Tamron 150-600mm f/5-6.3 G2 Hands On: An impressive super telephoto zoom at a great price
posted Thursday, January 12, 2017 at 11:30 AM EST
Long telephoto lenses, especially ones for full-frame cameras, can cost a lot of money. This means that being able to do wildlife or sports photography can have a very high barrier to entry. Fortunately, in recent years, there have been numerous affordable telephoto zoom lenses released, including the Tamron 150-600mm f/5-6.3 Di VC USD late in 2013. Tamron has redesigned this lens and introduced a number of improvements, both in terms of optics and build quality, with the Tamron 150-600mm f/5-6.3 Di VC USD G2 SP lens.
I had the opportunity to test the new "G2" version of the 150-600mm optic, and you can read my finding in my Tamron 150-600mm f/5-6.3 G2 hands-on impressions. The lens offers an impressive 225-900mm equivalent focal length range when mounted on an APS-C camera such as my Nikon D500. The lens is quite sharp throughout most of its range, with performance dipping slightly at the extreme ends of the lens.
It isn't a lens designed for low-light photography, especially when shooting at 600mm, as the maximum aperture of f/6.3 can be limiting, but the lens costs around US$1,400 and offers build quality, performance and versatility well beyond its price. To learn if the Tamron 150-600mm f/5-6.3 Di VC USD G2 SP lens is right for you and your photography, read my hands-on impressions.