In September of 2022 I had a chance to review the Sony E-mount version of Tamron’s very intriguing 50-400mm F4.5-6.3 VC VXD lens, a lens that expanded the traditional formula of a 100-400mm zoom by adding an additional 50mm of range on the wide end. That may not seem like a big deal initially, but it opens up all kinds of additional photography subjects and changes the zoom ratio from 4x to 8x! There are, of course, many lenses with an even larger zoom ratio, but those superzoom lenses are almost always compromised optically. I called that lens a “game changer”, and now it is coming to Nikon Z mount and adds a very compelling option for Nikon shooters. I have found that these Tamron zooms are better on Nikon than any other current platform, and I’ll detail why in both the text review and the video review linked below.
Thanks to Tamron USA for sending me a review copy of this lens. As always, this is a completely independent review. All opinions and conclusions are my own.*The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the 45MP Nikon Z8, which I reviewed here.
The Tamron 50-400Z has an extremely impressive 8x zoom range, and goes from this at 50mm:
to this at 400mm:
That gives you a tremendous amount of versatility in framing your subject, and will make this lens a great option for landscape photography along with the more typical telephoto subjects.
Tamron likes complicated lens names, so let’s take a moment to unscramble what all those letters mean. Di-III refers to a lens that is purpose designed for mirrorless mounts, which, at the moment, is uniquely in the Sony full frame E-mount. It can also be used on APS-C E-mount cameras where the 1.5x crop factor gives a full frame equivalent focal range of 75-600mm. VC refers to Vibration Compensation, which is Tamron’s optical stabilization system, important in telephoto lenses to help deal with camera shake. Finally, VXD refers to the focus system, which is Tamron’s premium Voice-coil eXtreme-torque Drive, a high end linear focus motor system, which will allow you to capture fast moving action.
As we’ll see, the 50-400Z (as we’ll call it in this review to distinguish it from the E-mount version) follows in the trend of the 35-150mm by having a more premium build and feature set, but also comes at a higher price point than Tamron’s previous era 100-400mm lens, though fortunately the price for the Z-mount version is $1299, identical to the E-mount version. Some of Tamron’s lenses that have come to Z-mount have done so with a $100 price premium, but that’s not the case here. Enjoy the photos of the Z-mount lens along with a gallery of photos taken with it.
Keywords: Tamron 50-400mm, Tamron 50-400, 50-400 VC, Tamron 50-400mm Review, 50-400, 50-400mm, VC, Di III, A067, VC, VXD, Tamron 50-400mm F4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD, F4.5-6.3, F/4.5-6.3, Nikon, Nikon Z8, Z, Z-mount, Z8, Review, mirrorless, Full Frame, Sports, Tracking, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Handling, Focus, Portraits, Resolution, High ISO, Image Quality, Sample Images, Photography, 45MP, #letthelightin, #DA, #NIKON, #Z8, #NIKONZ8
DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
In September of 2022 I had a chance to review the Sony E-mount version of Tamron’s very intriguing 50-400mm F4.5-6.3 VC VXD lens, a lens that expanded the traditional formula of a 100-400mm zoom by adding an additional 50mm of range on the wide end. That may not seem like a big deal initially, but it opens up all kinds of additional photography subjects and changes the zoom ratio from 4x to 8x! There are, of course, many lenses with an even larger zoom ratio, but those superzoom lenses are almost always compromised optically. I called that lens a “game changer”, and now it is coming to Nikon Z mount and adds a very compelling option for Nikon shooters. I have found that these Tamron zooms are better on Nikon than any other current platform, and I’ll detail why in both this text review and the video review linked below.
Thanks to Tamron USA for sending me a review copy of this lens. As always, this is a completely independent review. All opinions and conclusions are my own.*The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the 45MP Nikon Z8, which I reviewed here.
The Tamron 50-400Z has an extremely impressive 8x zoom range, and goes from this at 50mm:
to this at 400mm:
That gives you a tremendous amount of versatility in framing your subject, and will make this lens a great option for landscape photography along with the more typical telephoto subjects.
Tamron likes complicated lens names, so let’s take a moment to unscramble what all those letters mean. Di-III refers to a lens that is purpose designed for mirrorless mounts, which, at the moment, is uniquely in the Sony full frame E-mount. It can also be used on APS-C E-mount cameras where the 1.5x crop factor gives a full frame equivalent focal range of 75-600mm. VC refers to Vibration Compensation, which is Tamron’s optical stabilization system, important in telephoto lenses to help deal with camera shake. Finally, VXD refers to the focus system, which is Tamron’s premium Voice-coil eXtreme-torque Drive, a high end linear focus motor system, which will allow you to capture fast moving action.
As we’ll see, the 50-400Z (as we’ll call it in this review to distinguish it from the E-mount version) follows in the trend of the 35-150mm by having a more premium build and feature set, but also comes at a higher price point than Tamron’s previous era 100-400mm lens, though fortunately the price for the Z-mount version is $1299, identical to the E-mount version. Some of Tamron’s lenses that have come to Z-mount have done so with a $100 price premium, but that’s not the case here.
Tamron has managed to increase the zoom range without increasing the size and weight of the 50-400mm relative to most 100-400mm lenses, though, as per usual, the Z-mount version is necessarily a bit larger and heavier. The main reason for this is to accommodate the larger diameter of Nikon’s Z-mount relative to the Sony E-mount. The 50-400Z is 185.8mm (7.3″) in length compared to 183mm for the E-mount version. It remains 88.5mm in diameter despite the lens being wider at the lens mount for the simple reason that this isn’t the widest point on the lens. The weight increases a bit from 1155g to 1180g (41.6oz) in the Z-mount version. But both the size and the weight compare favorably to the Nikkor Z 100-400mm VR S-line lens, which is 98 x 222 mm and weighs 1435g:
There’s also the small matter of price! The Nikkor lens is currently only sale for $200 off in the US, and it still costs $2500 USD, which is near double the price of the Tamron lens. That’s one major vote in favor of the Tamron 50-400Z. All in all, it feels like Tamron has managed to keep the size and weight of the 50-400Z at nice levels while packing the lens with a lot of features.
The Tamron retains the 67mm filter thread that is shared by many of Tamron’s mirrorless offerings. This is great, as it will allow you to share filters with a wide variety of other lenses.
The 50-400Z has a relatively substantial feature list. It includes a custom/function button whose value can be set either in camera or via Tamron’s Lens Utility Software (more on that in a moment).
There’s also a bank with a couple of switches. This includes an AF | MF switch along with a secondary switch that allows access to multiple custom modes.
These custom modes can be programmed via the weather-sealed USB-C port on the side of the lens.
Simply attach the lens to your computer or Android device via USB-C and download Tamron’s free Lens Utility software (or Android app), and this opens up a variety of ways to customize the performance of your lens. Some of the potential functions include a preset A-B focus pulls, presetting a specific focus distance (like for an event), switching between focus and aperture for the focus ring, changing the speed and/or tension of the manual focus ring, and a new function in that you program a focus limiter function as well. This gives more options than just a focus limiter switch for those who rarely (or never) use just a focus limiter.
You can also do firmware updates through this software.
Tamron’s approach here does allow for a fair degree of customization, though some of the controls may be less obvious than just having a lot of labelled switches on the barrel. Nikon’s approach with the 100-400 S isn’t much different, however, with a lot of functions reserved to two custom buttons. That lens has a dedicated focus limiter in addition to an AF | MF switch, though Tamron perhaps a little advantage in that you can set the distance of the focus limiter. It’s not like the cheaper Tamron is radically outclassed in terms of features, however.
There is zoom lock switch to prevent zoom creep, though I didn’t actually encounter any real creep while out hiking with the lens. It only locks at the 50mm position.
Also present on the barrel is two rings. The closer and narrower of the two is the manual focus ring. It (like all mirrorless lenses) is focus-by-wire, meaning that focus input on the focus ring is routed through the focus motor to move the elements. The movement of the ring is smooth but a little light. I would prefer slightly more damping, but overall the quality of focus is fairly good. The addition of the USB-C port means that that you also have more control over the behavior of the focus ring. This includes being able to control the rotation of the ring and to choose whether the focus action is linear or non-linear (speed sensitive) in behavior. That just adds to the value of the ring.
The second ring is the zoom ring, which comes after a slight flare in the lens barrel which gives both a bit of style and the function of making the zoom ring slightly easier to find by feel. The zoom ring’s friction is very well damped. It has a smooth, substantial zoom action (not light, however) and the inner barrel extends about 75mm. The tolerances are tight, and there is no wobble or play in the barrel. Tamron notes that the zoom ring rotation arc is just 75° and allows for rapid zooming action.
Tamron has included a nicely made lens hood that surprisingly doesn’t have a locking button, though it could be argued it doesn’t need it. It bayonets into place very cleanly and helps provide some shading along with some bump protection. The lens hood has a nice bevel in the design that gives it more style than the typical slab of plastic. A look inside the hood shows more structure and reinforcement than many hoods, which should add up to more durability.
Tamron has worked to up their game in the physical appearance of their most recent lenses. The finish is a little glossier and (according to Tamron) has been upgraded to be more resistant to scratching and even fingerprints. The new finish makes the lens appear to be more like anodized metal, though I do think there’s still some engineered plastics in the construction. There’s a platinum-colored accept ring right near the lens mount. There is also some new sculpting to the lens design the gives it more shape. This does have some ergonomic value, as it makes the lens fit the hand a little better. It is worth noting that the lens does feel very good in the hands. Heavy, yes, but in a reassuringly substantial kind of way.
Tamron has really been nailing weather sealing, and that’s definitely the case here. There’s a rubber gasket at the lens mount that suggests at the weather sealing inside, and Tamron also shows a total of 8 other internal seal points (by my count) along with a fluorine coating on the front element to give further protection. A fluorine coating not only helps protect the front element from scratches but also makes it water and fingerprint resistant and thus easier to clean. This is a professional grade lens ready for professional use.
Tamron’s recent trends regarding MFD (minimum focus distance) hold true here, as the lens sports two different MFDs for wide (0.25m/9.8″) and telephoto (1.5m/59.1″). You can get to about 0.50x magnification on the wide end (1:2), which is as high as my Voigtländer 65mm F2 (classified as a macro lens) and 0.25x (1:4) on the telephoto end. Both figures are exceptionally good, which further extends the versatility of the 50-400Z. Here’s what maximum magnification looks like first at 50mm and then 400mm along with a real- world “macro” shot.
Both results are fairly good, with a little more contrast on the wide end but you can unlock creamier backgrounds on the long end and get a flatter plane of focus. Minimum focus distance will scale between these two extremes as you go throughout the zoom range. Add an extension tube and you’ve got true macro performance here.
Tamron has nine rounded blades in the aperture iris, and they claim that the aperture iris will stay circular for at least two stops down from maximum aperture, which seems accurate.
That high magnification figure and the ability to really compress backgrounds adds to the versatility of the lens. I’ve even used it for some product shots to capture details.
As noted, Tamron has included their VC (Vibration Compensation – Tamron’s optical stabilization system) on the 50-400Z. I’m often asked as to whether or not the VC system works in concert with the VR in Nikon cameras so equipped, and I don’t really know the answer. It is impossible to test as independent control of in camera VR is disabled when a lens with VC is attached. Turning off the VC on the lens also turns off IBIS, and vice versa. I do prefer the way that VR works on my Z8 relative to any of my Sony bodies, so overall I’m satisfied with the performance of the stabilization, as I feel like Nikon’s VR does a better job of augmenting telephoto lenses than Sony’s IBIS.
Tamron says this in their press release: “Furthermore, using AI technologies, the lens chooses the appropriate compensation characteristics for videography at focal lengths of 100mm or less.” If you read between the lines a bit, you’ll realize that you’ll get your best handheld video results at 100mm or less and you are better off with a tripod at longer focal lengths (which is a good rule of thumb in general), though as noted, that’s a little less true here on Nikon.
One area that may cause some controversy is that while the lens is fully designed around utilizing a tripod collar and foot, it is an optional accessory. The recommended tripod collar is the existing A035TM that was actually designed for the DSLR-era 100-400mm VC. I’ve used that collar, and it is nice (Arca-type compatible for quick use on a tripod), but it will cost an additional $130 USD if you don’t already have it. Tamron is betting that the lens is light enough to be handholdable for many people, but I know from my chart tests that a collar would definitely be valuable when working from a tripod.
Because of a Sony limitation on third party lenses not utilizing teleconverters, there is no TC option with the 50-400Z. The Tamron 50-400mm doesn’t even have physical room at the rear of the lens to fit a TC as the rear-most glass element is very close to the back of the lens at 50mm, though it does move forward when zoomed out to 400mm. This is one area where you might be compelled to spend the bigger money for the Nikkor lens.
Outside of a few quirks that I’ve detailed, the Tamron 50-400Z largely succeeds in the transition to Nikon Z mount. This is a nicely built, feature rich lens that feels premium while hugely undercutting the price of the Nikkor option.
Autofocus and Video
As noted earlier, the 50-400Z is equipped with Tamron’s premium VXD (Voice-coil Extreme-torque Drive) focus system. This provides very fast, quiet, and accurate focus results with a wide variety of subjects. Even at 400mm I was able to quickly acquire a bird on the wing and track it with ease though bursts of many dozens of shots.
I really enjoy the Z8 for tracking action. I can shoot up to 30FPS (though only JPEGs, as shown here), and I found tracking BIF to be fairly effortless. Whenever the eye becomes visible from behind the wing as the wings pump up and down, it is clear that focus has been accurate all along.
I’m loving these Tamron zooms on Z-mount where the third-party speed restrictions of Sony just don’t exist. These lenses no longer feel like second class citizens, and it’s a delight to fire well focused bursts.
Focus on eyes is precise and delivers great looking results.
I was able to focus precisely on other subjects as well, even when depth of field was paper thin.
Focus is essentially silent. Even while testing back and forth, back and forth, I heard only the sound of my finger on the shutter button. Focus speed is essentially instant at shorter focal lengths, with only a split second lag when making major focus changes on the telephoto end.
I likewise found that video focus was confident as well, with quick, confident focus changes that only occasionally showed a quick pulse in the process.
Overall I would say that focus has translated very well to Nikon, and when it comes to tracking sports or wildlife action, I would say it is, if anything, improved, particularly when you consider the lack of limitations on burst speed.
Image Quality Breakdown
Tamron has employed a rather complex optical design that consists of 24 elements in 18 groups. This includes a number of exotic elements as you can see in this optical diagram.
The MTF charts for the lens are tremendously impressive, with a near flawless result across the frame at 50mm even wide open and a similar result at 400mm.
It’s rare to see a zoom lens with such an impressive MTF performance, and this is a lens that definitely impresses in real world sharpness, too.
But we’ll take a closer look at optical performance, starting with vignette and distortion. All of the distortion throughout the zoom range is of the pincushion variety. I tend to prefer pincushion distortion (so long as it isn’t extreme) as it tends to be more linear and easier to correct for, which is the case here. Distortion is mildest at 50mm (-6 to manually correct), heaviest midrange at 200mm (-10), and very slightly reduced again at 400mm (-9).
As has been the case with all of lenses I’ve tested that come first to Sony and then to Nikon, vignette is significantly heavier on Z-mount. At 50mm I needed a +64 to correct vignette (vs +38 for Sony), which the bigger surprise came at 400mm, where I need a whopping +73 vs just a +27 on Sony. I suspect this has to do with the mount diameter being so much larger on Z-mount. Both figures are well within the range of being correctable by profiles in camera or software, however.
Longitudinal chromatic aberrations (LoCA) typically show up as purple/magenta fringing before the plane of focus and blue/green fringing beyond the plane of focus due to colors not being perfectly focused together. They typically diminish as the lens is stopped down to smaller apertures. I didn’t notice any issues with LoCA at all on the 50-400Z. Sun on these little white flowers showed no evidence of fringing.
Lateral chromatic aberrations (LaCA) show up as fringing on either side of contrast areas (like tree trunks, for example) along the edges of the frame. Unlike LoCA, they do not improve when stopping the aperture down, but are much easier to correct for (typically a one click “remove chromatic aberrations” box in editing software). I also didn’t see any issue with LaCA, with clean transitions from black to white.
The MTF charts suggest that we should see an amazing optical performance. Is that indeed the case? We’ll do our formal test on the Nikon Z8 body and its 45MP of resolution, which is, at the moment, the highest available resolution on Z-mount.
And here are the F4.5 crops at 200% magnification, taken from the center, then mid-frame, and then extreme lower right corner:
What stands out is the stunningly good consistency. The extreme corners aren’t really all that far behind the center. I also noticed very good centering, with all of the corners largely looking equal.
Very impressive!
As is often the case with lenses that are wide open sharp, there’s only minimal gains to be had when stopping the lens down. I see a minor boost in contrast at F5.6 and a very slight boost in resolution.
There’s a bit more to see at F8, with the most obvious improvement being in the corners:
This is a very sharp lens on the wide end.
For the sake of brevity, I’ll summarize without showing all of the sharpness tests. You can get a fuller picture by watching the video review.
By 70mm the maximum aperture has closed to F5 and the performance is very similar to 50mm at F4.5. There are similar minor improvements to be had when stopping down.
By 100mm the maximum aperture shown on Nikon is F5.3 (Nikon shows more fine gradations of aperture than Sony). This highlights one area of deficiency versus the Nikkor 100-400 S. Obviously the Nikkor is just starting at 100mm, so the maximum aperture is a brighter F4.5. The bigger difference comes at 200mm, where the Tamron has already hit the smallest maximum aperture of F6.3 while the Nikkor lens is at F5. At 300mm the Nikkor is at F5.3, so doesn’t hit its smallest maximum aperture of F5.6 until between 300 and 400mm. F6.3 is only one third stop slower/darker than F5.6, so the biggest aperture disadvantage for the Tamron is going to be in the middle of the range where the difference is more like 2/3rds of a stop.
No concerns over sharpness, though. The image is very crisp at F5.3 and surprisingly looks a hair better at F5.6.
At 300mm the performance is similar to 200mm, which is to say not much less sharp than what we saw at 100mm. There’s a slight big more on tap at F8, but it’s not radically different.
At 400mm the results look very similar. This is a remarkably consistent lens in performance.
Hard to imagine that anyone is going to be disappointed with this kind of sharpness:
This is a lens the produces beautiful images, period.
Bokeh quality with a variable aperture telephoto zoom like this is largely determined by the ratio of the distance from the camera to the subject and then the subject to the background. Put simply, a close subject and a distant background makes for the biggest isolation of your subject and blurring of the background. It’s not hard to completely blur out a background.
Even a little further away, I could blur out both the fore and backgrounds reasonably well.
This seagull in flight over water doesn’t have nearly as favorable a ratio of distance from camera to subject to background, and thus the background isn’t as soft. There’s definitely some harder edges there.
In general, however, I felt like the overall look of images was pretty great.
There are fewer opportunities to shoot into the direct sun with a longer telephoto lens, but the A067 is equipped with Tamron’s BBAR-G2 (Broad-Band Anti-Reflection-Generation 2) coatings. The lens had no problem shooting into the rising morning sun.
I saw nothing in my tests that would cause me concern in that regard.
Overall I was pretty impressed with the image quality from the lens. Tamron has been doing a great job with color, and I felt images had a nicely rich quality to them.
I think that photographers are going to really enjoy the optics of this lens, and Tamron has done a great job of building a lens that stretches the limits of focal length and zoom range while still delivering an exceptional optical performance…something that they are proving to quite adept at. You can see more lovely images by checking out my image gallery here.
Conclusion
Photographers have essentially had two tiers to choose from when it comes to relatively affordable telephoto zooms. Those are typically made up by the 100-400mm options and then the 150-600mm (or similar) variants that go a little longer. But either of these options will often mean that you can’t go quite as wide as what you might like in certain situations. Tamron definitely changes that paradigm with the 50-400mm F4.5-6.3 VC VXD lens, as that extra 50mm on the wide end really expands what you can do wit the lens. That means that the 50-400Z is much more likely to be the kind of lens that you can carry as a single lens option, as 50mm is wide enough to capture a lot of additional subjects. It makes for a lovely landscape lens.
Further aiding that versatility is the macro-like performance, which allows for up to 1:2 life size magnification at 50mm. That allows a whole other type of photography for this lens.
If I could use one word to describe the Tamron 50-400mm F4.5-6.3 Di-III VC VXD, that word would be “versatility”. This is a lens that does so many things well, and does them in a reasonably sized and priced package. I feel like the lens is even more complete here on Nikon due to fewer restrictions, and so it can definitely serve as a serious lens for birding or action. There are still some advantages for the Nikkor 100-400mm S lens, but the Tamron has plenty of its own advantages and can be had for about half the price as the Nikkor. That opens up this class of lens to a lot more photographers, which is always exciting.
Pros:
The additional 50mm of focal length adds a lot of versatility
Still smaller and lighter than principle competition
Good quality of construction including robust weather sealing
Good function of design with generous controls
VXD autofocus is quick, quiet, and accurate
No burst limitations on Nikon means better action performance
Inclusion of VC means more stable results
Distortion and vignette is moderate
CA well controlled
Good sharpness across the zoom range
Great magnification and close up performance
Nice bokeh rendering
USB-C port allows for customization and firmware updates
Purchase the Tamron 50-400mm VXD at B&H Photo https://bhpho.to/3MN8UyN | Adorama https://howl.link/59v5a4566abbd | Amazon https://amzn.to/47nwlrT | Camera Canada https://shrsl.com/4odyp | Amazon Canada https://amzn.to/4gmAMqZ | Amazon UK https://amzn.to/4ehY9Rj | Amazon Germany https://amzn.to/4emXHk3
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DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Tamron has long been a company invested in designing all-in-one/superzoom lenses. My very first Tamron lens was their 18-270mm PZD lens, which I owned and used for a few years starting in 2010. That was an APS-C lens, but Tamron later branched into full frame all-in-one lenses like the 28-300mm PZD lens that I reviewed in 2014. These types of lenses tend to be commercially successful because there is a good percentage of people who want the improved image quality of a “professional” camera but don’t want to be constantly changing lenses or carrying multiple lenses. The idea of one lens that does everything is very appealing to them, a sort of “kit lens on steroids” with a much more robust zoom range on the telephoto end. The secondary market for a lens like this are those who want a single lens solution for travel. I own the Tamron 28-200mm RXD lens for that latter reason, and I’ve both given it a positive review (in 2020) and more recently explored if it could handle the 61MP resolution of the Sony a7RV while traveling here. I really like the 28-200mm, but there will always be those who want more reach, and that’s why the Tamron 28-300mm F4-7.1 Di III VC VXD now exists. Is a bigger zoom better? Find out in my video review shared below, read my text review, or just enjoy the photos below.
Thanks to Tamron USA for sending me a review loaner of this lens. As always, this is a completely independent review. *The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the Sony a7RV along with the Sony Alpha 1 that serve as my benchmark cameras for Sony lenses.
Here’s a look at the overall selling features of the new 28-300mm VXD, or what Tamron codes the A074:
Full-Frame | f/4-7.1 to f/22-40
VXD Linear Motor Focus Mechanism
VC Camera Shake Reduction System
Focus Set Button, Zoom Lock Switch
Minimum Focusing Distance: 7.5″
20 Elements in 13 Groups
9-Bladed Diaphragm
Moisture-Sealed Design, Fluorine Coating
Tamron Lens Utility Connector Port
But probably the biggest feature here is the incredible zoom range that is a full 10.7x, going from this framing at 28mm:
…all the way to this framing at 300mm:
That’s obviously going to be both incredibly useful and incredibly appealing, particularly if the image quality doesn’t suffer too much. All superzoom lenses are a serious of compromises, as the engineers have to try to solve the problems of wide angle focal lengths while also having to cope with the inherent problems of telephoto focal lengths. Part of what has made the Tamron 28-200mm so popular is how good the image quality is despite having a fairly big zoom ratio.
One of the main limitations of the new 28-300mm VXD relative to the popular 28-200mm RXD lens is the fact that this lens is very SLOW when it comes to its aperture. It is a variable aperture lens that runs from F4 on the wide end to F7.1 on the telephoto end, but it’s worse than that. It actually closes down very quickly. Here’s a look at the aperture values relative to the focal lengths:
F4 (28-31mm)
F4.5 (32-43mm)
F5 (44-53mm)
F5.6 (54-77mm)
F6.3 (78-169mm)
F7.1 (170-300mm)
Ouch! That means of the 272mm of zoom range represented here, 223mm of it is at F6.3 or slower, and only 49mm are at F5.6 or faster. By contrast, here is the breakdown on the 28-200mm:
F2.8 (28-49mm)
F3.5 (50-99mm)
F4.5 (100-149mm)
F5.6 (150-200mm)
The 28-200mm is a radically brighter lens by comparison all throughout the zoom range, and frankly this was this issue with the 28-300mm VXD that I found most frustrating during my review period. This is a lens that vastly prefers being used in good light, but if you can get that good light, you can also get good images.
So is that incredible zoom range worth the tradeoffs to light gathering? You can find my thoughts on that in the reviews!
Keywords: #withmytamron, Tamron, 28-300mm, Tamron 28-300mm Review, Tamron 28-300 Sony, Di III, VC, VXD, Travel, Tamron 28-200mm, Full Frame, All-in-One, F4-7.1, Review, Sony Alpha 1, Sony a7RV, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, let the light in, weathersealing, #letthelightin, DA
DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Tamron has long been a company invested in designing all-in-one/superzoom lenses. My very first Tamron lens was their 18-270mm PZD lens, which I owned and used for a few years starting in 2010. That was an APS-C lens, but Tamron later branched into full frame all-in-one lenses like the 28-300mm PZD lens that I reviewed in 2014. These types of lenses tend to be commercially successful because there is a good percentage of people who want the improved image quality of a “professional” camera but don’t want to be constantly changing lenses or carrying multiple lenses. The idea of one lens that does everything is very appealing to them, a sort of “kit lens on steroids” with a much more robust zoom range on the telephoto end. The secondary market for a lens like this are those who want a single lens solution for travel. I own the Tamron 28-200mm RXD lens for that latter reason, and I’ve both given it a positive review (in 2020) and more recently explored if it could handle the 61MP resolution of the Sony a7RV while traveling here. I really like the 28-200mm, but there will always be those who want more reach, and that’s why the Tamron 28-300mm F4-7.1 Di III VC VXD now exists. Is a bigger zoom better? Find out in my video review shared below or read on in the text review today.
Thanks to Tamron USA for sending me a review loaner of this lens. As always, this is a completely independent review. *The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the Sony a7RV along with the Sony Alpha 1 that serve as my benchmark cameras for Sony lenses.
Here’s a look at the overall selling features of the new 28-300mm VXD, or what Tamron codes the A074:
Full-Frame | f/4-7.1 to f/22-40
VXD Linear Motor Focus Mechanism
VC Camera Shake Reduction System
Focus Set Button, Zoom Lock Switch
Minimum Focusing Distance: 7.5″
20 Elements in 13 Groups
9-Bladed Diaphragm
Moisture-Sealed Design, Fluorine Coating
Tamron Lens Utility Connector Port
But probably the biggest feature here is the incredible zoom range that is a full 10.7x, going from this framing at 28mm:
…all the way to this framing at 300mm:
That’s obviously going to be both incredibly useful and incredibly appealing, particularly if the image quality doesn’t suffer too much. All superzoom lenses are a serious of compromises, as the engineers have to try to solve the problems of wide angle focal lengths while also having to cope with the inherent problems of telephoto focal lengths. Part of what has made the Tamron 28-200mm so popular is how good the image quality is despite having a fairly big zoom ratio.
One of the main limitations of the new 28-300mm VXD relative to the popular 28-200mm RXD lens is the fact that this lens is very SLOW when it comes to its aperture. It is a variable aperture lens that runs from F4 on the wide end to F7.1 on the telephoto end, but it’s worse than that. It actually closes down very quickly. Here’s a look at the aperture values relative to the focal lengths:
F4 (28-31mm)
F4.5 (32-43mm)
F5 (44-53mm)
F5.6 (54-77mm)
F6.3 (78-169mm)
F7.1 (170-300mm)
Ouch! That means of the 272mm of zoom range represented here, 223mm of it is at F6.3 or slower, and only 49mm are at F5.6 or faster. By contrast, here is the breakdown on the 28-200mm:
F2.8 (28-49mm)
F3.5 (50-99mm)
F4.5 (100-149mm)
F5.6 (150-200mm)
The 28-200mm is a radically brighter lens by comparison all throughout the zoom range, and frankly this was this issue with the 28-300mm VXD that I found most frustrating during my review period. This is a lens that vastly prefers being used in good light, but if you can get that good light, you can also get good images.
So is that incredible zoom range worth the tradeoffs to light gathering? Let’s dig a little deeper and find out.
Tamron 28-300mm VXD Build and Handling
Tamron tends towards overly descriptive names for their lenses. In this case we have the Tamron 28-300mm F4-7.1 Di III VC VXD, which I suspect you’ll agree is a bit of a mouthful. We’ve talked about zoom and aperture range already, so here’s what the rest means.
Di III = Designed for Mirrorless
VC = Vibration Compensation, or Tamron’s lens based image stabilization
VXD = Voice-coil eXtreme-torque Drive (the Linear autofocus motor)
I think the Di-III designation is becoming increasingly meaningless for the simple reason that essentially all current lens design is on mirrorless, with DSLRs seeming to be done at this point.
One of the selling features of the 28-300mm VXD is that it has such a moderate size for such a big zoom range. It is larger and heavier than the 28-200mm, but, as you can see, it’s not by much.
The 28-200mm is 74 x 116.8 mm and weighs 576g, while the 28-300mm VXD is 77mm in diameter (3″) x 126 mm (5″) in length and weighs 610g (1.3lb). That’s just 34g heavier. This is one of the big reasons for the slower maximum aperture, as not only does it make the lens a little easier to engineer but also allowed those same engineers to keep the size down.
This is still a lens that will fit fair easily into most bags standing upright.
You may have also noticed that the new lens is much more attractive than the old lens. In 2020, Tamron was still sailing with the philosophy of producing simple lenses with few features but rather a focus on performance instead. It was more about what was inside the lens rather than what showed up on the outside. While Tamron has continued to develop even better optics and autofocus motors, they have changed their philosophy to modernize and improve their lens design. The newer designs (like the 28-300mm VXD) are more sculpted, have a nicer finish, and are more feature rich. The 28-200mm didn’t have any switches or buttons, but just a zoom lock button on the side to prevent zoom creep. The 28-300mm VXD includes a zoom lock but adds several other features as well.
There are a variety of functions that can be set in the software itself, everything from a preset focus position to switching between AF/MF to even establishing a proper Astro/infinity focus point. The nice thing about being able to use the Lens Utility function to assign this value is that you can program a function specific to this particular lens rather than using the default value from the camera. This lens has no AF/MF switch, for example, and that happens to be one of the choices that I could set the button to accomplish.
You also have a little more control over how you interact with the button. You can choose for it to respond at just a tap or for it have to be held down for a second before activating. That could prevent inadvertent bumps (if that proves to be an issue for you). You access the Lens Utility software on a computer or Android device by connect the computer/mobile device to the weathersealed USB-C port on the lens barrel.
In the program you can also control the behavior of the focus ring and do firmware updates.
I wouldn’t call the lens “feature rich” by modern standards, but there is certainly far more customization and control than what was found on the 28-200mm lens.
Also present on the barrel is two rings. The closer narrower of the two is the focus ring. It is raised from the lens barrel a bit (rather than flush like the 28-200mm’s ring), making it more ergonomic and visually pleasing. Manual focus emulation is quite good, and the quality damping gives the impression of being a real manual focus experience. The addition of the USB-C port means that that you also have more control over the behavior of the focus ring. This includes being able to control the rotation of the ring and to choose whether the focus action is linear or non-linear (speed sensitive) in behavior. This adds to the value of the ring.
The second ring is the zoom ring and it is near the front of the lens. It is very wide and has defined ribs on it. That portion of the barrel scallops out a bit, which helps the hand to fall more naturally to it. Focus action is fairly smooth, though I do find that there is just a little more force required in the middle of the zoom range.
There is a double extension of the inner barrel during zoom action, as the inner barrel extends about 77mm during zoom. That fairly dramatically increases the length of the lens and also widens the length difference between it and the 28-200mm.
Tamron has included a nicely made, fairly shallow lens hood. The front filter size is the extremely common 67mm standard that is shared across the vast majority of Tamron’s mirrorless lenses.
Tamron has really been nailing weather sealing, and that’s definitely the case here. There’s a rubber gasket at the lens mount that suggests at the weather sealing inside, and Tamron also shows a total of 11 other internal seal points along with a fluorine coating on the front element to give further protection. A fluorine coating not only helps protect the front element from scratches but also makes it water and fingerprint resistant and thus easier to clean. This is a professional grade lens ready for professional use.
The 28-300mm VXD does differentiate from the 28-200mm by including Tamron’s VC, or Vibration Compensation. There was a time when I found Tamron’s VC to be the best image stabilization out there, but it’s been some time since I’ve been thoroughly impressed by VC on any new lens. It’s as if they can’t really find a way to design VC that is fully compatible with the on-board IBIS in Sony’s camera. You don’t have any way to turn either individual system off, so it is always both VC and IBIS on or off. I’m sure the VC helps, but I don’t find the lens to feel any more stable than, say, the non-stabilized 70-300mm RXD lens from Tamron. I find it telling that Tamron gives no CIPA rating for the VC, as I suspect that means that it wouldn’t be that high. I definitely got some shaky results at shutter speeds (1/80th of a second), which surprised me. I had to work pretty hard to get steady results even at 1/15th of a second, getting only fully steady results in about one out of six shots.
Tamron’s recent trends regarding MFD (minimum focus distance) hold true here, as the lens sports two different MFDs for wide (0.19m/7.5″) and telephoto (0.95m/39″). You can get to nearly 0.36x magnification on the wide end (1:2.8) and 0.26x (1:3.8) on the telephoto end. Those figures are both useful, though I will note that you have to get extremely close to your subject on the wide end, making it much harder to pull off without shading your subject.
I find the telephoto end a little easier to use because of having more working room.
Tamron has nine rounded blades in the aperture iris, and they claim that the aperture iris will stay circular for at least two stops down from maximum aperture. That seems accurate to me. Wide open you’ll definitely see a lot of geometric deformation towards the edge of the frame.
Stopped down the lens will produce an okay but not particularly distinct sunstar.
Tamron’s more recent lenses have had a more upscale build and feature list, but, to Tamron’s credit, they’ve also managed to keep pricing under control. The price for the now four year old 28-200mm RXD? $799 USD. The price for the new, more feature rich lens with the bigger zoom range? $899 USD. The Sony 24-240mm F3.5-6.3 OSS lens (with fewer features and worse performance) costs $1048 USD, so I think that Tamron has found a way to keep this lens appealing and a relative value.
Autofocus and Video
Tamron has given the 28-300mm VXD their premium focus system, the Voice-coil eXtreme-torque Drive (VXD), which is a high end linear focus motor.
The big knock on many all-in-one zooms (including some of Tamron’s own in the past), is that focus speed really slows down when you get to the telephoto end. The only way to solve that problem is by introducing a high powered autofocus system into the equation. I found that focus was fast enough to capture birds in flight without much issue.
In my standard focus tests I found that speed was very quick whether shooting at the wide or telephoto end of the zoom range. I was able to get a few decent BIF (bee in flight, of course!) shots where focus was quick enough to snap onto the fast moving bees.
The nature of this lens and its slow maximum apertures means that you will be shooting in a lot of “dim” lighting conditions. Autofocus often won’t have a lot of light to work with. That creates other problems, but fortunately the speed and accuracy of the autofocus system does at least help that aspect to not be a problem. I took this lens as a sole lens to an event, and while I hated shooting at the slow aperture values (and being stuck at ISO 6400 and 12,800), the 28-300mm VXD had no problem focusing in that setting.
Eye detect worked fine in my tests, both formal and practical. I got effective focus on human, animal, and insect subjects.
Here’s another:
The bottom line is that AF for stills was pretty effortless. Tamron’s VXD is a very good focus motor, and it definitely helps AF prove a strength for the 28-300mm.
Video AF is likewise excellent. When I tested focus pulls, they were snappy and confident. No settling or pulsing. Focus breathing is going to vary according to focal length, but I found it pretty good even at telephoto focal lengths.
My “hand test” where I alternately block the camera’s view with my hand and then remove the obstruction of my hand also went well. The camera moved easily from my face to my hand and vice versa. The focus change isn’t incredibly obvious due to the smaller maximum aperture, thus depth of field doesn’t change a lot.
I zoomed in and out during video capture, and didn’t see any warping and only minimal refocusing. d.
Overall the Tamron 28-300mm VXD is a very good focusing lens. I would say that focus quality is pretty much first party level; I’d definitely take it over the Sony 24-240mm.
Image Quality Breakdown
Big zoom ratios like this tend towards complex optical designs, as engineers have to try to keep a reasonable level of performance across a big zoom range. That complexity ramps up even more when you’re talking about a full frame design. So, as expected, the optical design for the 28-300mm VXD is very complex, with 20 elements in 13 groups. The MTF chart at 28mm shows good center and midframe performance, but with a marked decline into the corners. At 300mm the center is actually considerably sharper, with a similar performance in the midframe and slightly better corner performance. Not bad, really, for such a huge zoom ratio.
And, at its best, the 28-300mm VXD can produce nicely detailed images.
There are always some compromises in these types of designs, but hopefully Tamron has managed to mitigate those.
We’ll dive into the technical side of things first with a look at vignette and distortion at 28mm F4:
Predictably we have fair amount of barrel distortion (a +10 to correct) and a moderately heavy amount of vignette (a +62 to correct). That’s slightly over 2 stops of vignette. Both figures are significant but not bad. Both are easily correctable, and while the distortion isn’t 100% linear, it really doesn’t have much of a mustache pattern for this type of lens. This is actually pretty good for the wide end of a lens like this.
As you progress through the zoom range the distortion pattern changes (predictably) to a pincushion style distortion (test done at 275mm for the sake of space in my test area).
Again, however, its not severe. I was able to correct the distortion with a -8 and get a very clean result. Vignette was lighter here at a +44 (about 1.5 stops).
I don’t see a lot to complain about here. I have seen much, much worse results from many lenses with much lower zoom ratios.
LoCA (Longitudinal Chromatic Aberrations) present as a color fringing before and after the plane of focus. I saw good results at lower focal lengths but saw more pronounced fringing at 300mm. Real world LoCA wasn’t bad in most situations, however.
I looked for lateral chromatic aberrations (LaCA) near the edges of the frame, where it exhibits as fringing on either side of dark lines. I can see some mild LoCA at wide focal lengths, but nothing extreme.
Nothing much to complain about here. Tamron’s engineers have done a good job of mitigating some of the typical optical weaknesses of lenses like this.
Here’s my test chart that the crops will be taken from. Tests are done on a 61MP Sony a7RV and crops and comparisons are shown at 200% magnification.
Here’s a look at 28mm, F4 crops from the center, mid-frame, and bottom right corner:
Pretty much what the MTF chart suggested. Very good center and mid-frame results from wide open, but the corners fade very fast and look pretty mushy. That’s not just a “close distance” aberration due to the testing distances for test charts. Here’s the original image and crops from the middle and edge of the image shot at 28mm, F4 on my 50MP Alpha 1.
There’s great detail in the middle, but not so much in the corners. So does that improve if we stop the lens down?
The short answer is “not really”. Even stopped down to F8, the corners are still pretty soft.
This is a variable aperture zoom, as noted, and that affects both the maximum and minimum aperture. At 28mm, maximum aperture is F4 and minimum aperture is F22, but by 300mm the maximum aperture is F7.1 and the minimum aperture is F40. Regardless of which end of the spectrum you’re on, you can expect image quality to soften due to diffraction after F11.
By 50mm the center is very slightly less sharp, but the midframe is a tiny bit sharper and the corners look considerably better.
Stopping down a bit at 50mm will allow you to achieve pretty good sharpness all across the frame.
100mm is a little weaker, with a slighter softer image everywhere but the corners. Stopping down from F6.3 (maximum aperture) to F8 does make an obvious improvement to contrast.
The same trend is true at 200mm, where the lens isn’t particularly sharp at any point in the frame but is quite consistent overall. Stopping down to F8 does give a mild bump in contrast.
300mm is ever so slightly sharper than 200mm, though I doubt one could detect it outside of a side by side comparison at high magnification like what I did.
I’ve learned to temper my expectations on how sharp a lens like this can be, so I found that my expectations were reasonably met. An image like this at 300mm looks good at a normal viewing level:
…but less impressive when viewed at a pixel level.
As the MTF suggests, one axis (meridional) is a lot weaker than the other, so contrast isn’t amazing.
Part of what I’ve loved about the 28-200mm is that it routinely impresses me for being sharper than I expect lenses like this to me. The 28-300mm VXD, with its larger zoom range, is more in line with expectations. Image quality is fairly good, but not really great in any way.
That’s also true of the bokeh, which at times looks quite good.
This tends to be when using a long focal length fairly close, where compression can blur the background despite the aperture not being large.
That advantage gets lost at either shorter focal lengths or less advantageous distances, and that can result in a much busier background.
The reason for this is pretty simple; the Tamron 28-300mm VXD suffers from some rather pronounced outlining of the specular highlights.
You can see it in this shot, where the background looks a little busier because the outlining of defocus objects.
You can particularly see it in this series of screen shots from a video clip I have of the sun dancing off waves at the beach. I purposely defocused the image, and you can see that the specular highlights tend to look a bit harsh.
At the same time, I don’t want to oversell this, as what I’m demonstrating here is completely typical for this type of lens. Use the lens to its strengths, and it will reward you with pretty nice looking images!
Flare resistance isn’t perfect, but not bad for this type of lens. I saw some minor ghosting artifacts, but nothing significant.
The truth of the matter is numbers sell. Tamron already had an excellent 28-200mm RXD lens, which is, in fact, optically superior to this new lens. But I fully anticipate that many people will choose the new Tamron 28-300mm F4-7.1 VC VXD over the older lens. On paper it is the superior lens, with a bigger zoom range, the inclusion of VC and other features, and a better looking design, and the fact that you get an extra 100mm for only 100 extra bucks doesn’t hurt.
And that’s okay.
Different people have different needs, and some value (and understand) things like aperture more than others. The 28-300mm VXD happens to be a much better than average superzoom lens, but you need to be aware that you aren’t going to get G Master performance all throughout that big zoom range.
But I don’t want to discount what you do get, which includes an extremely useful focal range, an excellent build that includes thorough weather sealing and some useful features, and great autofocus. It is very rare in history that any superzoom lens could claim all of those features, which makes the Tamron 28-300mm F4-7.1 VC VXD a great value lens at just $899 USD.
Pros:
Big, useful zoom range is the largest zoom ratio on Sony FF
Beautiful build
Useful features
Thorough weather sealing
Extremely fast autofocus
Good focus accuracy
Video AF works well
Fairly well controlled distortion and vignette for superzoom
Keywords: #withmytamron, Tamron, 28-300mm, Tamron 28-300mm Review, Tamron 28-300 Sony, Di III, VC, VXD, Travel, Tamron 28-200mm, Full Frame, All-in-One, F4-7.1, Review, Sony Alpha 1, Sony a7RV, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, let the light in, weathersealing, #letthelightin, DA
DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Tamron has been working through their early zoom lenses for Sony E-mount with new G2 versions. These typically involve more features, beautiful build quality, and often a focus motor upgrade (from the earlier RXD focal motors to the higher powered VXD motors). Tamron’s newest lens doesn’t carry a G2 designation, because, while all of those previous things are true of it, they’ve also expanded the zoom range to make an entirely new zoom lens. I reviewed the predecessor of this lens (the Tamron 70-300mm F4.5-6.3 RXD) back in 2020, and concluded that it focused well and had great image quality, but it lacked any features (including a zoom lock) and could use lens based stabilization. Tamron must have agreed, as the new Tamron 50-300mm F4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD is more feature rich, has a nicer build, has a zoom lock, and has image stabilization as well. It has a ton of other upgrades as well, making this a very attractive and slightly upmarket alternative to the previous lens. It’s also priced a little higher $799 USD, but still offers a very strong value relative to competing lenses. So is it worth buying? Find out in my video review below or by reading on here.
Thanks to Tamron USA for sending me a review loaner of this lens. As always, this is a completely independent review. *The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the Sony a7RV along with the Sony Alpha 1 that serve as my benchmark cameras for Sony lenses.
Tamron’s lens names tend to be long and descriptive…but not necessarily clear to the uninitiated. Here’s what all of those letters mean:
Di III = Designed for mirrorless (in this case, Sony E-mount, though expect a Nikon Z and perhaps even a Fuji X-mount version in the future).
VC = Vibration Compensation, Tamron’s in lens stabilization system
VXD = Voice-coil eXtreme-torque Drive (a linear focus motor)
Here are the standout features of the new lens:
Expanded zoom range (6x zoom ratio)
Vibration Compensation
Custom/function button
Weather sealed USB-C port for firmware updates and customization through Tamron’s Lens Utility software
Zoom lock
1:2 macro performance at 70mm (0.50x) | also achieves 0.32x magnification at 300mm
Weather resistance
High powered VXD focus motor
Improved image quality
There’s a lot of serious improvements to this design, and while the price tag has grown by $250 over the previous lens, this is a much more premium lens with a lot of serious upgrades. It’s worth noting that Sony’s own 70-300mm F4.5-5.6 G OSS lens retails at $1273 (nearly $500 more), so Tamron is still bringing a lot of value to the table.
And this lens is a treat to use. It is relatively compact, handles well, and has gorgeous image quality. That extra 20mm on the wide end makes the lens even more versatile. You can stand in the same spot and frame like this at 50mm:
…or this at 300mm:
That’s the kind of focal range we can all find useful. Let’s take a deeper dive into the performance together.
Build and Handling
Before I dive into the all of the goodness here, there is one area where there is a bit of regression. This is a lens that only grew 2mm in length while adding a number of features and a bigger zoom range. Something has to give, and what gave was a bit of light gathering. As before, this is a variable aperture zoom, going from F4.5 on the wide end to F6.3 on the telephoto end. As you zoom out, the maximum aperture reduces, but in this case it does so at a faster rate than the Tamron 70-300. Here’s the relationship of focal length with aperture with the 70-300’s range in brackets.
50-70mm – F4.5 (70-112mm)
71-101mm – F5 (113-154mm)
102-181mm – F5.6 (155-241mm)
182-300mm – F6.3 (242-300mm)
From 71mm on, the 50-300 VC will be less bright than the previous lens. You arrive at the smallest maximum aperture of F6.3 a full 60mm earlier than with the 70-300mm. If there is any consolation, the inclusion of VC should help to offset the slight loss of light gathering.
The overall length of the lens when retracted is 150mm (5.9″), which is nice and compact. As mentioned, the previous lens was 148mm, so we’ve gained very little length for all of the additions here.
This is an externally zooming lens, however, so the length will grow by about 57mm when fully zoomed to the 300mm position.
The diameter of the lens is 78mm (3.1″), though they’ve managed to retain the 67mm front filter size that is shared by the majority of Tamron’s Di III (mirrorless) lenses.
The lens has gained some weight, however, and now weighs 665g (23.5 oz), which is 120g heavier than the 70-300mm from Tamron but weighs nearly 200g less than the Sony 70-300, which means that Tamron has done a good job of adding the weight of the VC (and extended zoom range) while keeping the weight moderate. Like other lenses in this class there is neither an included tripod collar or even an optional one available. I had no problem balancing this lens on my tripod, though.
This is much more sculpted design than the previous generation lens. I happened to have the Nikon Z-mount of the 70-300mm on hand, and while the mounts are different (that changes the look near the mount), you can see that the new lens has much more style to it. It has a nicer finish and has some flow in and out on the lens barrel that serves both a stylistic and ergonomic purpose.
On the stylistic side of things, this is a more premium looking design. It’s not just a pop-can shape like before, but looks slimmer despite technically being 1mm wider.
But more important are the ergonomic improvements. That scalloped section in the middle gives a very natural place for the hand to go while supporting the lens, and both the function button and the zoom lock fall perfectly to hand. I could use both of these features one handed and without moving from the shooting position. That’s good ergonomic design.
The zoom lock only works at 50mm, and its purpose is to prevent zoom creep while hiking or moving with the lens. It does the job.
The two rings on the lens also benefit from that scalloped section. The closer of the two rings is the focus ring, and the new design allows it to be both wider and no longer just flush with the lens barrel. It is much easier to find by feel and the overall feel of the ring is markedly better than the older lens. This is a huge improvement.
The zoom ring also benefits, as while it is a little less wide than the previous lens (which was unnecessarily wide), it also is raised, falls more easily to hand, and zooms much smoother. The older lens had somewhat of a “pump” feel to it that made you hope the weather seals were doing their job, but the 50-300 VC zooms smoother and doesn’t ever feel like it is sucking air. It’s a definite improvement to both rings. This new design not only looks better; it works better.
Custom/function buttons have become fairly ubiquitous on the better lenses, but Tamron has a bit of their own twist to them. You can always set the function of the button from within the camera, but Tamron will also allow you to set function via their Lens Utility Software. You can access the lens via the weather sealed USB-C port on the side of the lens.
Those with an Android mobile device can connect here as well, though at the moment iOS users are out in the cold. Once connected you can use the software to tweak the performance of the lens in several ways, or you can apply firmware updates directly via the (free) Lens Utility software.
Also included is a lens hood. This hood is a little shallower than the one on the 70-300, and is scalloped to allow it provide good protection but with less bulk. That’s obviously welcome.
This actually makes the 50-300 VC shorter than the older lens if you use the lens hoods.
The 50-300 VC has thorough weather sealing, including a gasket at the lens mount, internal seals, and a fluorine coating on the front element. This is a lens ready to head outdoors with you.
As noted, Tamron has included their VC (vibration compensation) on this lens. This is extremely welcome, as I found with the previous lens that while Sony’s IBIS (in camera stabilization) is effective at shorter focal lengths, it doesn’t offer as much stability as I would like when shooting at longer focal lengths. Tamron doesn’t make any claims on the ratings of the VC here, but it does help in two specific ways:
When handholding video. There is some AI assistance to help get even better results up to 100mm, but there’s also an improvement in handholding at 300mm.
A huge improvement when handholding photos at longer telephoto lengths.
Look at the difference between handheld shots with the VC turned off and then VC turned on (both shots 1/20th of a second at 300mm):
I know which one I prefer!
You may have noticed that I haven’t mentioned an ON | OFF switch for the VC, as there isn’t one. If you have a camera equipped with IBIS, turning on the IBIS turns on the VC, and turning it off turns off the VC. You can’t independently control the two, so I also can’t tell you what if the VC works in harmony with the IBIS or in place of it. What I can tell you is that I noticed a lack of stability when shooting at 300mm back when I did my 70-300mm review (no VC), and that I have had no such problem with this new lens. That’s huge!
It’s also huge in accessing the new macro feature here. The older lens could achieve a maximum magnification of right over 0.20x, but this new lens can achieve an incredible 0.50x magnification at 50mm. This makes it also a great alternative to the much more expensive (though awesome!) Sony 70-200mm F4 Macro G lens that I reviewed last year. Sony claims macro status for that lens, though it achieves the same maximum of 1:2 magnification that the Tamron does here. I handheld this macro shot:
That’s obviously very, very useful.
At 300mm the minimum focus distance is 90cm, and you can achieve a very useful 1:3.1 or 0.32x magnification level, which looks like this:
That’s great, but even more useful is the ability to focus down to just 22cm at 50mm, where you can achieve a 1:2 or 0.50x level of magnification, which looks like this:
Even better is the fact that the lens is optimized for contrast and detail at this close focus distance, so the results are genuinely useful. You can tell with a 2-dimensional chart like above that the plane of focus isn’t completely flat, but that doesn’t matter nearly as much for real world, 3-dimensional objects.
The magnification level at 300mm is pretty great, too, which means that you can get close up shots with a much longer working distance if that is preferable.
Clearly this is a vastly improved lens that checks pretty much all the boxes that I could have asked for…and more. This feels well worth the $250 upcharge to me.
One final note: it is rare for 70-300mm lenses to be compatible with teleconverters (Sony’s own 70-300 G is not), but, just in case you were wondering, this lens is not compatible with teleconverters.
Autofocus and Video
Another key area of upgrade is to the autofocus system. Tamron’s early mirrorless lenses utilized their RXD focus motor, which were essentially the equivalent of a well executed STM motors. Their VXD focus motors are linear motors, with more thrust and focus speed while retaining the smooth, quiet performance of earlier RXD focus motors (which were actually usually quite good). I’ve been using the 70-300mm RXD a fair bit over the past five weeks with a loaner from Tamron to see how the lens performed in Z-mount on my new Nikon Z8, and I’ve been impressed with how well that combo does for shooting sports. Things are better still with the VXD (Voice-coil eXtreme-torque Drive) linear motor.
Autofocus sound is essentially silent. I couldn’t really hear any focus sounds even if I pressed my ear up to the side of the lens. On a separate note, however, the lens does have some floating elements, so if the lens is powered off and detached from the camera, you may hear some rattling around if you gently shake the lens. That’s very common for many modern lenses with those floating elements, but it always freaks new buyers out that are unfamiliar with this. The easy way to tell if this is what is causing your rattle is to mount the lens and power on the camera. If the rattle goes away, then you know it is just the natural sound of the floating elements.
There’s enough thrust in this focus motor that I had essentially instant focus results even indoors in poorer light. With any telephoto there will be a few situations where there is no contrast edge to grab and you have a moment of defocus, but with clear targets focus was near instant. Moving outdoors into better light and autofocus truly was instant. There’s great confidence in the whole focus process.
Look at the precision in this shot of Ferrari as he moved through the tall grass. Focus locked perfectly on his eyes through the blades and delivered stunning looking results.
A chipmunk had a poor season of judgment, as even though I keep Nala on a leash attached to a clothesline when she’s out, the little chippy wandered into her territory. They had marvelous times together (or least it was for Nala), and I was able to keep up with the action as they darted around. (To my knowledge no chipmunks were actually harmed…)
The only limitation here on Sony that I always have to mention is that Sony has continued its policy of limiting the burst rate on their sports cameras to 15FPS with any third party lens. I shot the sequence above on the Alpha 1, which is capable of 30FPS, but I was limited to half that speed with this Tamron. It’s actually been quite a joy to shoot at full burst capabilities with the Tamron 70-300 on my new Z8, where no such limitation exists.
This limitation isn’t Tamron’s fault, however, and the 50-300 VC is a very capable performer. We tend to take for granted how good the AF systems are in modern lenses. Back in the DSLR days I would have considered autofocus like this to be pure magic. When I tested for eye tracking, for example, I could move all around the frame even to the corners and tracking stayed locked on the eye of my test statue. Amazing!
Moving over to video is also generally a joy. My autofocus pulls (even in fairly poor light due to a very dark, thunderstorm kind of day) were smooth and confident, moving easily from my subject to the background and back with smooth, controlled pulls without any visible steps or settling. I saw some focus breathing, but nothing severe.
Real world focus pulls were well damped as I played the lens from one subject to another. This is a nice lens to use for long distance video.
My hand test (where I alternately block the camera’s view of my face with my hand and then remove it) also went well, though my wife has a decoration on the mantle behind where I did the test that is “attention seeking” and the focus considered it a couple of times during the test, though it always got where it needed to.
All in all this is a beautifully focusing lens – well capable of whatever situation you use it in, though with a relatively “slow” aperture lens you’ll want decent amounts of light to be able to get the kinds of shutter speeds that effectively stop action. It doesn’t magically become an F2.8 zoom in low light!
Image Quality Breakdown
I found the 70-300mm to be quite a sharp lens with one exception – the corner performance at 70mm was somewhat weak. Tamron has worked to shore all of that up here, and even though they’ve expanded the zoom range, they’ve also managed to improve the image quality (at least on the wide end). Here’s a look at the old MTF chart for the 70-300mm.
You can see that the performance at 70mm was pretty weak in the corners. Now compare that to the 50-300 VC:
That’s looking a WHOLE lot better. This is in fact a whole new optical design, as the previous lens had 15 elements in 10 groups, while the 50-300 VC sports 19 elements in 14 groups. This includes two XLD and two LD elements along with having Tamron’s second generation BBAR-G2 coatings. What this MTF shows is remarkable consistency across the zoom range and nearly perfect performance at 50mm.
What I can safely tell you is that real world performance is pretty pristine at both 50mm (even up close):
…and at 300mm:
Let’s break it down in more detail.
First, vignette and distortion. At 50mm (and F4.5) there was no distortion to correct, and only a moderate amount of vignette.
I used a +50 to achieve this correction result for vignette.
By the middle of the zoom range there is a bit of pincushion distortion, though vignette is further reduced.
I used a -7 to correct for the pincushion distortion, and just a +39 to correct for the vignette. Both of these are negligible, and I was able to achieve a clean correction even manually.
By 300mm there is both less distortion and less vignette than the middle of the range.
I needed just a -5 to correct the bit of pincushion distortion and vignette was just a +28…not quite a full stop. Not bad at all!
I also found impressive levels of correction for longitudinal chromatic aberrations (fringing before and after the plane of focus). They were essentially perfectly neutral.
This showed up in real world shots, too, with no fringing to mar textures and transitions.
I also didn’t see issues with lateral chromatic aberrations near the edges of the frame.
All good thus far. So how about resolution?
I’ll be doing these tests on a 61MP Sony a7RV, with most results shots shown at or near 200% magnification to really highlight subtle performance variations. Here’s a look at my test chart:
And here are the F4.5 crops from across the frame:
The center and mid-frame look really impressive, though the corners are actually a little poorer than what I expected from the MTF. Not bad, but not brilliant.
There’s a bit more sharpness and contrast across the frame at F5.6, though the corners are still not pin sharp yet. Everywhere else is amazing, however.
By F8 the corners are looking good, but never as exceptional as the everywhere else.
The minimum aperture of this zoom is fairly small, so while diffraction isn’t bad on my high resolution camera by F11, the effects are clearly seen by the minimum aperture of F22-F32 (depending on the focal length). You can see how much softer the minimum aperture result is here:
Moving on to 100mm I find very slightly less sharpness in the center of the frame:
…but much stronger sharpness in the corners.
Real world images at 100mm look great!
If we move on through the zoom range to 200mm we find some give and take. Corners are better than 50mm, but not quite as good as 100mm. There’s slightly more contrast in the middle of the frame at 200mm, and which wins in the mid-frame (rule of thirds) zones really depends on where I look. In this area, for example, I favor the 200mm focal length.
There is some further improvement at F8, but it’s not significant. The challenge here is that the maximum aperture is already F6.3, so there isn’t a lot of headroom to stop the lens down before diffraction starts to set it. Fortunately we’ve got a fantastic wide open performance already. Shots in and around 200mm look great.
Moving on to arguably the most important focal length in a telephoto zoom lens (the telephoto end), I found a mild regression from 200mm in the center of the frame, but with it about as good everywhere else.
I was generally pleased with real world images whether isolating a subject:
…or capturing a long range landscape shot.
One of my favorite things to do at 300mm, in fact, is get fairly close and isolate a subject, as you can strongly blur out the background and produce some lovely bokeh.
In fact, look at how gorgeous the bokeh is here:
The bokeh from this lens is generally pretty nice, even in less extreme situations. In less extreme situations it won’t completely obliterate a background like above, but neither does it look bad.
Your biggest difference when compared to the expensive large aperture primes (like a 300mm F2.8) is that you have a much, much smaller depth of field with a lens like that, thus the backgrounds in more typical shots will be much more blurred out and the subject isolate more extreme. A slower zoom lens like this can’t match that.
It is rarer with a telephoto lens to point it right into the sun, as the sun occupies such a small portion of the frame. On the wider end, however, I di get a bit of sun into the frame, and found that the BBAR-G2 coatings are doing a great job. There’s not ghosting or loss of contrast here.
For the asking price of about $800, this is a really strong optical performance, particularly from a lens that also comes with a 6x zoom range. Pair this with a wider zoom like Tamron’s 20-40mm F4 (my review here), and you have a pretty killer travel kit that covers from 20-300mm with excellent image quality across the range and a combined weight of just over a kilo. That’s pretty great.
The Tamron 50-300mm F4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD is a great addition to the Sony E-mount catalog (and hopefully other mounts in the future. That extra 20mm of focal range really adds to the versatility of the lens, making it more likely that you could get away with carrying just this lens in a variety of situations.
Tamron has definitely scaled up the feature list, making the 50-300 VC a much more robust in its build and design. The lens feels and acts more premium than the previous generation lens, but has also managed to keep the size and weight down.
The upgraded close focus abilities are great, as they add a whole level of versatility to this lens. I think of this as being an alternative to the excellent Sony 70-200mm F4 Macro G OSS lens, as while that lens has a fixed maximum aperture and a nicer build, the Tamron 50-300 VC counters with a much lower price, much larger zoom range, and a similar 1:2 macro capability.
There are a lot of lens options on Sony at this point, though I do think that Tamron has managed to find a fairly unique niche for this lens. At a price tag of $799 USD, it gives a pretty compelling argument for itself. There’s that great zoom range, excellent autofocus, the addition of image stabilization, and a very strong optical performance. It’s a great reminder that Tamron has very good instincts for producing well executed zoom packages that are more likely to suit ordinary photographer’s budgets. The Tamron 50-300mm F4.5-6.3 VC VXD will definitely become a favorite for many!
Pros:
Even more versatile zoom range
Considerable list of improved features
More premium build and design
Still compact and lightweight
Inclusion of VC
Excellent close focus/macro capabilities
Fast, accurate autofocus
Low distortion and vignette
Good fringing control
Excellent sharpness
Nice bokeh
Good flare resistance
Cons:
Corners at 50mm still the weak point optically
VC system isn’t as good as what is found on Sony lenses
Keywords: Tamron, Tamron 50-300mm, Tamron 50-300, F4.5-6.3, VC, VXD, Di III, A069, Full Frame, Review, Sony Alpha 1, Sony a7RV, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, let the light in, weathersealing, #letthelightin, DA, #withmytamron
DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Tamron has been working through their early zoom lenses for Sony E-mount with new G2 versions. These typically involve more features, beautiful build quality, and often a focus motor upgrade (from the earlier RXD focal motors to the higher powered VXD motors). Tamron’s newest lens doesn’t carry a G2 designation, because, while all of those previous things are true of it, they’ve also expanded the zoom range to make an entirely new zoom lens. I reviewed the predecessor of this lens (the Tamron 70-300mm F4.5-6.3 RXD) back in 2020, and concluded that it focused well and had great image quality, but it lacked any features (including a zoom lock) and could use lens based stabilization. Tamron must have agreed, as the new Tamron 50-300mm F4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD is more feature rich, has a nicer build, has a zoom lock, and has image stabilization as well. It has a ton of other upgrades as well, making this a very attractive and slightly upmarket alternative to the previous lens. It’s also priced a little higher $799 USD, but still offers a very strong value relative to competing lenses. So is it worth buying? Find out in my video review below or by reading my text review here…or just enjoy the photos below.
Thanks to Tamron USA for sending me a review loaner of this lens. As always, this is a completely independent review. *The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the Sony a7RV along with the Sony Alpha 1 that serve as my benchmark cameras for Sony lenses.
Tamron’s lens names tend to be long and descriptive…but not necessarily clear to the uninitiated. Here’s what all of those letters mean:
Di III = Designed for mirrorless (in this case, Sony E-mount, though expect a Nikon Z and perhaps even a Fuji X-mount version in the future).
VC = Vibration Compensation, Tamron’s in lens stabilization system
VXD = Voice-coil eXtreme-torque Drive (a linear focus motor)
Here are the standout features of the new lens:
Expanded zoom range (6x zoom ratio)
Vibration Compensation
Custom/function button
Weather sealed USB-C port for firmware updates and customization through Tamron’s Lens Utility software
Zoom lock
1:2 macro performance at 70mm (0.50x) | also achieves 0.32x magnification at 300mm
Weather resistance
High powered VXD focus motor
Improved image quality
There’s a lot of serious improvements to this design, and while the price tag has grown by $250 over the previous lens, this is a much more premium lens with a lot of serious upgrades. It’s worth noting that Sony’s own 70-300mm F4.5-5.6 G OSS lens retails at $1273 (nearly $500 more), so Tamron is still bringing a lot of value to the table.
And this lens is a treat to use. It is relatively compact, handles well, and has gorgeous image quality. That extra 20mm on the wide end makes the lens even more versatile. You can stand in the same spot and frame like this at 50mm:
…or this at 300mm:
That’s the kind of focal range we can all find useful!
Keywords: Tamron, Tamron 50-300mm, Tamron 50-300, F4.5-6.3, VC, VXD, Di III, A069, Full Frame, Review, Sony Alpha 1, Sony a7RV, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, let the light in, weathersealing, #letthelightin, DA, #withmytamron
DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Sigma 18-50mm F2.8 vs Tamron 17-70mm F2.8 on Fuji X-Mount
Dustin Abbott
February 15th, 2024
A fast aperture, standard zoom can often be the most important lens in any person’s kit. These are the types of lenses that cover 80-90% of most photographer’s needs, but do so in a more compelling way than most kit lenses. The constant maximum aperture of F2.8 helps in low light and creates a more shallow depth of field, and the focal length covers from moderately wide to short telephoto. The two main third party competitors on the Fuji X-mount platform come from Sigma (the Sigma 18-50mm F2.8 DN) and Tamron (the Tamron 17-70mm F2.8 VC RXD). I’ve spent extensive time with both lenses (I currently own both of them) and have been comparing them for months. My findings are summarized in this video review.
Thanks to TTArtisan for sending me a review copy of this lens. As always, this is a completely independent review. All opinions and conclusions are my own. I’m doing this review on a 40MP Fujifilm X-H2 camera.
Both of these lenses are critical and commercial successes. The Sigma has a 5 out of 5 star rating at B&H Photo with 112 reviews, while the Tamron has a 4.5 star rating with 54 reviews. Both companies took radically different approaches to this formula, however, as the Sigma is the smallest, lightest, and cheapest option (including the Fuji 18-55m F2.8-4 OIS and 16-55mm F2.8 LM WR options) while the Tamron is the largest lens in class but also has the largest zoom ratio and has both a constant F2.8 aperture along with an optical stabilizer.
You can find my full reviews of all of these lenses by clicking the appropriate link below:
DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
It was a weird year for lens reviewers as well, though one of the highlights of 2020 was the release of Tamron’s 70-180mm F2.8 VXD (which I reviewed here). It was a serious disruptor in the Sony E-mount space, as it brought an optically strong, good focusing alternative to the Sony 70-200mm GM at a price point of less than 50%. It also had some shortcomings, namely a complete lack of features and also no optical stabilization. But it has been a popular choice because it is an optically sound and, well, affordable. The Tamron’s success was aided by the fact that the Sony 70-200mm GM was good but not exceptional. Sony has addressed that with a fantastic Mark II version of the GM lens (my review here), though that lens does cost about $2800 USD. In the never ending one-upmanship of the camera industry, that means that it is time for Tamron to up their game as well…and they have.
The new Tamron 70-180mm F2.8 Di III VC VXD G2 is the second generation of Tamron’s fast telephoto zoom. The key upgrades include improved the inclusion of VC (Vibration Compensation, Tamron’s optical stabilizer), upgraded optics, some additional features, and an enhanced magnification on the wide end.
A number of the weaknesses are addressed with the Tamron, and they’ve kept the price at a very reasonable $1299 USD. And, most importantly, I feel like Tamron has maintained the core focus of this lens (which we’ll call the 70-180 G2 in this review), which is to provide a lightweight, high performing alternative to the larger, more expensive 70-200mm options.
And this is a very high performing lens. It is brilliantly sharp even on Sony’s highest resolution cameras.
A few of the shortcomings remain, including a smaller zoom range that has 20mm less than competing lenses, fewer features, and the inability to use teleconverters.
But there’s a lot that people are willing to accept for a $1500 difference in price. Those that simply can’t afford a $2800 lens but could potentially afford a $1300 lens remain the single largest audience for this lens, though this review will also try to address the interests of a second group: those who own the first generation 70-180mm and are curious as to whether an upgrade is warranted. You can judge for yourself by either watching my video review below or reading on to get the full picture.
Thanks to Tamron USA for sending me a review loaner of this lens. As always, this is a completely independent review. *The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the Sony a7RV along with the Sony Alpha 1 that serve as my benchmark cameras for Sony lenses.
Tamron 70-180mm G2 Build and Handling
Tamron’s design has the compromise of a more abbreviated zoom range in order to achieve a smaller, lighter lens. The previous generation lens weighed a very svelte 810g, and, while the new lens is a bit heavier, it is still quite light at 855g (30.15oz). The dimensions have slightly grown, growing from 81mm to 83mm (3.26″) in diameter and moving from 149mm to 156.5mm (6.2”). For context, the Sony 70-200mm GM II is 88 x 200mm and weighs 1045g. The Tamron remains the most compact and lightweight option covering this focal range and aperture on the market (assuming that the first generation lens gets phased out as the first generation 28-75mm was). Tamron has continued to work very hard to maintain a 67mm filter thread across as many of their E-mount lenses as possible, and that remains the case here. That means that you can share filters across most of their lenses.
The first generation lens had nothing other than the focus and zoom rings on the barrel, but the new 70-180mm G2 has three additional features. The first is a focus hold button that is now pretty ubiquitous on Sony, and beneath that there is a 3 position custom switch.
The function of that switch can be set by connecting the lens via the USB-C port and using Tamron’s free Lens Utility software to assign a function to each of the three positions.
Tamron’s Lens Utility software gives you a variety of options for customizing the lens.
Here’s a look at the drop-down options for each custom position (1-3):
Most of these work in conjunction with the focus hold/custom button on the lens.
In some cases (like in aperture control), you use the button to activate the aperture control, and then the focus ring will function as an aperture ring.
You can also set the behavior of the focus ring in the software. That includes setting it as linear/non-linear and also options for how long you want the focus throw/rotation to be (90 | 180 | 270 | 360°).
The final option through the USB-C port and the Lens Utility Software is the ability to do firmware updates, which helps assure the lens stays updated.
The build quality feels somewhat improved over the first generation lens, but it isn’t quite at the level of the Sony G-Master lens, either (it feels more plasticky). The overall shape of the lens is more interesting, however, with additional sculpting and style.
On the right side of the barrel is the zoom lock. That is present because, unlike most 70-200mm lenses, the 70-180mm G2 is not an internally zooming lens. The barrel extends about 25mm at 180mm, which still leaves it 25+mm short of the 70-200mm options. Here’s a look at that extension.
The zoom ring is located furthest away from the lens mount and is wide and ribbed with a rubberized finish. The zoom action is almost as smooth as an internally zooming lens, with no sticking points or roughness to the zoom action. There is no wobble in the barrel extension, either. The zoom action is light and quick.
Not everyone is a fan of externally zooming lens, though Tamron has helped to compensate for this by giving the 70-180mm G2 a thorough weather sealing. This starts with a gasket at the lens mount, has a variety of seal points (11) throughout the barrel, and terminates in a fluorine coating on the front element.
The manual focus ring is located near the lens mount and is narrower. The focus action is okay but nothing exceptional.
The 70-180mm G2 has two different minimum focus distances for the wide and telephoto ends of the zoom range. You can focus as closely as 30cm on the wide end and can get a very high 0.38x magnification there (this autofocus result is improved over the G1 lens).
On the telephoto end the minimum focus distances of 85cm and we have magnification of right over 0.21x.
You can get even higher magnification on the 70mm end by manually focusing.
Tamron’s design does not include a tripod collar, as they are clearly anticipating the weight of the lens doesn’t require one. I prefer having the option of using a tripod collar, but I will note that I didn’t have a hard time aligning my test chart without one; the weight was light enough that it was not pulling down the front of the lens.
Tamron has included the lens hood (which is fine but unexceptional). There is no included case.
One final weakness in the design remains…the lens is not compatible with teleconverters. A Sony TC will not physically mount, as the protruding front element of the TC did not physically fit into the back of the lens. It appears that teleconverter compatibility continues to be reserved for Sony branded lenses.
Tamron has included their VC (Vibration Compensation) on this G2 lens. While the vast majority of Sony’s full frame mirrorless cameras do have IBIS (In-Body-Image-Stabilization), the addition of lens stabilization does add some additional stability. While there is no CIPA rating given for the VC system (which tells me that it isn’t good enough to brag about), Tamron does say this, “Moreover, at focal lengths up to 100mm, artificial intelligence (AI) technology provides vibration compensation with videography in mind.” This isn’t Tamron’s best implementation of VC, as I don’t feel the viewfinder stabilizes particularly well and I do see a bit of sideways movement after VC releases. Still, it does help. I could get fairly stable handheld video, and I also was able to get some slow shutter speed shots like this one at 180mm, 1/5th of a second (about 5 stops of stabilization…on a 61MP camera).
All in all the Tamron 70-180mm F2.8 VC G2 is nicely upgraded in features and build, though the competition has gotten better, too. Still, I doubt too many people will mind a few less bells and whistles for this price, as the lens is fairly well equipped. The inability to use teleconverters remains perhaps the biggest miss here, but I also suspect that is something that Tamron has no control over.
Tamron 70-180mm F2.8 G2 Autofocus Performance
The first generation 70-180mm was their first lens to receive Tamron’s highest end focus system, called VXD. Tamron said this, “Tamron developed its first-ever linear motor AF drive focus mechanism, VXD (Voice-coil eXtreme-torque Drive), especially for the 70-180mm F/2.8. While operating faster than ever before, the drive also maintains positional accuracy down to 0.005mm (0.0002 in), less than one-tenth the width of a human hair! This provides unprecedented fast and precise AF performance. A floating system that uses two high-speed, high-precision VXD units with advanced electronic control is also used.” In short, we have the equivalent of two high torque linear motors used here, and Tamron notes updated algorithms that help to work with Sony’s addition of more AI-trackable subjects with their newest cameras. There is plenty of speed for tracking action here. Sony caps the burst rate on its sports cameras at 15FPS for non-Sony lenses, though that only really affects the a9 and a1 series cameras. I was able to track birds in flight without issue.
Focus is pretty much fantastic, with very quick focus speeds not only at 70mm but also on the telephoto end. You can see the speed of focus changes in my video review, but essentially focus is fast enough that you won’t think about it, which is probably the most important to me. On occasions I did see a focus cycle where focus went the wrong direction first and then quickly moved to the correct point, but because focus for stills is so fast, it wasn’t really an issue.
I did find that on occasion the camera/lens didn’t want to focus on a foreground subject, but that’s not unusual on modern cameras, and I was able to “fix” the problem by grabbing a higher contrast foreground subject first and then refocusing where I wanted it.
I took some shots of geese on a busy pond surface, and I got very well focused results.
Likewise shots of a mangy fox were perfectly focused as well.
Most important was the performance for portraits, which was pretty much flawless. I shot at different focus distances, with different layering (through leaves or foreground objects, etc…), and at different focal lengths. None of it mattered. Focus locked quickly and confidently on the eyes and produced one perfectly focused result after another.
This great AF performance makes the lens attractive for portrait or wedding work, as focus is fast, consistent, and reliable.
Video results are good in general. My test of video focus pulls was largely successful, with smooth, fast focus transitions. On one cycle focus initially went the wrong direction and then corrected, an issue I noted I saw a couple of times for stills, too. I am testing a pre-release copy of the lens, however, so that could yet improve.
My “hand test” where I block focus from the eye and then allow focus to transition back to the eye went well, with smooth and confident transitions from one source to the other. Focus was also good when I got close to the camera and allowed it to locate my eye. I shot some clips with a model as she moved from pose to pose, and focus stayed nicely locked onto her throughout the transitions.
Sony’s newest 70-200mm lenses (either the F4 or F2.8 versions) have amazing focus systems. I don’t think I would rank the Tamron’s focus quite as high as those lenses, but it isn’t far behind. Most users should be very happy with the autofocus performance here.
Tamron 70-180mm F2.8 VC VXD G2 Image Quality
Tamron’s previous 70-180mm lens was sharp, but this new lens is operating at an even higher level. The updated optical design adds an additional element and group, bring us up to 20 elements in 15 groups (including 7 exotic elements) and the MTF chart shows that an already sharp lens has been improved to extremely high levels all across the frame. I’ve included the old MTF chart here (image 3) for comparison.
It is incredibly crisp all across the zoom range even on a very high resolution camera like my Sony a7RV (61MP). Kind of hard to imagine asking for more sharpness than this:
Longitudinal chromatic aberrations (LoCA) typically show up as purple/magenta fringing before the plane of focus and blue/green fringing beyond the plane of focus due to colors not being perfectly focused together. They typically diminish as the lens is stopped down to smaller apertures. I didn’t see really see any kind of fringing at all here, whether on my test chart:
…or with real world objects.
I also didn’t see any lateral chromatic aberrations that typically show up near the edges of the frame:
Not having to worry about fringing is great!
So how about vignette and distortion? Here’s a look at both uncorrected and corrected results at the wide, middle, and telephotos ends of the zoom range.
We see variations on the same theme: some pincushion distortion and a moderate amount of vignette. At 70mm the correction required a -4 for the distortion and a +50 for the vignette. At 115mm the distortion correction increased to a -9 and the vignette a +68. At 180mm the distortion remained at -9 and the vignette slightly increases to a +74. That’s been 2 and 3 stops of vignette throughout the zoom range. The distortion is very linear and easy to correct.
Tamron receives fairly good profile support from Sony, so in-camera JPEGs and video will be corrected, while RAW images will require the use of a correction profile in editing software as usual. So far we see nothing too bothersome here.
So how about sharpness? I’ve used the very high resolution (61MP) Sony a7RV for this series of tests, which obviously sets an exacting standard for sharpness and contrast. Here’s a look at the test chart:
At 70mm the crops (near 200%) from the center, mid-frame, and corners at F2.8 are near perfect. We see very consistent sharpness and contrast all across the frame.
This is a lens that handles the 61MP resolution point over all of the frame from wide open on. A real world F2.8 shot shows exquisite sharpness at F2.8:
Stopping down is really for increasing depth of field, as sharpness is already near perfect. I shot this landscape image at F5.6, and you can see how much detail is evident everywhere in the frame.
Minimum aperture across the frame is F22, though as per usual I recommend against shooting at smaller apertures than F11 as diffraction starts to really limit contrast. Look at the radical difference between F2.8 and F22:
Moving on to 100mm shows even higher performance, with more contrast and detail all across the frame:
Here’s a real world shot that shows the great detail at 100mm:
Moving on to 135mm shows near equal center sharpness:
…though corner performance isn’t quite as good:
Stopping down makes some improvement in the corners, but they are never quite as good as what we’ve seen at wider focal lengths.
Real world results continue to be fantastic, though. Here’s a portrait shot and crop at 145mm, F2.8:
Things sharpen up a bit more at 180mm, with the corners looking noticeably sharper at 180mm (right) vs 135mm (left):
Real world results look great. Look at how exquisitely sharp this real world shot of a fox is at 180mm, F2.8:
This F2.8 portrait shows perfect sharpness:
This is an incredibly sharp lens all across the zoom range, and it can easily handle the high resolution a7R cameras.
Bokeh is also quite good overall, with creamy backgrounds that aren’t busy:
Getting close allows you to really blur out a background:
Even further distances show nice bokeh and also good 3D subject pop:
A high end prime is going to give you nicer bokeh still, but few zooms are going to give you much more than this.
Contrast and colors were excellent, with nice saturation levels and good “pop” to the images.
Here’s another crisp shot with great contrast and color.
This makes for a nice landscape lens as well, as the detail and contrast look good either in color or monochrome:
Flare resistance is also fairly good due to update and improved BBAR-G2 (Broad-Band Anti-Reflection Generation 2) coatings.
There really aren’t any optical flaws, which will allow this lens to stay competitive with the incredible Sony 70-200mm F2.8 GM II lens in the optics department. This is an amazing “bang-for-the-buck” fast telephoto zoom. If you would like to see more images, check out my image gallery here.
Conclusion
Sony’s newest 70-200mm F2.8 GM II zoom is absolutely incredible…but it is also incredibly expensive. The new Tamron 70-180mm F2.8 Di III VC VXD G2 lens may have a slightly reduced zoom range and a few less features, but it is also well under half the price of the GM lens. The fact that the Tamron is also a very competent lens helps, obviously. It can’t be used with teleconverters, but not everyone uses teleconverters anyway. If you typically use just the bare lens, then the Tamron could be a very appealing alternative, as it is capable of producing gorgeous images.
There is a lot of serious improvements here for just $100 more in price. The build and features are improved, autofocus is slightly improved, and even the image quality is improved. We’ve now got VC, which was perhaps the main criticism from many of the first generation lens.
So is it worth buying? From a value perspective, absolutely. It’s not quite at the GM II level on any level other than sharpness, but it’s not far behind in most categories. I would also say that it is worth upgrading if you can get decent value from your G1 lens. The Tamron 70-180mm G2 is a lot of lens for the $1299 USD price point, and the range of improvements is pretty much across the board. Sony shooters are once again the winner, as we are getting ever improving options from Sony and the various third parties who develop for E-mount.
Pros:
Improved build and features
Weather sealing
The inclusion of VC
USB-C port and Lens Utility software provides versality
Fast and highly accurate autofocus
High levels of sharpness across zoom range
Good color rendition
Good chromatic aberration control
Good bokeh
Competitively priced
Good close up performance
Shares a 67mm filter thread with most Tamron E-mount lenses
Keywords: Tamron, 70-180mm, G2, VC, Tamron 70-180mm F2.8 VC, VXD, Full Frame, Review, Sony Alpha 1, Sony a7RV, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Portrait, Photography, let the light in, #letthelightin, DA, Weather Sealing
DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
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