here.

Although I agree with that statement, from my own experience with the G1 I locked down all variables, to remove user error out of the equation, as per the steps and advice offered in this thread. I could have saved myself 2 or 3 weeks of 2nd guessing and trying to fix an issue, which was ultimately resolved by swapping the lens, hence my suggestion to the OP :)

As already pointed out in the thread, the other brand lens provided excellent results which the user was very happy with, so path of least resistance and all that :)

Regards
Geoff
 
Hey Liam,
Same camera, same lens, same problem.
Curious if you found a solution.
Can you give me a headstart in solving this.
Cheers,
Mac
 
Hi can someone help please. Have 2 canon 1D mark 4 ., tamron 150-600vc .. single focus point and not on servo the focus point is “double focusing”.., focus on subject the focus point then jumps to a point next to the center .. not every time but 40% of time .. I did find a function in menu that keeps focus point on .. so with the red square focus point it sometimes replicated over it and focus point in thumb nail on lcd screen .. where it shows where the point was.. in on subject but sometimes it jumps and remains on .. so there 2 red focus points ., and if the second point is moved to subject it show that on rear lcd thumb nail .. if not “recomposed “ it is off the subject resulting in out of focus image
 
Hi can someone help please. Have 2 canon 1D mark 4 ., tamron 150-600vc .. single focus point and not on servo the focus point is “double focusing”.., focus on subject the focus point then jumps to a point next to the center .. not every time but 40% of time .. I did find a function in menu that keeps focus point on .. so with the red square focus point it sometimes replicated over it and focus point in thumb nail on lcd screen .. where it shows where the point was.. in on subject but sometimes it jumps and remains on .. so there 2 red focus points ., and if the second point is moved to subject it show that on rear lcd thumb nail .. if not “recomposed “ it is off the subject resulting in out of focus image..same on both bodies and other 3 lenses do not react this way .. remain centered
 
This week I ran into the same problem with my Nikon D7500. My husband gifted me the Tamron 150-600mm G2. I tried it out a bit, and indeed thought it was user error. He convinced me to go to the store to check if the firmware had to be updated. We chatted with the sales person a bit and he mentioned I was welcome to try the Sigma Sport right there. I went outside and took pictures of 3 different subjects (road sign) far away at 600 mm zoom - I used the exact same settings for both lenses. I took one shot of each subject with the Sigma and they were sharp as can be, even after digitally zooming in all the way there was hardly any blur.
I tried the same shots at least a dozen times with the Tamron, with the exact same settings, different stabilization modes, shorter shutter times, etc. None of them came even close. In my opinion, if a brand new lens needs that much effort to "make it work", there is something wrong. I really liked the weight, the zoom lock and the tripod bracket of the Tamron much better than the Sigma. But after seeing the extreme difference in quality between the two with my own camera I instantly decided to pay the extra money and swap the Tamron for the Sigma.

Curious to hear what you ended up doing Liam...
 
Hi was in contact with tamron today. As they suggested I have my AF points set to 45.. max for 1D Mark 4 but changed my AF expansion points from 45 to surrounding and it seems to have solved the issue .. thanks all for your help
 
I was going to make a couple of suggestions but now the issue is solved !!! Hope you can now enjoy using that lens
 
Last edited:
Liam I have just looked back at your posts especially the ones with the Target cards ,you have not done the initial test right the yellow line needs to disect the 0 then you should get a accurate starter point ,it also needs to be done in single shot not a.f and wide open . With any lens VR switched off . If you follow that it should help
 
Hey Liam,
Same camera, same lens, same problem.
Curious if you found a solution.
Can you give me a headstart in solving this.
Cheers,
Mac
As above
 
Back
Top