The new Tamron 150-600mm is getting rave reviews. I am considering mounting this lens on a GH4 via a Metabones Speedbooster. If I understand the literature correctly in 4K video I would have a lens that is the equalivent of 245 - 980mm and gain 1 f stop. If I got either the Canon or Nikon mount the built in lens stabilization would work and the aperture would be auto in P or S camera settings. No auto focus but focus peaking would ease the burden of correct focus. Using a Depth of Field Calculator the DOF is crazy small.
Has anyone tried this combination?
Opinions on other long focal lengths options would be appreciated. I have the Lumix 100-300. It is a pretty good lens but I am always looking for more reach and higher quality.

Thanks for any opinions..
Kent

Hi Kent,
I too have been looking at this lens to use with the GH4.
You are correct in your calculations of 35mm equivalent focal lengths.
This is the adaptor i believe you are referring to when you talk about the lens stabilization, reduced crop factor, & gain of f stop. It is the speed booster "S" version (standing for smart)
Metabones® (http://www.metabones.com/products/details/MB_SPEF-m43-BM2)
There is also this Canon to M4/3 adaptor that isn't the speed booster so no extra light, or reduction of the crop factor but has the IS & ability to set aperture from the camera body:
Metabones® (http://www.metabones.com/products/details/MB_EF-m43-BM1)
As for the Nikon mount lenses. There is the speed booster version: Metabones® (http://www.metabones.com/products/details/MB_SPNFG-m43-BM1)
And the regular version: Metabones® (http://www.metabones.com/products/details/MB_NFG-m43-BM1)
But neither of the Nikon mount adaptors have IS, or the ability to set aperture from the camera body, both work with a manual aperture dial on the adaptor itself.
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Bryce

I use a Nikkor AF-S 80-400 on a GH4. Sometimes with a Sigma 1.4x and a Nikkor 2X TC. Best without the TCs though can be "acceptable". Metabones adapter, aperture adjusted by a dial on the converter.

I had a 500 Sigma which good but sold in anticipation of the purchase of a Sigma 150-600 which on back order with no firm info. on availability.

(Wonder whether Sigma jumped the gun and announced the lens in an attempt to queer Tamron's pitch.)

Nikkor gives 184 to 920mm full 35mm equivalent in 4K/UHD. Difficult to focus particularly a moving subject (I do birds) even with a Swit 7inch monitor and the GH4 peaking. (Peaking seems to work better in 1080p with a long lens.)

Here's a short video, in UHD, shot via the Nikkor and 1.4X TC. In retrospect I wish I hadn't used the TC but I had no idea how long the bird was to remain.

http://youtu.be/SA7JFWZGW-0


Ron

(A bit soft. Images straight off the camera which has sharpness at "0". ISO 500 and lens wide open.

The Tamron from its reviews has been on the buying list for sure buy sigma came up with a announced better lens, while waiting for these to arrive and get established i have experimented with the GH4 and various tele lenses, the best i have found is the 100-400 canon gives amazing results, using it with dumb adapters.

here is the one shot with 100-400, 500 and 600 of canon
Birds around Pune on Vimeo

after using the canon 100-400 for videos i stopped thinking of buying the sigma or the tamron,
However this said the nikon 80-400 has proved its worth equally well and hence i suppose you have these choices to go with.

guess price wise all of these should be in a similar price bracket.

cheers
vishal

Thanks for the great info. Does focus peaking work with third party lenses? If not how to you attain focus?

Enjoy
Kent

Yes focus peaking works.

So i have been using the Tamron 150-600mm lens with the GH4 for a few weeks. Build quality for a lens this price is great. Zoom range is great for wildlife which is what i do mostly. Today though, i noticed a strange issue with the out of focus areas in my footage. Here are some frame grabs from various shots taken with the lens. All were taken at full zoom, varying apertures. The one with the normal background blur is taken with the Panasonic 14-140mm lens. All the rest are taken with the Tamron. All those shots seem to have a vertical or diagonal blur to them. The one of the northern flicker is especially bad, the rest vary.
Does anyone have any idea as to why i would be getting this effect?
Thanks,
Bryce

I've used the Tamron 150-600mm (for Canon EF) with the Metabones Smart Adapter (firmware 1.7) for few days and it worked very well. But today the iris of the Tamron doesn't respond. It stays wild open. And if I turn on the stabilisation on the Tamron, it freezes the GH4 (I must extract the GH4's battery to shut it off).
I don't know where this bug come from. Other Canon lenses still working correctly with the Metabones adapter, and the Tamron works well with a Canon 600D.
One could says that this 150-600 is not compatible with Metabones, but it used to work perfectly before.
The firmware v1,8 for the Metabones doesn't solved the problem.

Any idea?
Thanks!