The Tamron 150-500mm F5-6.7 Di III VC VXD is an ultra telephoto zoom lens for Sony FE mount, similar and a little bit cheaper than the Sony FE 200-600mm F5.6-6.3 G OSS. While we will be doing bird photography and testing out bird videography - I thought it would be fun to use this Tamron 150-500 for portrait photography. At the end of this blog post, you can find a link to download a high res JPG sample gallery of the Tamron 150-500mm f5-6.7.
As you might know, I am a wide prime lens shooter. My favourite focal length is the 35mm, my go to for close up portraits is an 85mm and if I need extra reach I use a 135mm prime. The Tamron 150-500mm f5-6.7 was a very interesting lens for me to use since its widest point is typically the longest I'll ever shoot.
Watch the behind the scenes video below to see what it was like taking portraits at 500mm. We took a 500mm full body shot to see how far away you need to be from your subject. Spoiler alert - both the model and I had to run away from each other to be able to frame her in the shot! I share a photo at each main focal length of this lens while standing in the same spot. I share 150mm, 200mm, 300mm, 400mm and 500mm side by side so you can see the full range of this Tamron telephoto.
One downside to this lens for portrait photography is its aperture. At f5-6.7, I had to use high ISOs to expose my portraits correctly. Depending on the camera body you are using, this can result in noisy photos. I also experienced some motion blur in my photos when I stopped my shutter speed down to 1/160. When the camera is handheld and the subject is moving, this will result in motion blur. You can see an example of this in the 500mm full body photos and also when the dog photo-bombed our shot in the video! Despite this Tamron lens' high apertures, I was still able to get a significant amount of background to foreground separation.
This lens is incredibly sharp at every single focal length I tried throughout our portrait photoshoot and bird photography. The Tamron 150-500mm f5-6.7 uses the same newly developed VXD linear motors that Tamron used in last years release of the Tamron 70-180mm f2.8 Di III VXD.
The following photos are my portrait photography on the Tamron 150-500mm F5-6.7 Di III VC VXD. All these photos are edited with my Palm Valley Lightroom Preset Pack.
model adelaide
makeup lidija j
video dan @ i make films
This 150-500mm lens features 4 seperate switches for a few crucial controls.
MF/AF switch
Focus limiter switch. This allows you to lock off between full coverage, 3 meters to infinity and 15 meters to infinity
Vibration Compensation on/off switch
Vibration Compensation mode selector switch
Here you can switch between 3 stabilisation modes:
Mode 1 is Standard VC. I found this to be good for photography and still video shots
Mode 2 is for for panning shots. I found this to work the best for video with a moving subject
Mode 3 is for framing priority. This was my preferred VC mode for photography.
The only feature missing on this lens is a customisable button like you see on GM glass. This lens features a standard zoom lock switch which allows you to lock the zoom mechanism at 150mm from extending, perfect for packing away. It also has a zoom lock mechanism on the zoom ring which allows you to lock the zoom at any focal length while in use with a simple push/pull action.
Watch the behind the scenes review video above to see our video footage of the birds. I've included 4K handheld video from the Sony A7III. You can see a sample of what handheld at 500mm looks like with stabilisation on and off. I also share 4k 50p footage with the A7sIII on a monopod. During the A7sIII sample videos, we share examples of what each VC mode looks like.
The following photos are my bird photography tests on the Tamron 150-500mm F5-6.7 Di III VC VXD. These photos have only been adjusted for exposure and white balance in Lightroom. Some of these photos are also included in my downloadable sample gallery so you can take a closer look - please scroll down to download that file!
Download a high res JPG sample gallery of photos taken with the Tamron 150-500mm F5-6.7 Di III VC VXD here. These photos were taken on the Sony A7III and Sony A7sIII. I’ve left the metadata in the files so you can see the camera settings + what focal length they were shot on. If you enjoyed this blog post, you might want to check out my field review of the Sony A1 camera body!
