Beginner Two Lenses or One and Tele?

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straight shooter

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Chuck
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I'd love to get both of these:
Tamron 70-200 G2 f/2.8
Tamron 150-600 G2 f/5.6-6.3

However, the price (used) is around $1600 together. With winter coming up, I have little use for the 150-600 as of now.

I'm wondering if I should get them both or settle for a Tamron 70-200 and get a 2x teleconverter giving me 70-200 at f/2.8 and 140-400 at 5.6 (which is where 400mm on the Tamron 150-600 falls anyway) and only use the teleconverter if I want to reach beyond 200mm, of course. Then, save for the Tamron 150-600 and essentially have a range a couple of months later of 300-1200 if needed as well.

My thought process behind this is that I'm getting into portrait photography for maybe a couple extra bucks while I love zoom because I do aircraft photography too, which the 400mm might suffice.

Good plan for the lens+tele or just get the lens and save the extra money from the tele (like $300) to put towards the 150-600 earlier?
 
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Hi Chuck, welcome to TP.

For me, I'd be buying what I need now and saving to make sure I get what I really need as soon as I could afford it, so just the 70-200 for the moment, and save the converter money for the big zoom later.

You won't have any use for the converter once you get the big lens as that will cover the shortfall with the 70-200 and will be unusable on the 150-600

Mike
 
pooley said:
You won't have any use for the converter once you get the big lens as that will cover the shortfall with the 70-200 and will be unusable on the 150-600
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But it could also give me 300-1200 too. Obviously not sharp, but a good "what's that" lens set up. No?
 
pooley said:
you want to manually focus
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I figured that much but I'm by a military installation and wondering if my closer than 600mm shots after post could get editorial pickups as quite often used with 600mm range, ya know?

I'll go with the 70-200 now, then the 150-600 and test a 2x to see if I can get that close and sharp for a page 2 stock photo.

Thanks for your valuable input!

(Though is 400mm with the 70-200 2x acceptable as it should autofocus too?)
 
Only buy the lenses you need. However, I would advise against the 70-200mm with 2 x TC, images are noticeably softer with the 2x TC, especially with subjects at a distance, which is the whole point of a 2 x tc.
 
pooley said:
Only use for the 2x on a 150-600 is if you want to manually focus and are prepared to accept soft end results. No camera I know of will AF with that combo, most will struggle just with a 1.4x

Mike
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Not in DSLR world but in mirrorless world there are cameras that'll AF with similar combo :)
 
straight shooter said:
I figured that much but I'm by a military installation and wondering if my closer than 600mm shots after post could get editorial pickups as quite often used with 600mm range, ya know?

I'll go with the 70-200 now, then the 150-600 and test a 2x to see if I can get that close and sharp for a page 2 stock photo.

Thanks for your valuable input!

(Though is 400mm with the 70-200 2x acceptable as it should autofocus too?)
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If you are happy to manually focus consider buying one of the older manual lenses like a canon FD 800mm f5.6 which is actually rather sharp.
The tamron 150-600mm + 2x from what I have seen isn't that great.
 
snerkler said:
Only buy the lenses you need. However, I would advise against the 70-200mm with 2 x TC, images are noticeably softer with the 2x TC, especially with subjects at a distance, which is the whole point of a 2 x tc.
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Would a 1.4x produce the same results, but a lesser distance of 98-280 and making it essentially a f/4 lens?
nandbytes said:
If you are happy to manually focus consider buying one of the older manual lenses like a canon FD 800mm f5.6 which is actually rather sharp.
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That is pretty tempting for tarmac shooting, but it wouldn't do me well without a backup camera and for landings. I do have a T6i and Canon 24-104 F4L that at a 1.6 crop would capture the landings quite well, but there'd be a lot of back and forth work at some locations. ;)
 
nandbytes said:
Not in DSLR world but in mirrorless world there are cameras that'll AF with similar combo :)
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I decided to go with the Canon 5D MK IV (2016 release so gives me until the end of Canon's RF roadmap to decide whether their lineup is a good switch or not) for the camera body's life (4-6 years) or until mirrorless companies are more transparent about weather sealing and decide to go from there.

I've seen too many Sony, Canon, and even Nikon mirrorless cameras get fried in this humidity and short downpours that can come out of nowhere. But that 5DIV is a tank in a lot of conditions; and, Canon is a bit more open to say how long it's able to last in light rain.
 
straight shooter said:
Would a 1.4x produce the same results, but a lesser distance of 98-280 and making it essentially a f/4 lens?

That is pretty tempting for tarmac shooting, but it wouldn't do me well without a backup camera and for landings. I do have a T6i and Canon 24-104 F4L that at a 1.6 crop would capture the landings quite well, but there'd be a lot of back and forth work at some locations. ;)
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From my experience the 1.4x TC provides much better results than the 2x and I saw much less softening of images.
 
If you are thinking of mirrorless, the Fujifilm X-Pro range is very, very good. It's a nice light body too and the lenses are pin sharp. You also mention a 'page 2 stock photo', if by this you are meaning for a magazine (apologies if i've misunderstood), are you sure any magazine would buy a soft image?
 
Or you could take the Olympus route , 2x crop factor with a new lens due next year 100-400 with a built in 1.4 tc that will also take a 2x tc giving a potential 2000mm reach .
 
straight shooter said:
I decided to go with the Canon 5D MK IV (2016 release so gives me until the end of Canon's RF roadmap to decide whether their lineup is a good switch or not) for the camera body's life (4-6 years) or until mirrorless companies are more transparent about weather sealing and decide to go from there.

I've seen too many Sony, Canon, and even Nikon mirrorless cameras get fried in this humidity and short downpours that can come out of nowhere. But that 5DIV is a tank in a lot of conditions; and, Canon is a bit more open to say how long it's able to last in light rain.
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Actually I think Olympus is the only one with ISO standard rating for their bodies' weathersealing.

They are pretty good tbh and you can get some nice Tele lenses too with 800mm equivalent reach rather easily.

If you are shooting mostly in broad daylight m43 sensor are more than enough. If you plan to shoot on thickly overcast days and in evening then it may not be so good for you.

Also is tamron 150-600mm weathersealed? No good having weathersealed body and non-sealed lens.

Also anecdotal isn't really good for deciding how good sealing is. I can show you evidence where 5D4 have given up but a Sony body carried on. They are all as bad and as good as each other really, with oly being the only one putting proper ISO ratings.
 
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the black fox said:
Or you could take the Olympus route , 2x crop factor with a new lens due next year 100-400 with a built in 1.4 tc that will also take a 2x tc giving a potential 2000mm reach .
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I think it was 150-400/4.5 with in built 1.25x TC :)
 
FlyPhot said:
magazine
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Newspaper.

I think a soft image can get away with a small b&w or even color picture at the 200 dpi (possibly less) over magazine with resizing from 30mp to 5-8mp too... could be wrong here though as no print experience.
 
nandbytes said:
If you are shooting mostly in broad daylight m43 sensor are more than enough. If you plan to shoot on thickly overcast days and in evening then it may not be so good for you.
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Subtropical here so can go from sunny to extreme overcast in the blink of an eye, but can almost always still push ISO 100.
nandbytes said:
Also is tamron 150-600mm weathersealed?
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The G2 is, yes.
 
straight shooter said:
Subtropical here so can go from sunny to extreme overcast in the blink of an eye, but can almost always still push ISO 100.

The G2 is, yes.
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In that case combined with what you said for quality requirements for newspapers I'd go with Olympus E-M1ii or EM1x.
Get the 300mm f4 prime with 1.4x and 2x TC. That covers you up to 1200mm equivalent.

Or you could get the Panasonic 100-400mm lens which will give you 800mm reach.

And as mentioned above there is a 150-400mm coming later on that can get you 2000mm reach!

For short reach get the Olympus 12-100mm which will cover you from 24mm-200mm reach. Also is sealed incredibly well, you could well dip in sludge if you want to lol.
You could well start with just two lenses 12-100mm and the 100-400mm. See how you get on.
I don't know where you are but here Olympus do a "test&wow" scheme where by you can borrow an oly body+lens for free for few days to just try it out. Just need to give a £500 fully refundable deposit.
 
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straight shooter said:
I decided to go with the Canon 5D MK IV (2016 release so gives me until the end of Canon's RF roadmap to decide whether their lineup is a good switch or not) for the camera body's life (4-6 years) or until mirrorless companies are more transparent about weather sealing and decide to go from there.

I've seen too many Sony, Canon, and even Nikon mirrorless cameras get fried in this humidity and short downpours that can come out of nowhere. But that 5DIV is a tank in a lot of conditions; and, Canon is a bit more open to say how long it's able to last in light rain.
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The Nikon Mirrorless are very well weather sealed tbh. However, the 5D4 is very good in this department and still a superb camera. So what gear do you now currently have?
 
snerkler said:
The Nikon Mirrorless are very well weather sealed tbh. However, the 5D4 is very good in this department and still a superb camera. So what gear do you now currently have?
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Tamron SP35mm VC USD f/1.8 for astro and landscapes and night, and Canon F4L USM 24-105.

Only went for full frame lenses that were weather sealed even with a T6i.
 
Just to give you another option to consider, there's the Tamron 100-400 which is weather sealed. That would be more compact and lighter to carry and pan with when trying to follow aircraft in flight. Sigma also make a 100-400 but that's not weather sealed.
 
Mr Badger said:
Just to give you another option to consider, there's the Tamron 100-400 which is weather sealed. That would be more compact and lighter to carry and pan with when trying to follow aircraft in flight. Sigma also make a 100-400 but that's not weather sealed.
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The problem is trying to get as close as possible to a general purpose lens while still keeping a telephoto/zoom range.

The 70-200 2.8 can make me a couple quick bucks whilst the 100-400 would pretty much be hobbyist only due to stops.

I'm sure down the line that I'll get a 600 L prime (almost due for retirement) that'd not only fulfill my hobbies, but give me those damned good front page shots to supplement that income too.
 
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