Took the Tamzooka and 70-200vrii to the zoo. I'm happy.

We went to the zoo today with the Tamron 150-600 and the Nikkor 70-200 2.8 vrii, along with the D7100 bodies. My wife took the same setup. We were both very happy with the results from both lenses and the D7100, especially when the ISO had to go up to maintain shutter speed.

For subjects that are close enough it's very hard to beat the 70-200 for both AF speed and crisp high quality images even at F2.8, however sometimes you just need more reach. That's when the Tamron comes in. Now I'm pretty fussy and easily disappointed with what I get vs what I expect, but the Tamron has yet again confirmed that it was money well spent.

Previously we've shot the Tamron handheld and the VC has done a great job, but today we used monopods. We both found the images better with the VC off.

When I do this kind of shooting I set the camera to manual, F6.3-F8 on the Tamron (F2.8 - F5on the Nikkor) and the shutter speed to 1/1000. I then let the auto ISO choose a suitable setting up to ISO 3200.

This trip yet again confirmed that the Tamron is giving considerably more good results than the now sold TC-20e iii on the 70-200. Others may see different results but I spent a long time trying to get that combo good including a return to Nikon and I still wasn't happy. The Tamrons just needed around -5 AF fine tune and they're great.


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Glad your happy with the Tamzooka. Can't wait for the Sigzooka to come out and take all my money out of the bankzooka so I can get one.

And I still ponder the 17E given generally positive responses its been getting on the 7-2.

SkvLTD said:

And I still ponder the 17E given generally positive responses its been getting on the 7-2.

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Maybe hire one first and try it out. I sometimes got superb images with the TC-20 but I got less keepers than I do with the Tamron. Perhaps it's because the Tammy is in it's sweet spot at 4-500mm.


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The Nikon 70-200 f2.8 VRII is a beautiful lens, certainly my sharpest except for the 24 f1.4 ... I have used it with the TC 20-E III and had good results when not trying to emulate a 400mm prime.
For me (as a bird/wildlife tog), the great attraction of the Tamron 150-600 f5-6.3 is the 600mm ... a 600mm prime would be great but justifying the cost of even a 2nd-hand model would be very hard.
If I want 600mm I can use my Nikon 400mm f2.8 with the TC 1.4 II or TC 1.7 II to get +/- and definitely get better results, but at the cost of the weight that I have to shoulder, which is not insignificant for me!
The Tamron means I now have a portable 600mm with VC and that is a fantastic option for me to have available - at 600mm I don't think the Tamron is a great lens IQ-wise but it is certainly a very good lens, I have rarely used it below 600mm.