Category Archives: News
Lowepro Format 150 – a small bag
Looking for a small bag to fit your camera gears?
I needed a smaller bag for my vacation when I travel. Since I only needed to fit a camera house and 2 lenses I found Lowepro Format 150 bag to fit my purpose. On the front of the bag there is a little pocket where you can have extra batteries, memory cards and pens, etc. There is one pocket on each side of the bag for a tripod or bottles. There is no rain cover for this bag which is to bad because its a great bag otherwise. It weighs basically nothing only 0.5 kg.
I also tried to fit my big Tamron 150-600 mm lens in the bag and I could fit it too. See picture below to see how it looked. On the inside of the lid there is also a pocket for a 10″ tablet (Ipad etc). The bag can fit 5 small lenses and a camera house. To the left of the camera house you can see that the padding is divided to make it easier to have a lens attached with a camera house, that is a plus.
I have put the Lowepro Format 150 next to my usual bag the Lowepro 300 AW, so that you can have something to compare with.
All in all it is a great bag for travel. I used it for my vacation in Europe. I could pack it with all that I needed for my travels to different places. It will be the bag I am going to use if I am going out to take some pictures, especially for macro photography where I do not need any big lenses.
2015©Expressive Photos
Pictures of fire
During earth hour my city arranged for a fire show. It was a nice event and here is some picture from it. The fire performers are called Favilla.
I have not tried to take picture of fire before so this was a good experience to learn which setting that suited me the most. I have used a Canon 60D with a prime lens of 40mm. I have tried different apertures to see which one that suited the most. If you move the mouse over the pictures you will find out the setting that I have used for each picture. It might be useful for you when you want to try to take pictures of fire. The settings worked for me and might work for you too.
What is common with all the pictures is that the pictures where taken without a flash. Most of the pictures are also cropped to remove unnecessary elements that take away the focus from the performers. Some pictures might have a green light because I had my Circular Polaris filter on as I do not have a UV filter for this lens yet. The CPL filter will also have made some effect to the picture even though I did not pay much attention to the filter and did not turn it because I only wanted to test the setting on the camera at this event.
When I took the pictures I choose tungsten in the white balance mode.
All the pictures are taken handheld, no tripod have been used. I love the sparks from the fire in this picture.
2014©ExpressivePhotos
Camouflage for Tamron 150-600 mm lens
So you have bought the lens and is thinking what next to buy. I was looking at some camouflage for the lens which I have seen on canon and nikon lenses. I do not know if the camouflage works in the nature but since most professional wildlife photographers have it on their lenses I thought it might be good for blending in.
I have looked at some different options and here are the ones I am thinking of getting:
Here is a site from UK selling camo for tamron 150-600mm lens. It is called Wildlife watching supplies. The camo cost around 38.38 punds incl VAT. On these camos there is no opening for the buttons on the left side of the lens. Although I think it is possible to just move the camos and open them if you need to adjust the buttons. There are different color and patterns to choose from. You also get 1.4x and 2.0x converter camos. To see how it looks click the link with the stores name on it.
Another option is a store called Outdoor photography gear, they sell camouflage for the Tamron 150-600mm lens with a plastic shield where the buttons are. It makes it more convenient when you want to change some settings. On the site they call the cover for “Neoprene Lens Protection Cover”. This site is also located in the UK. The price is 40 pund. You can coose between 2 different options the English Oak/Black or the Woodland Green/Black. To see how they look you have to click the link of the sites name.
Lenscoat.com now also have lens coats for Tamron 150-600mm, to find out more click here. There are also travel coats for Tamron 150-600mm on lenscoat.com. It is not the same as camouflage for the lens, it is more like a slim-fit bag for the lens. The store is from US. A lens coat cost 49.99-59.99 dollars.
©2014
More pictures with Tamron 150-600mm
Here are more pictures that I have taken recently:
Here are some more:
Even more picture:
Last picture of today:
2014©ExpressivePhotos
Blog of the day
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Testing the Tamron 150-600mm lens on 60D
Hello everyone!
I will be showing you some pictures of a request I got to take a picture of a Swedish 20 SEK banknote from 8 meters away with the Tamron 150-600 mm lens. I will be using a Canon 60D for this test. There have been rumors that the Tamron 150-600mm lens might not work so well with the 60D, so lets test this.
The above picture is taken with a mobile to show how far away the camera was compare to the object. The picture quality of the mobile picture is not good but it will give you an idea of the distance. I have circled the banknote to make it easy to see the object we are aiming for in this test.
Lets try different distances from 300m-600mm (480mm-960mm on crop censor). There is one light directly on the banknote and one flash on the camera which is 8 meters away from the object. I do not have a slave flash that could have helped to get more brightness and maybe more detailed pictures.
Starting the test with 300mm (480mm with crop censor) taken with f5.6, 1/60, ISO-400:
Crop 100%. The camera might have moved a little when I pushed the trigger to take the picture, unfortunately I only took one picture with 300mm:
400mm (640mm on crop censor) f 5.6, 1/56, ISO-400:
Crop 100%. If you compare this picture with the 300mm crop then this picture looks better:
Next is 500mm (800mm), f6.3, 1/60, ISO-400:
Crop 100%:
600mm (960mm on crop censor), f6.3, 1/60, ISO-400:
I have heard that you should take at least with f8 in aperture when you take 600mm, but this picture is taken with the highest aperture on 600mm just to test the limits.
Crop 100%:
This picture below is taken with following setup 600mm, f14, 1/250, ISO-400. Since it is taken with a Canon 60D which is a crop censor this makes it actually 960 mm. With the 600mm (960mm) you can come pretty close to the bill and still see it clear.
Here is a 100% crop of the same picture. Look at the details in the face of Selma Lagerlöf who is the woman in this picture to the right. You can even see each hair on the fur she is wearing and this is with the 600mm.
Conclusion:
At 300mm it looks worst then the details at 600mm, but this might be because im getting more used to the lens after taken different shots up to 600m. If I would go back and use 300mm again it might have been a different result. It all depends on the moment I take the picture and the result will vary from one shot to another. It can also be a movement when i take the picture and push down the trigger. At 600mm when I use f14 I get better result than f6.3, so there are good chances of using 600mm with the Tamron 150-600mm lens. You just need to experiment for awhile.
This is just one way of testing the lens. There are lots of obstacles, for example the flash I was using was very far away from the object. If the flash would be closer to the object the result might have been different, it might have given the banknote more details. So do not take this test as a quality result of the Tamron. I am just starting to get used to this lens. There are lot more to learn about it before I will get the hang of it. With time I will master this lens to perfection, I hope.
I do not have any other ultra zoom lens to compare with so for me I am happy with the result. Till next time I will try to do some outdoor photos if the weather permit. This lens needs lots of light and since it is only cloudy outside it is hard to really test the lens at the moment.
Pictures with Tamron 150-600 mm lens
These picture are the first picture I took with the Tamron 150-600. It was cloudy and the birds were never still so it will be little blurry because I had to handhold the camera and lens when I took the pictures. All the pictures showing are taken at the max focal length of 600 mm and f 6.3. I have read that the aperture should be at f 8.0 when taken pictures with 600 mm, but i thought of trying first with f 6.3.
More pictures will come soon. Don’t forget to follow this blog to get more updates.
2014©ExpressivePhotos
Closer look at the Tamron 150-600 mm
Ever wondered what all the Letters stand for that comes after the aperture number? The Tamron 150-600 mm f/5-6.3 DI VC USD has DI “Digital Integrated design”. VC stand for Vibration Compensation. USD stands for “Ultrasonic Silent Drive”. Lets take a closer look at the Tamron 150-600 mm lens. I let the picture do most of the talking:
With the lens you also get the big lens hood and the detached tripod mount. This particular lens version is for Canon.
When the lens is set for the lowest of focal length of 150 mm and with the lens cap front and back the lens is about 27 cm (10.62 inches).
When the focal length is set to 600 mm the lens is about 35 cm with the front and back cap.
The zoom is from 150 mm to 600 mm. Which make it a great ultra lens for outdoor shooting. It has a zoom lock as well.
VC stand for Vibration Compensation and it is Tamron’s image stabilization system.
The lens is 95 mm. It might be hard to come by this lens size but online you can find shops that have filters for this size.
I have bought a filter called B+W UV 95mm MRC, which one shop was selling especially for this Tamron lens. This filter also have a sky-lighter filter which give a pink tone and make it a warmer color tone in the picture.
For a full review on Tamron 150-600 mm press “follow” button to get the review of Tamron 150-600 mm lens.
2014©ExpressivePhotos
Unboxing Tamron 150-600 mm f/5-6,3 Di VC USD
I got the Tamron 150-600 mm f/5-6,3 Di VC USD today.
Lets unbox the Tamron to see what you get when you buy it.
In the box you will find the warranty which is for 5 years if you register within 2 months from the purchase date. There is also a manual and a paper with the serial number that you will need when you register the product to get the warranty. You will also get the serial number to the Silkypix Developer Studio 4.0 for Tamron. It is a RAW development software that creates high-definition images from RAW data.
You get a big lens hood for the lens which will make the lens look even longer when it is attached. Finally you will find the Tamron lens .
I will show more pictures of the Tamron in another article. Stay tuned!
2014©ExpressivePhotos
Expressive photos 