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Looking for a budget lens with great sharpness?
Then the Tamron 70-300mm is the answer
I wanted a camera that I could use during a Europe tour. I was not looking for a fancy lens, I just wanted a simple easy to use lens. I found Tamron 70-300mm. This lens is called Tamron AF SP 70-300mm F/4-5.6 DI VC USD, but who can remember to say all of that?
I combined this lens with my full format camera Canon 6D. It was performing great. The auto focus on this lens is outstanding. It is absolutely steady when you want to take the picture when the auto focus is on. That is a big plus for this budget lens. The price is in favor for this Tamron lens, only 3000 SEK (350 US Dollar).
At 300mm
I combined this lens with my full format camera Canon 6D. It was performing great.
These pictures are taken at a folk dance event called europeade in Sweden with the combo Canon 6D and Tamron 70-300mm. The lens give sharp pictures, even when objects are moving.
This picture is taken with the combo Canon 70D and Tamron 70-300mm
I have noticed a little vignetting when I took some pictures at a airshow with the combo Canon 6D and Tamron 70-300mm. This happen when it was very bright sunshine that made everything look dark in the viewfinder. It can be that the sun was very bright and made the picture little darker sometimes and I had to put up the brightness in the camera. Otherwise the lens have really performed great all the time when I have used it. This picture is taken at 300mm. See example below:
The aperture starts at f4. This means the background might not be as blurry as you might wish for, but this can be done in Photoshop or Lightroom in post-production. So it is not a big deal.
The lens might be little heavy but if you are used to a lens like the big zoom lens Tamron 150-600mm. Then Tamron 70-300mm is not heavy at all.
It fits nicely into my small camera bag where I have a Canon 50mm f1.4 lens and Canon 24-105mm lens. Together all the three lenses will cover all your need when its comes to street photography, travels, dance events and even bird photography.
Want to know more about Tamron lenses? Click here for more info about Tamron 150-600mm. Maybe you are more into macro photography? Then Tamron 90mm is the lens for you
2015©Expressive Photos
Is it possible to take photos of insects with a telephoto lens?
Tamron 150-600mm lens delivers quality close-up photos of insects
I was out shooting some pictures of birds with the Tamron 150-600mm and then suddenly I saw a dragonfly on a leaf. I quickly zoomed in on it and took a picture. The result is showed below.
Red dragonfly (Oriental Scarlet Crocothemis servilia), its a male. Male is totally red colored and female is olivaceous brown in color. It lives everywhere near stagnant water reservoirs such as tanks, ponds and paddy fields. This shot is taken with my big lens, but I got it to look like macro photography. It’s taken in India.
Now who says you can’t take a good macro picture with a big lens? I just proved it is possible. Here is one more proof:
Green dragonfly
I also took a picture of a butterfly. I think the result turn out pretty good. I have not done anything to the picture just added my logo.
Grey Pansy Butterfly taken with Tamron 150-600mm
I am not saying that you should replace your macro lenses with a telephoto lens. I am just glad you can take different photo styles with one lens.
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2015©Expressivephotos
Autumn is here
I took a stroll in the forest since the color on the leaves are amazing this time of the year. I took some shoots with Canon 70D and Canon 24-105mm L lens.
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2014©Expressive photos
My new lens – Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x macro
Taking macro photography to the next level
I got a recommendation about a lens for macro photography. So of course I had to have it and here it is! It is the Canon 65mm f/2.8 1-5x macro lens. Forget about extension tubes or close-up filters, because you only need this lens to take great macro pictures. This lens is not for amateurs, then I would suggest you first start with Tamron 90mm f/2.8 or Canon 100mm f/2.8. The Canon MP-E 65mm do not have image stabilizer and no auto focus. So what is the advantage with this lens then? Answer is 5:1 macro, it is hard to beat that with any other lens. The Tamron 90mm and Canon 100mm only have 1:1 macro.
In the box there is only the lens and a CD and warranty papers. It did not come with a bag or a lens hood, that you have to buy seperatly.
I haven’t been able to try it out yet. Pictures of what this little lens can do will come soon. For now I will just show you some picture of the lens itself.
The lens comes with the front- and back lid and a removable tripod collar. It is a pricey lens for about 1049 US dollar.
This lens needs a flash of some kind, for example a ring flash is good when you take on insects and flowers. This is because when you zoom in it will get darker then you need light to brighten the picture up. The aperture range is from f2.8 to f16. It is also possible to use Canon extender 2x to get a even larger magnification. Stacking is a good way to get sharp images from this kind of lens. It is almost necessary in order to get a whole insects face sharp using stacking. I will try stacking and then post some pictures to show the results in another article here on Expressive Photos website.
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Copyright©2014 Expressive Photos
Think Tank – Glass Taxi bag
I was looking for a small bag to fit the Tamron 150-600mm mounted to my Canon 60D. I had seen the review with Jared Polin for this bag. He was able to put in lots of pro lenses in that small bag. He was very surprised by how good the bag was and was saying it was light weight. So I thought I have to try the bag to see what the fuss is all about.
I was checking it out in the store and I also had my camera and the Tamron 150-600 mm lens with me to try it out.
First thoughts of this bag was that the lens and the camera fits in the bag! That is a good start.
When the padding came into the picture, the issue started. The shop keeper and I tried to build it up so that you would be able to fit the camera house mounted on the big Tamron 150-600 lens and still have some lenses on the side of the big lens. That was not easy.
The good thing about Glass Taxi bag is that it has a option where you can choose to only have a big lens in the middle of the bag but then there will be no space for any other lenses. See the picture above to understand what I mean.
As you can see from the picture above you can fit lenses on the side if the big lens is straight. The problem with the Tamron 150-600 mm lens is that it is not straight and that makes it little harder to fit in this bag. The Tamron lens becomes wider in the end of the lens. That puts the camera house in a strange angle in the bag and the padding does not fit then. I am not saying it wont go, but I am saying that the camera bag is not built for the Tamron 150-600m mounted on a camera house.
This is what you can use the bag for:
- Holds up to a 500mm f/4 lens.
- Holds a 300mm f/2.8 with DSLR
- Holds a pro DSLR
Technical Specifications:
- Interior Dimensions: 8.3” W x 16.3” H x 8” D (21.1 x 41.4 x 20.3 cm)
- Exterior Dimensions: 8.5” W x 17” H x 9.5” D (21.6 x 43.2 x 24.1 cm)
- Weight: 2–3.7 lbs (0.9–1.7 kg)
Glass Taxi can be used as a backpack or a shoulder bag. You can attached a monopod or a middle size tripod on the side of the bag. With the speed/skin belt you can attached even more components on the belt, if you want that.
Another thing I noticed with the Think Tank Glass Taxi bag is that the side of the bags are very thin. This means if you happen to drop the bag your lenses and camera equipment can take damage. That is the reason I did not buy the bag. To bad Think Tank, other wise it would have been a nice bag. I am not willing to take a risk with this bag.
It does not matter that the padding in the middle on the inside of the bag is thick because there are no padding on the sides of the bag. This is something Jared Polin forgot to mention when he did his review and praised this bag.
A good advice is to always try out the bag in a store before you buy it. If you order the bag online you will not notice these things until you open the bag and then it might be to big of a hassle to send it back.
The price is right now around 159 US dollars. The pictures are from Think Tank’s site.
©2014
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
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.
Canon EF-S 55-250mm
Canon 55-250 mm
A good lens with a good zoom is the Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS II. It gives sharpness and brightness and is easy to work with. It has a image stabilizer to make the picture less blurry.
I love to take pictures of animals:
The lens might feel plastic but the quality of the pictures are amazing. The lens is cheap too. As you can see on the above pictures, the lens gives colorful pictures. I have not done anything to the pictures, no effects. The only thing I have done is to put my logo on them.
2013©ExpressivePhotos
Canon 50mm 1.4
Canon EF 50mm f1.4
I would love to own a Canon 50mm 1.4. It is still more than triple the price of the 50mm 1.8. The question is: Is it worth it?
The 50 mm 1.4 is good for taking picture where there is less light, for example taking a picture in the night near a street with few road lamps and some cars driving by. It is also of course good for taking portraits. Compared to 50 mm 1.8 this lens takes brighter pictures and also sometimes it can be felt to be taking sharper pictures as well.
Expressive photos 