The 300f 3.5 to 6.3 DIY 3 – a v c v x d I’m reading it because it is a very long name this is an all-in-one lens solution for those out there who don’t like swapping out lenses on their camera bodies it’s available in Sony e-mount design for a p a c and it’s also available in Fuji x-mount which may be even more popular because there’s not a lot of options on the Fuji side of things I am reviewing the Sony version today let’s get started by seeing how it comes packaged and the answer is very simply in the typical white box that you get with Tamron lenses inside you get some user information plastic front and rear lens caps and a plastic lens Hood the lens itself is pretty compact for the range that it covers here it is next to the team run 17274 reference it’s barely any bigger it covers effectively the same focal lengths + 72300 mm which is crazy this lens is well-built is made out of plastic and glass but it is the same high quality construction that you expect from Tamron lenses that they’re 6-year warranty and there isn’t much to worry about here comes in at 620 grams just about 100 grams more than these 17270 starting at the rear there is a metal melt with electronic connections this lens supports autofocus as it has tamarinds vxd or voice coil extreme torque Drive linear focus motors which are quiet and quick and there is a rubber gasket here for weather sealing in fact there are nine seal points on this lens according to this diagram which means you can take this lends out into harsh environments without worry moving forward there is a tamarin logo as well as the model specs the lens is designed in Japan but it is made in Vietnam the first thing here is a focus ring not mechanically link so it spins freely in either direction there is a lock switch here before you get to the zoomerang which you can use only at 18th mm to lock the barrel of the lens from if you are traveling with this lens work hearing it around loosely the focus ring is nice and grippy in less than a quarter of a turn Hugo from 18 mm to 300 m m the mechanism is smooth and it sounds good as well requiring a bit more effort to zoom in then to zoom back out the only problem with the zoomerang is that if you want to use it while recording video it is a challenge to not get those little jumps in focal length especially while swimming in the timer on 1770 also has about the same quarter-turn zoom ring but it covers a fraction of the zoom range to the result is you can zoom in and out much more smoothly as you zoom in the lens basically doubles in size with a two-tier inner barrel it is significantly longer than the 17th is 70 mm extended around the front there is a 67 mm filter thread a nice-sized front lens element and that’s it no writing or spec’s here mounted on my a 6100 it is a good-looking camera and lens combo it does make for a pretty heavy set up though but is the price of admission if you want a lens that covers it all this really is several zoom lenses in one for example it could replace your 16 250 kit lens and your 55-210 Sony telephoto lens and still give you an extra 90 mm on the telephoto side inside there are 19 elements and 7 rounded aperture blades and one of the great things about this lens is it has VCU which tamarron cause vibration control or optical stabilization that’s built in so on a camera bodies such as the a 6100 with no in body image stabilization this is a very useful thing I’ve had this lens on loan from tamarron for about a week and I’ve taken it out with my Sony a 6100 and a shot at a bunch of times here are some of the results all of these are unedited and uncorrupted straight out of the camera optically it is superior than anything you can get out of the Sony 1650 Caitlin and a Sony 55-210 images are surprisingly sharp with gray colors and contrast I shot this lens wide open or as wide open as I could with the variable aperture in good light in the sun this lens really does perform well it is nice and sharp in the center of the frame I used it on the wide end and the telephoto end and there wasn’t a weak spot that I found throughout the zoom range quarter sharpest is good as well it’s not prime lens sharp but it is good and better than a lot of other lenses on the market to there is distortion however barrel distortion on the wide and turns into pincushion distortion after a little while but the camera does a pretty good job of correcting these in the body at least if you are shooting jpeg that being said there are images such as this one where you can still see a little bit of pin cushion that wasn’t corrected out chromatic aberration is well controlled as well as it shows up against a bright background but it is never overly crazy part of this probably has to do with the fact that you are shooting this lens at AMF stop let’s say at 4.5 or five so chromatic aberration doesn’t show up as frequently as you’d see it with a lens shot at f 1.4 even with the widest shots at 18 mm there was little to no vignetting one of the cool things about this lens is that it has an ability to focus very closely and get you macro-like images on the wide end at 18 mm with this you can get a one to two magnification so take a tiny flower such as this and get remarkably close up with this lens and the autofocus works great that is one of the best things about this lens the auto focus performance is excellent dare I say it is as good as any native Sony lens for portraits it tracks the eye well and it nails I autofocus even at 300 mm the linear Auto focus motor is responsive accurate and near silent the vibration compensation or optical stabilization is excellent even out at 300 mm you can handle this lens and take some great images in fact all of these samples are handheld even for video I was surprised how well it did in keeping everything stable so in summary this lens has it all it has an incredible zoom ratio of 16.6 x which is a first for Sony aps-c has fast silent and accurate Auto focus has built-in vibration control or optical stabilization has sharp optics it’s well built has an excellent warranty I mean there’s really little to complain about with this lens there is a lot of value for the money here but it does fall short in I would say just three areas and these are very subjective these are just my opinions what my actual thoughts are on this lens the first area I think in which this lens falls short is the fact that it has a variable aperture now shooting out at F4 is okay but as you get past 35 mm on this lens you are shooting it at 4.5 eventually F5 then at 5.6 then f 6.3 and that is not letting in a lot of light at those telephoto focal lengths now if you are shooting outside which most of you who are going to get this one’s probably are going to be shooting outside in good lighting and direct sunlight or one the sun is out this is less of an issue but if you are looking for subject separation in terms of bouquet you have to realize that at f 6.3 you’re not going to get the same amount of bouquet as you would at f 2.8 for example but the focal length does play a huge Factor because as you zoom into 300 mm you get a ton of subject separation but in low light that is still a problem because at f6.3 you have to have a ton of light otherwise you get really grainy images and this lens definitely does suffer you can see here there is a lot of graininess that comes across because the camera has to shoot at a higher ISO the other thing that I’ll mention is that I know why Tamron made this a variable aperture lens because if it wasn’t f constant aperture lens it would be significantly larger and heavier than this so in terms of size and dimensions is very compact for the zoom range that you’re getting the sacrifice obviously is f 6.3 on the telephoto side the second issue I have with this lens is the zoom ring now for photography it’s absolutely fine there are no issues but once you switch over to video mode and if you are recording and trying to zoom in or out while recording it’s very hard to do so smoothly you get this slight jittery movement zooming in especially and zooming out it’s a little bit smoother but sometimes not and the problem with this lies in the fact that there is such a short throw from 18 mm all the way out to 300 if this throw was longer if it was like 180° of rotation you could probably do it quite a bit more smoothly the last thing number three is the autofocus now I already mentioned that the autofocus is excellent but when you switch to video again and you are zooming in or zoom out you’ll see that the autofocus does this weird hunting thing this is not a para focal length meaning where you can zoom into 300 mm focus and then you could zoom out and it will still remain focused on whatever subject you focused on in the first place with this lens as you zoom in and out the autofocus is trying to find that point of focus so it comes across as a little bit weird with video especially zooming in and out something that I noticed obviously once you’ve zoomed in or you’ve zoomed out and you stay put it’s not an issue but along that journey it’s a little bit strange looking so at the end of the day yes this lens is an all-in-one solution for people who don’t want to own a bunch of lenses and swap them out every time they need another focal length with this lens you will be fine 95% of the time unless you need something ultra ultra wide and if you are someone who likes the idea of only having one lens but you don’t want to limit yourself with a zoom range of
with a zoom range of 16 to 50 or 17270 than this 18 to 300 m m will do the trick you can pre-order it today for 699 or if you use the education discount it brings it down to 599 if you are a student or an educator so definitely a lot of value for the money I mean you’re getting an incredible lens an incredible zoom range equivalent on a full frame would be a 27 mm to 450 ml which does not exist to my knowledge I’ve searched for one but I couldn’t find one in it even if it did exist I would pretty much guarantee you that it would cost at least three times the price of this lands from Tamron so that is going to be at for my review of this lens I hope you guys enjoyed it and you learn something
Tamron 17-70mm F2.8 Review + Sony 16-55mm F2.8 G Comparison, photography news
