Happy New Year! I rented the Tamron 150-600mm for two weeks and gave it a go over the holidays. Here is my basic review of the lens.
The lens is fairly compact, it a little bigger than the 70-200mm F2.8 without the hood attached. With the hood attached, it makes it look massive! Surprisingly enough, there is only about a one pound difference between the two. The Tamron weighs in at 4.30 pounds while the Nikon comes in a 3.39 pounds. So if you're used to the 70-200mm, there isn't much a difference. Crazy enough this lens will fit with the hood on in the Lowepro Flipside 400AW. But with no camera attached, you'll have to assemble everything in the field.
Build quality felt on par with the 70-200mm, I didn't notice any thing cheap about the lens. Everything felt on par with my 70-200mm. Nothing that really screams this is a budget lens.The only minor thing I could complain about is zooming in and out. There was a tad too much resistance for my tastes.
The autofocus is where things start feeling unequal. It wasn't snappy and hunts some times. But once it hits the focus, the photos are sharp as can be. Now to be fair, some of those focusing issues could have been my fault. I was hand holding the lens, after awhile I was struggling to keep the lens stable.
Overall it's a solid lens, something to keep in mind when on a budget. It'll be something I'll rent again, if I need that extra reach. Curious to see how it will compare to the two Sigma lenses in the same range.
