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Shooting Eagles with Tamron DSLR Lenses on Mirrorless
Images & article by Lewis Kemper
I had been toying with the idea of moving from a DSLR to a mirrorless camera for quite some time, but one of my biggest concerns was how well would my existing Tamron lenses work on the mirrorless camera with an adapter? After 2 months and approximately 28,000 images I can say my concerns were baseless. The lenses work great, and in fact I would say my lenses are performing better than they did on my DSLR’s.
1/1250; f/10; ISO 500; 170mm; Nikon Z9; Nikon FTZ II adapter; Tamron 150-600mm G2
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1/1000; f/8; ISO 1600; 260mm; Nikon Z9; Nikon FTZ II adapter; Tamron 150-600mm G2
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One of the reasons they seem to perform better is the fact that you do not need to do micro adjustments for your lenses if you are using mirrorless, because the lens focuses directly on the sensor and not reflected off a mirror to a focusing chip. I used to meticulously calibrate my lenses on my DSLR, and it made a big difference. But I guess I was not perfect, because now my images seem even sharper.
1/1600; f/9; ISO 1000; 600mm; Nikon Z9; Nikon FTZ II adapter; Tamron 150-600mm G2
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The autofocus systems on most high-end mirrorless cameras provide improvements over what DSLR cameras had to offer. Using the adapter on my Tamron lenses takes advantage of all of those improvements. Now my lenses are focusing faster, and sharper and that is not even considering all the new features of the modern autofocus systems such as many more focus points, subject detect for animals, people and vehicles but also the addition of eye detection as well. I am using the Nikon system, but if you are a Canon shooter, you will have the same experience. If you have put off moving to mirrorless because you didn’t want to buy all new lenses, fear not, your trusty Tamron lenses won’t let you down!
1/1250; f/8; ISO 2500; 150mm; Nikon Z9; Nikon FTZ II adapter; Tamron 150-600mm G2
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1/1250; f/10; ISO 800; 150mm; Nikon Z9; Nikon FTZ II adapter; Tamron 150-600mm G2
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On a recent trip to Alaska to photograph eagles I took over 18,000 images in 5 days. Ninety percent of these were eagles, although I did photograph some sea otters, and moose as well. I made more sharp images on this trip then I have done on my three previous trips to photograph eagles. I used the Nikon Z9 and the Nikon Adapter FTZ II and my Tamron 150-600mm G2 lens for all of these images.
1/1600; f/10; ISO 500; 240mm; Nikon Z9; Nikon FTZ II adapter; Tamron 150-600mm G2
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Ready to learn more about what makes our lenses perfect for capturing images of our feathery friends? Contact the experts at Tamron today!
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