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

You may want to revisit the lens. It is different from shooting with a 24-70, or anything else. Different is only difficult at first. Like driving a car for the first time. Then learning to drive a manual transmission, then buying a new car and things are in very different places than they were in your previous car. Embracing the change will help you do a wider variety of photography. If you only shoot the same things with the same lenses, your pictures will lack spontaneity.

Also, it's not hard to get good results if you have good technique to begin with - hold 'er steady, breathe right, snap the shutter an the end of an exhale - and you should be good to go. Others on this thread have seen this image and it's crop, but it is the first image I took with my new Sigma Sport 150-600 - at only 1/25 sec hand held - I was curious to see if the optical stabilization lived up to Sigma's claims. I've had about an hour with the G2, and found that though there are some differences, I could be very happy with it as well. There is no reason other than spending an hour or so with the lens that you wouldn't be able to get results as good as, or probably much better than this.

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Lance Pearson Loc: Viriginia

Nice images. I never using the techniques you said or tripods and remote releases got results that good with the Tamron.

DaveO Loc: Northeast CT

I understand your thoughts and it's interesting that you mentioned his artistic abilities. He is an artist turned photographer and often his worked is PP'd to the extent that he sometimes has a little too much flare with his interpretations,if you will. He has been basically shooting the Tetons for about 20 years and we have been following his work for several. I just wanted to present his views to go along with the thread.

Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

I often am amused at people posting many very pretty pictures that simply do not demonstrate their point. These two are different!

Clearly that lens focuses sharply, and the vibration reduction works extremely well when properly used. That is a great demo.

The clear message should be that if someone doesn't get that level of quality it is not because of the lens. And that is essentially true for both the Sigma models, both the Tamron models, and for the Nikon 80-400mm and 200-500mm lenses.

agillot

do some pics in auto focus and redo same in manual focus , see if they look same .

griffj98

Had the same problem with my new Tamron 150-600 G2 mounted on my Nikon D810. Everything soft or poorly focused. Returned the lens to B&H for a refund.

BernieF

I have the same lens and the same body as well as a D750-body. The D7100 and the G2 lens just doesn't go well tohether for me either for some reason. While it works just fine with the D750 and much better than my previous G1-version of this lens. Maybe it's the D750:s much better af-system? With the D7100 the lens hunts a lot before aquaring focus, and suddenly just looses focus even on static subjects. Really strange. And I'm using the same settings on both cameras: AFC, single point AF, VC on (tried all three variants). I've also tried dynamic 21 AF and it seemed even worse, as expected because of the risk that the af switches to something in the back- or foreground with higher contrast.

Read through this whole thread and I hope some of the other tips might help you as I have none to offer myself. Just can't work out why this lens, at least my copy, does so poorly with my D7100.

Mike Jackson Loc: Jackson Hole, WY

Thanks for the comments here about my post. I am taking all of them constructively! I think there are a couple of "takeaways"...

First: Tamron's Quality Control was lacking when they shipped my new lens so far out of whack.

Second: No one reads a lens manual until they see they are having problems. The new G2 lenses have some new features that are not intuitive by looking at MODE 1, MODE 2, and MODE 3 on the side of the barrel, so you definitely need to read the manual on this one.

Style wise? I definitely could have taken a different approach. I chose the title: "Tamron 150-600mm G2 Lens: My Experiences" and I included a paragraph at the very beginning that asks people to NOT form an opinion until they read the whole thing. After that, my post was intended to report "my experiences" in more or less a linear mode, starting with the bad sample and ending with more consistent, good results if you pick the right VC for the situation.

https://www.bestofthetetons.com/2017/02/26/tamron-150-600mm-g2-lens-my-experiences/

After reading the comments here, I might consider flipping the article upside down and suggest the lens "can" take wonderful shots (if you get a good copy to start with), if you read the manual up front and are careful with the VC settings. Yes...I'll fix that right now.

Cheers,
Mike Jackson

Jim Bob

Sometimes it is because of the lens. However, I agree with your general view that people often post images that fail to demonstrate their point and frequently also have little or no relevance to the OP.

DaveO Loc: Northeast CT

I didn't realize you belonged to the forum,Mike! We may swing through and holler in October,we know where you go! Dave/Kathy.

Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

I was reading the manual for my Tamron G2 before it was ever mounted on a camera or even had the caps removed. New cameras take their first shot only with an open manual, already partially read, sitting in front of me.

I can't imagine not reading the manual for any high tech device that is at all complex. Things like remote radio triggers, flash units, even tripods.

It seems there is lesson to be learned there, eh? Read manuals!

But read other things too, because no manual for a lens will warn you to turn VR off if the shutter speed is 1/2000. None of them will even hint at why. And none will explain that it is more critical on a D810 or a D7200 than on a D300 or D3s.

DaveO Loc: Northeast CT

Do you ever stop at gas stations for directions? LOL! Most of us don't. Clyde,don't tell me you study a map before venturing out every time. Then again,you can always head north!

Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

Most of my life I navigated using IFR. That is I Follow the River. Here that doesn't work, but note that going north isn't likely, nor is east or west. South is a requirement. And coming home is just a matter of heading for the coast and following that. In the summer any way. In winter the trick is to look at which way the snow drifts go and use that for directions.

There is only one gas station here, and there are no gas stations along the way to anywhere. And checking a map before/during a venture into a new area is essential to staying alive.

Of course today a "map" is a GPS. I can't imagine you would not use one. Or not read the manual.

DaveO Loc: Northeast CT

Your response is somewhat dry considering the relative humidity in your area is roughly 76% today at -13.

Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

Not sure what you mean? The RH here sometimes gets lower than that, but more commonly is higher. The current temperature is cooler than the past few days, but with winds at 13 MPH it is now pretty mild. The previous two days saw 30-40 MPH winds most of the time, with visibility rarely above 1 mile. Early February was colder, and early March will be windy. In late April and early May we hunt Bowhead whales on the ice. In June we have Nalukataq (click for Wikipedia; the photographs are mine).

It really is not possible to relate your location, or the value systems that operate there, to my location. There simply is no place in the Lower-48 that is anything like the culture here. The value systems are different because the physical and natural environment is not the same.