TAMRON 150-500mm F5-6.7 (Model A057) for FUJIFILM X-mount x wild birds by Remi Chapeaublanc

I love the birds of prey since my childhood. I was living in the countryside, and my weekends as a child were mostly hanging in the forest to try to catch some birds with my film camera.　And the unpredictable life made it happen again, 15 years after, when I was a young professional photographer in Mongolia, seeking Kazakh eagle hunters in this wild country. GODS AND BEASTS was my first globally recognized photo work. And now, it’s become one of my specialties to work with birds of prey, especially since I met Jacques-Olivier Travers who is currently working to reintroduce the White Tailed Eagle in the wild.

When TARMON proposed to me to test and work with the 150-500mm F5-6.7 for FUJIFILM, it was the perfect occasion to ask Jacques-Olivier again to work with me on this project. To be honest, I was a little afraid before seeing the actual lense, because the very long tele-lenses are usually very heavy and bulky. But what a surprise when I had it in my hand for the first time! It’s so compact that I can use my small backpack to carry it, and use it without a tripod all day long. Especially with this incredible stabilization system, using it handheld it’s so easy. For example, I was able to shoot perfectly sharp images handheld at 1/30 second at 500mm (full-frame equivalent : 750mm). It’s just unbelievable. I was also very surprised by the autofocus precision and reactivity, shooting a Peregrine falcon coming in front of me without any difficulty. This bird can go as fast as an F1 race car, already recorded at 389 km/h during hunting session.

To conclude, I think it's the perfect lens for photographing birds effectively, or more generally one of the best lenses for wildlife photography with light and compact equipment.