Testing my new Tamron 180mm Macro. Used with a Canon 40D. Typically I hand hold this gear. This lens is quite different to the Canon 100mm 2.8EF. The Tamron autofocus is best left off ascompared with the Canon 100 it is hopelessly slow and hunts continually. However, it is no real loss to not have auto focus - don't really know why Tamron bothered with it at all.The first shots of the Assassin bug are a bit washed out and grainy and lack depth of colour. This is because the camera was set to its max ISO of 1600 and with such an old camera (40D) it really can't give quality pictures. This would be as good as I would expect. The other pics are an improvement but I am having to get used to this focal length. Do I like it? So far I am not blwn away by it as I was with the Canon 100. However, it is OK and I expect that given more time to get used to it things will improve. The extra focal length is definately a bonus. I may try this lens out with my 60D soon to see if this makes any difference - I suspect not.
The dragonfly shot looks OK as the light was difficult and a strong breeze meant I had to work at f8 on 400 ISO - the 40D really needs to be at 200 ISO for this kind of shot. Quite heavy cropping. This lens will, I think, do well on the larger insects.