RaymondJohn Loc: Bay City, Michigan

After 30 years of photography with the same 35mm Film camera, my wife finally got through to me to catch up with technology and get a digital camera.
The photography I've done in those last 30years ranged from my military service in Germany(shooting mostly the landscape to my job working on attack helicopters that allowed me close-up views of helicopters and field-shots of them flying), to air-shows, hydro-plane races, friend and family portraits, kids basketball and soccer games, aquarium photography, and nature photography.
So.., a little bit of everything, all using the same camera and the two lenses that I also originally bought with the camera. A Kiron 70-210mm telephoto zoom lense and an Albinar 28-70mm lense.
With those lenses, obviously, I was limited to distance and always wanted to purchase something that I could use for longer distances and never could.
My photography most recently has significantly dropped to only being able to photograph my family pets, some family, my aquarium and nature.
Nature now the most precident for me since I've discovered an Eagle's nest 5 minutes from my home and a wild-life refuge 30 minutes in the opposite direction and I am surrounded by the Saginaw Bay and the Saginaw river which allows me many opportunities for Herons, Egrets, many other sorts of Birds-of-Prey, and deer; so far.
I couldn't afford any high-end camera's or lenses so I bought what I could, something I thought I could learn from for a while: A Canon T6 with a 18-55mm lens and the 75-300mm lens. Again, I limited myself to the distance that I could take a decent picture. I have no problem with the deer, they seem to appear no further than 15yards from me where-ever I decide to sit....its the Herons and Egrets and all the other birds I like to get pictures of that I can't seem to get close enough to and when I take a picture, they are just ordinary-looking snap-shots with absolutely no detail. Lucky sometimes if I can actually identify them once the pictures are downloaded.
I'm very interested in the Tamron 150-600mm lens. I've read wonderful reviews and have seen beautiful pictures from many members here that have specified that they used this lens. I want this to be my next purchase and already have permission from my Beloved.
My Question: With the Canon T6 that I've already purchased, would the camera be capable of handling that lens and produce pictures well enough to place next to all of yours? I know sometime in the future I may upgrade to another Canon but not real soon.
Thanks for your replies.

rplain1 Loc: Dayton, Oh.

I am not familiar with the Canon T6 so I can't help you there but I have used it with my Canon 5D SR and am very pleased with it. I presume you are talking about the new G-2 version.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

The t6 is Canon's entry level 18mp DSLR. I assume you didn't mean the t6i which is a more feature rich camera with a much better 24 mp sensor. The T6 will certainly work with the Tamron lens, but whether the results you get will be as good as what you hope to compare then to will depend on which images you are using as a standard, what you're shooting, the light you plan to shoot in, and how skilled you are using that lens/body combination to get the best from it.

The high ISO noise of that camera is not great, and the Tamron 150-600 does not have a wide aperture, so low light shooting could be problematic. Also, the camera is small with a small grip, and the lens is large. Handholding could be a challenge so a good quality tripod is highly recommended and good quality light weight ones are not cheap. If you want to shoot birds in flight, the auto focus and the high speed frames per second of you camera may only minimally be up to the job.

If you are skilled and can get the best from your equipment this combo is capable of producing good results. If you are expecting similar quality shots to highly skilled nature photographers who also have better equipment, you will likely be disappointed. Keep in mind, it's much more about the photographer than the equipment.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

If your photography is already good (no reason to believe otherwise), it will be fine with the new gear. It is an entry level DSLR, as has been pointed out, but it has 18 mp which is very good, and decent performance.

Naturally, a more advanced camera would have more bells and whistles, but this out to be more than adequate.

The First version of the Tamron was ground breaking - light, 600mm at the long end, and very reasonably priced. It appears that Sigma studied what Tamron did, and released two models - one that competes favorably with the tamron, and one that is visibly better, but it is bulkier and heavier. I have not taken a serious look at the newer Tamron, but it is supposed to be an improvement over the first version.

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

The Tamron 150-600mm makes for a killer birding combo on the Canon T6S model. Popular rental package here (Tamron G2 version pictured).

(Download)

Andrea.Jarrell Loc: Mount Airy, NC

I bought one of the originals for my T3i and T4i and used it on a tripod with great results.

bdk Loc: Sanibel Fl.

Just to mess you up a bit The Sigma 150-600 is getting much better reviews than the Tamron....

sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

Be aware that it is a very heavy lens - not for wandering around the refuge with. You will need a tripod.

sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

Also - there are a number of good companies that RENT lenses. It would be reasonable to rent this lens for three days of intense use and see what you think of it before making the commitment.

Also - if you are relatively new here, you may not have heard of GAS. If you buy this lens, it will give you GAS! GAS is "Gear Acquisition Syndrome". It works like this: you buy the lens. Then you realize that your body really isn't capable of doing the lens justice, so you will have to buy a new body obviously... And so it goes....

Grnway Loc: Manchester, NH

Not to mention the fact that, with the 1.6 crop factor, you'll have an effective range of 240mm-960mm. That's some reach!

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Welcome RaymondJohn! Your camera and lens selection are fine. In addition to the gear and the technique needed to capture the wildlife you've described, you also need to develop post processing skills. There's a continuum of Straight-out-of-camera (SOOC) thru what most would call 'Digital Art'. Some post processing will go a long way to optimize an image that is SOOC. At a minimum, sharing your images will require processing to reduce the file size from the camera to a smaller file size. The better images you've seen here and elsewhere on the internet demonstrate skills with both the camera equipment and the processing of the image files.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

I believe he's talking about the t6, not the t6s, a completely different and much lower level camera body

wer224 Loc: Bergen county NewJersey

Hey raymond sorry I don't have either equipment your asking about but want to thank you for your service and all vets on this site! 🙋👍🙋👍

Psergel Loc: New Mexico

The truth is that the 150-600 f5.6-f6 lenses (tamron or sigma) are a challenge on any camera.
To get really sharp images
-you can't expect to be too far from the subject......you may have unrealistic expectations in this regard......I did.
-you will need LOTS of light. Even on a very steady tripod (not cheap) you will find that it's tough to get a sharp image at lower shutter speeds. There have been lots of great shots captured with a 150-600 handheld but it requires the right conditions and a very steady hand.
Most of the time you will need to use a fairly high shutter speed (1/1000 -1/1500 or faster) to get a really blur free shot and with f6.3 being the widest aperture at the long end, you will have to use high ISO settings (1600-6400). Even the best cameras start showing some noise at 6400. (whether or not that's acceptable is a very subjective thing)

My suggestion is that you rent one of these lenses so you can learn their strengths and weaknesses before you actually buy one.

All that being said...you can get some excellent images with one of these lenses you just need to fully understand their limitations.

stevebein

I was in D.C. last week and saw the Nature Collection of images at the Smithsonian. All outstanding, shot with different cameras and lenses. There was at least one image made using the Sigma 150-600 at the max 600 limit. That photo was as good as the rest of the outstanding winners in the collection. The lens can do it fine. The question always comes to the nut behind the camera. If your technique is good enough,and long lenses require good technique, then you will be pleased. If not,then you will think the lens is not good. So, it becomes a question of not the lens making images which are satisfactory, it is the photographer, using that tool, the 150-600 to create the satisfactory image. The first thing to realize is that your skills are the most important thing, the camera and lenses only can create based on that foundation. The lens will do fine.