Winter Photography Tips
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Tamron Lens Test
This last summer Tamron loaned me a couple of lenses to field test. Having worked with these lenses for the last three months I am pleasantly pleased with their performance.
Rather than attempt to “bench test” these lenses and give you a report based upon test patterns and lines of resolution this report is much more anecdotal. For a couple of great websites that go into very fine technical and performance reports on equipment and lenses go to www.slrgear.com or www.dpreview.com.
The lenses Tamron sent me were the 28-75mm f2.8 and the 70-200mm f2.8. One of the distinct advantages of these lenses are their size and weight. Smaller and lighter than my comparable Canon L lenses; 24-70mm f2.8 L and the 70-200mm f2.8 L non-IS. In particular the Tamron 28-75mm lens, is amazingly compact and light, making it a real advantage for travelling overseas or anywhere your luggage space is limited.
I must admit that I was skeptical about the image quality as compared to my top of the line Canon lenses so I made a few side by side comparisons. These comparisons were made under real world conditions and the results were judged in the real world needs of this fine art landscape photographer.
I could not discern any appreciable difference in image quality between the Tamron lenses and Canon lenses. The Tamron lenses seemed to have slightly better color saturation and shadow detail. The Canon lenses appeared to have slightly better highlight detail. Image resolving detail appeared to be about the same with all lenses.
The Tamron 70-200mm has a nice large focus ring for manually focusing. The focus ring has a smooth and long throw making it easier to focus than my Canon lens. In addition the Tamron lens focuses down to about 3 feet almost 2 feet closer than the Canon lens, add a 25mm extension tube and you have some serious capability for close-up photography.
The biggest disadvantage of the Tamron lenses is the speed of focus which is significantly slower than the Canon lenses. Another disadvantage for the Tamron lenses is the lack of Image Stabilization available on either of these lenses. Neither of these features is a significant drawback for me because I rarely if ever use auto-focus or Image Stabilization. At a cost of about ½ to 1/3rd of the Canon or Nikon lenses I would say the Tamron lenses are worth a serious look for any nature, travel and landscape photographer.
Purchasing a Tripod I
Part One
When photographing landscape-scenic-nature subjects after your camera body your tripod is your most important piece of equipment . There is no one perfect tripod, each make and model has it’s good and bad features, and just like your camera you get what you pay for. Most novice photographers overlook this important purchase and fail to carefully consider what they are purchasing and what will work best for their style of photography. Here are a few thoughts that may help you maneuver through this decision. 
An ideal tripod will have a height that is as tall as your eyesight without the use of a center column, it will also have a minimum height that is no more than the height of the camera and head assembly (for taking pictures of tiny little wildflowers close to the ground.) The ideal tripod will fold up to fit into your travel luggage, be very light weight while securely supporting your camera with the largest lens you own (or plan to own.)
The industry standard for most nature photographers is the Manfrotto or Gitzo. Both are made by the same manufacturer. The Manfrotto line of tripods are like Chevys and the Gitzo are like Cadillacs. A Chevy is very adequate transportation; it will get you from point “A” to point “B”, a Cadillac does the same thing only with more comfort, perhaps a little faster, and with more style–same is true with a Manfrotto vrs Gitzo. Your choice of tripod will be based in some part upon whether you are on a Chevy or Cadillac budget.
When you purchase a professional or advanced amateur quality tripod you are actually purchasing the tripod legs and head assembly separately (many retailers will sell them as a single unit for simplicity.) Here are some suggestions for legs and a head assembly. You should go to your local photo retailer and ask to see these models to try them out and see which one will work best for you. (You can print out this email and bring it with you to your camera store.) Prices are approximate and may vary. Support your local photo-retailer, the difference in cost compared to online is most times minimal and the knowledge your camera retailer provides is worth the difference in price.
A word about tripod heads and quick release systems;
When you shop in the Cadillac level of tripod heads most of these heads are equiped with the Arca-Swiss style of quick-release mechanism. This style is universal among all manufacturers of this style of quick-release. That means any Arca-Swiss style plate will fit a Fourth Generation Design gimbel head, a Kirk ballhead or any other tripod head with a quick release of this design–very handy.
I don’t care for Manfrotto’s /Gitzo’s quick-release systems; they vary the design with just about every head they manufacturer. Most professional nature photographers have more than one tripod and head assembly–different tools for different jobs. Using the Manfrotto/Gitzo heads would require swapping quick release plates every time you change tripods–kind of defeats the purpose of a quick-release. I just wish Manfrotto would catch on to this simple concept….I do recommend a couple of Manfrotto heads for those of you shopping in the Chevy price range, I am assuming that you will only purchase one tripod and therefore the afore mentioned issue won’t concern you, however, should you decide later on that you need another tripod head you will be caught up in the quick-release swap. You can purchase the Chevy legs with a Cadillac head.
Tripod legs for a Chevy budget, Manfrotto Tripods:
Legs-055 series-taller tripod very sturdy-height without center column aprox 55 inches,
Model # 055CXPRO3
This is a carbon fiber tripod-meaning it is light weight the legs alone will cost aprox $400-450
Model # 055XPROB
This is a aluminum tripod-meaning it is not as light as the above model the legs alone will cost aprox $200-250
Legs-190 series-not as tall but still a good tripod-height without center column aprox 48 inches
Model # 190CXPRO3
This is a carbon fiber tripod-meaning it is light weight, the legs alone will cost aprox $300-350
Model # 190XPROB
This is a aluminum tripod-meaning it is not as light as the above model, the legs alone will cost aprox $150-200
Head-assemblies for a Chevy budget:
Here are some head assemblies I recommend:
Model #322RC2
Grip action ball head-very versatile, the cost is aprox $125-150
Model #327RC2
Grip action ball head–redesigned and heavier duty than the above, cost is aprox $140-160
Any of the above combinations will support a typical 35mm DSLR camera with a lens upto about a f5.6 70-300mm. If you have fast glass for longer lenses you are in the Cadillac price range for tripod heads. 
Part two of this series will offer some advice for those shopping on a Cadillac budget.
Thank you to Kyle Krohn at
West Photo for providing
information for this article.
Purchasing a tripod II
Review
When photographing landscape-scenic-nature subjects after your camera body your tripod is your most important piece of equipment . There is no one perfect tripod, each make and model has it’s good and bad features, and just like your camera you get what you pay for. An ideal tripod will have a height that is as tall as your eyesight without the use of a center column, it will also have a minimum height that is no more than the height of the camera and head assembly.
The industry standard for most nature photographers is the Manfrotto or Gitzo. Both are made by the same manufacturer. The Manfrotto line of tripods are like Chevys and the Gitzo are like Cadillacs.
A word about tripod heads and quick release systems;
When you shop in the Cadillac level of tripod heads most of these heads are equiped with the Arca-Swiss style of quick-release mechanism. This style is universal among all manufacturers of this style of quick-release. That means any Arca-Swiss style plate will fit a Fourth Generation Design gimbel head, a Kirk ballhead or any other tripod head with a quick release of this design–very handy.
Tripod legs for the Cadillac budget:
Gitzo Tripods:
Carbon Fiber Leg assemblies for Gitzo:
Model 2542 L Maximum height w/o center column is 59.5″, minimum height 6.7″ plus head and camera. Supports 26.6 pounds. Folded length 24″. Approximate cost is $750.
Model 3541 L Maximum height w/o center column is 59 “, minimum height 6.3″ plus head and camera. Supports 39.6 pounds. Folded length 23.6″ Approximate cost is $900.
Tripod Heads for the Cadillac budget:
Tripod heads in this range should all come equipped with the Arca/Swiss style quick release plate. It is the standard for professional quality tripod heads. There are many to choose from, here is a list with hyperlinks to the websites of the manufacturers. Most of these head assemblies are not available at your local photo retailer and are only available directly from the manufacturer.
Ball heads:
A ball head is a good general purpose tripod head. Quick and easy to use it is useful for a wide variety of applications. If I could only have one tripod head it would be a ball head. There are many brands to choose from. I own a Kirk BH-1 and have been very happy with it. Prices range from $200 on up.
Kirk Ball-heads
Really Right Stuff
Three-way heads:
Three way heads are great for close-up photography or use with large format view cameras. There is only one three-way head as far as I am concerned; the 410 Jr Geared Head, ironically it is a Manfrotto head, but modified by John Zeiss at Fourth Generation Designs to use an Arca/Swiss style quick release.
Contact John directly to purchase the head and modification as a complete package.
Gimbel Head:
For use with long telephoto lenses, again the only make I recommend is by Fourth Generation Designs. Price will vary by model.