Howdy everyone and let's get straight Into reviewing the living daylight out Of a pretty exciting new super zoom lens The tamon 50 to 400 millimeter F 4.5 to 6.3 di3 VC vxd it is for Sony e-mount Mirrorless cameras full frame or aps-c And after a short delay it's finally Making its way onto store shelves now The most attention-grabbing thing about This new lens is obviously it's very Interesting and Broad Zoom range one of My favorite lenses in the world is the Sigma 60 to 600 millimeter it's very big Very heavy and very expensive so I like What tamon are doing here with this new Lens sure the zoom range is shorter but It's tights a bit wider which is pretty Useful and this thing is actually small Enough for your camera bag and at 1.1 Kilograms or about two and a half pounds It's light enough to hold for long Periods of time oh and its price of 1300 US dollars or 1 than 250 pounds here in The UK is a bit more affordable although Still rather expensive 400 millimeter May not be five or six hundred Millimeter but it's still a fantastic Read just about long enough for bird and Wildlife photography and you can always Crop into your image a bit if your Camera is high enough resolution Something I will mention though is that This is rather a dark lens zoom into 150 Millimeter and already your maximum
After will have darkened to F 6.3 so the Lens won't be giving you Snappy shutter Speeds or or deeply out of focus Backgrounds I'd like to thank tamron's UK distributor for loaning me a copy of This lens for testing for a couple of Weeks although as usual this is a Totally independent review let's look at Its build quality first and this thing Feels as solid to hold in your hand as It looks smart and understated it's Based on a metal lens mount with some Strong weather sealing and at the rear There is also a waterproof USB input for Updating the lenses firmware and Changing its customizable controls Including a new Focus limiter function Then there's a little gap for an Optional tripod mount which is sold Separately then comes a plastic Focus Ring which turns fairly smoothly as you Can see here the lens doesn't show much In a way of focus breathing which is Good news The lenses autofocus Motor Works Silently accurately and reasonably Quickly in single shot auto focus mode In continuous autofocus mode the motor Works almost instantaneously and I found It to track subjects quite well in front Of the focus ring come a couple of Buttons for customizing the lens and Adjusting the image stabilization let's Take a look at that stabilization in
Action here's some footage with it Turned off and now turned on as you can See it's helping but not making a huge Difference by any means then comes the Lens's rubberized Zoom ring which can be Locked in place at 50 millimeter it Turns very evenly and averagely smoothly With just a touch of stickiness to it Which is presumably deliberate to stop It falling under its own weight the Lenses front filter size is 67 Millimeters and it comes with a Beautifully designed plastic Hood which Simply Clicks in place overall the build Quality is excellent although I do wish The image stabilization where a little More effective all right image quality I'll be testing it today on a Sony a7r III camera with its 42 megapixel full Frame Center and Camera Corrections are Turned on at 50 millimeter and F 4.5 we See Razer sharpness and excellent Contrast in the middle of the image and To the corners very slightly softer but Still looking fantastic F 5.6 looks the Same but f8 looks a bit brighter and Punchier in the corners the lens stays This sharp down to F16 where diffraction Causes softness let's zoom in about Halfway to 200 millimeter the maximum Archer has darkened to F 6.3 in the Middle of the image we see excellent Sharpness and contrast again and again Great sharpness over in the corners too
Stop down to f8 for a touch of extra Sharpness in those corners and f11 looks Just as good finally let's Zoom all the Way in to 400 millimeter at F 6.3 image Quality still looks great in the middle Of the image but with just a touch less Contrast than before over in the corners We're finally seeing some softness but Only really right in the edges at f8 or F11 we don't really see much improvement I'm afraid so overall it's an excellent Performance apart from those Corners at 400 millimeter but it's worth bearing in Mind that often at 400 millimeter you're Zooming in to a specific subject and Getting out of focus backgrounds anyway All right let's see about vignetting and Distortion on a full-frame camera these Pictures are taken with in-camera Corrections turned off at 50 millimeter We see moderate pincushion Distortion And noticeable vignetting in the corners At F 4.5 stop down to F 5.6 or f8 to see That vignetting go away the pin cushion Distortion gets worse as you zoom in Becoming pretty strong at 400 millimeter And vignetting is still strong at the Widest aperture stopping down to f8 or F11 brightens those Corners up again The lenses minimum Focus distance is two And a half meters at 400 millimeter that Gives you a decent magnification Close-up image quality is a little Softer with lower contrast at f8 we see
A nice increase in contrast but stopping Down further doesn't improve the Sharpness let's see how the lens works Against Bright Lights now it's great News here whether you're zoomed in or Out we see very low flaring and contrast Remains good And finally Boca as I've mentioned Before due to the lenses rather dark Maximum aperture you're not getting the Most out of focus backgrounds here but Obviously you can still zoom in for some Separation and it's not the softest Bucket I've ever seen here I'll be Honest it's a bit bitty just a little Smudgy but more strongly out of focus Backgrounds will look nice and soft Overall the tamon 50 to 400 millimeter Is a great offering for a certain Market People who want a great Zoom range and Decent image quality but who wants Something lighter and more compact than Say the Hefty Sigma 60 to 600 millimeter Lenses the disadvantages of this Tamron Lens against those are that it doesn't Zoom in quite as far of course I wasn't Impressed with its image stabilization Either and it doesn't offer quite the Softest pocket in the world but apart From that it works fine and it's quite a Handy proposition really a great Zoom Range and it's not a pain to carry Around with you so it certainly comes Recommended
There you go I like testing something Different once in a while I'd like to Say a huge thank you to my patreon Supporters who make such a difference to Keeping this channel going check it out In the description below supporters get All kinds of exclusive bonus content Ciao for now everyone
