Offshoot had an outing to Altamont Gardens in Co Carlow for their snowdrop week last month - I didn't get any snowdrop shots that I really liked this but this one of Great Tits glaring at a Coal Tit caught my eye.

01-Nuts-and-Tits-JCoveneyImages © John Coveney, 087 276 515, www.johncoveney.ie and may not be used without written permission.

It was taken in the rain with the 7D and the Canon 100-400mm. The settings were 400mm, 1/400th of a second at f5.6 and ISO 1600 and I was quite pleased at how it came out despite the dull conditions - Lightroom cleans up the noise really well.

While I have been very happy with the performance of this lens since I bought it second hand about five years ago, I've been following with interest the buzz around Tamron's new 150-600mm f5-6.3 which, currently is €300 cheaper than the Canon at Conns in Dublin. In a recent review by Bryan Carnathan of the Digital Picture, says that at f5.6 the:-

“Tamron [is] holding a slight edge in the center of the frame in some comparisons. At 400mm, the Tamron is noticeably sharper [my underlining]. At f/8, the comparisons are even closer with the Tamron retaining a corner advantage at 400mm. The Tamron also has less CA at 400mm”

He also notes says it's "sweet spot" is in the 300-400mm range  and that 600mm is the "least sharp focal length" and needs stopping down to f8 or even f11.

Clearly Tamron have brought out a serious and excellent value competitor to the Canon that would make it very hard  to choose if I had neither – the question for me is - is it good enough to switch??