Being in general a wide to moderate tele-zoom kind of guy, I have found myself occasionally frustrated by lacking a long zoom or tele prime when shooting in the great outdoors. There are some scenes and places that cry out for a longer focal length, and it's not from laziness but more accessibility...

With some imagination, you have a lens that can be used for a variety of creative projects. The Tamron 150-600mm f5-6.3 is a reasonably priced lens that really delivers. It's not a cheap doorstop telephoto lens. While it is f5-6.3, make no mistake: this lens is phenomenal.

Before summarizing the performance metrics let me make a clear statement here. Tamron did something awesome with the Tamron SP 150-600mm f/5-6.3 Di VC USD - they managed to produce this lens at a very moderate price tag of less than 1000 US$/EUR.

Gary Wolstenholme reviews this new ultra telephoto zoom lens from Tamron, with a massive 600mm telephoto zoom.

Very good centre sharpness throughout the range; Effective Vibration Compensation system; Good value; Good build quality; Extremely low CA; Low distortion; Resistant to flare and retains good contrast shooting into the light

No claims made about weather resistance

The Tamron SP 150-600mm F/5-6.3 Di VC USD is an excellent ultra-telephoto zoom lens, offering good image quality with smooth bokeh and sharpness, an effective built-in image stabilisation system which makes it possible to hand-hold and still get sharp results, and a price that certainly won't break...

If you've been looking for a long telephoto lens for less than ￡1000, odds are you've been disappointed. Until now that is, as the new Tamron SP 150-600mm f/5-6.3 VC USD boasts an impressive zoom range and just sneaks in under the ￡1000 bracket.

capture the power and beauty of wildlife, birds, travel destinations, and exciting sports action close-ups with this high-performance 150-600 mm long-range zoom. VC (Vibration Compensation) and USD (Ultrasonic Silent Drive) enable you to shoot crisp imahes of fast-moving, distant subjects handheld,...

Dollar for dollar this is a hard lens to beat. Good sharpness and contrast. One of the best lens purchases I've ever made. Really should be a lens any serious photographer should own, unless you can afford the big bucks on the Nikon or Canon glass. For the size of the lens its not too heavy.

Light weight for what it is; Fairly sharp; Good contrast; Zoom range

Can take multiple twists to reach focus when manually focusing

The Tamron lens has a very good build quality although it still stays a little short of professional grade lenses here. The lens body is made of a combination of metal and plastic parts.

If you aren't looking at the Sigma 150-600mm "C" in another tab right now, you probably should be: the lenses are very comparable, and are definitely competing for the same market. The Tamron is an exceptional lens for the price point, but its slow aperture range limits it to photography accompanied...