TAMRON - 16-300 mm F/3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD Nikon F Cameras - Black - B016N

Product Information

This photo above was taken during the typhoon season which hits Japan from July to November every year. I shot this at 280mm, which was effectively 450mm with the APS-C sensor. This place doesn’t allow you to get a close vantage point so having the incredible zoom capability of the Tamron 16-300mm was a huge bonus in allowing me to get this shot. Like most lenses nowadays, this one is made from high-grade plastic. The 16-300mm can also hold up in rainy condition as it comes with a sealing gasket. Image stabilization A generous helping of chromatic aberration is to be expected with a superzoom. There's strong magenta/green towards the edges at wide-angle, reducing to low levels through 50-100mm, before returning with a vengeance from 200-300mm. Canon DSLRs won't correct for it in JPEGs (Nikon DSLRs will try to) but it can be neutralized very effectively in your average Raw conversion software, provided you don't mind putting in a little time on a computer. Vignetting We give Tamron some credit for providing the lens movement a boost by releasing the Zoom Wide Angle Telephoto 28-200mm in 1992. It was specially designed for 35mm cameras (see our full list of the best 35mm film cameras) and universally regarded as the first high-ratio zoom lens. Since then, interchangeable lenses have been released, with the latest ones offering a whopping 33x zoom range.

The focal range of the Tamron AF 16-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD is extremely broad. It's possible to encompass a large amount of photographic styles when using a lens such as this. While there have been a number of occasions when those edges have appeared during this test, with red and cyan too, those occasions were fewer than I had expected. Some fringing appears in the extremes of the frame when the wider focal lengths are used, but at the longest end of the zoom the fringes become wider and creep their destructive way towards the centre of the image. We know that it is the extremes of a zoom that are used the most, and in one that features such reach that length will be used a great deal. I suspect, then, that fringing will have an impact on a disproportionately high number of images shot with this model. One way to reduce the effects of these fringes is to tidy them into narrow bands by using a small aperture, but we have to be careful that we don’t sacrifice resolution for the sake of a purple edge. The Tamron 16-300mm f/3.5-6/3 offers a uniquely huge 18.8x zoom range, performs well, delivers good value for money and has impressive close up focus performance making this an ideal travel zoom lens.

Introduction

The overall build quality and finish are impressive. Its zoom and focusing rings have a great feel. The other two switches are to toggle the AF/MF and VC on/off. The AF/MF switch on the side of the lens makes it easy to switch between the two focusing systems. The absolutely huge zoom range offered by this lens, hasn't compromised the size, with it having similar dimension to many 4x or 5x zooms lenses and it weighs only 540g. The low weight and compact size make this lens an ideal candidate as a walkabout lens for those times you may wish to travel light. It feels right at home on the Nikon D7100 body used for testing, and will make a good companion for smaller, more compact DSLR camera bodies as well. High quality plastics with a matte finish have been used for much of the construction of the lens barrel, and it feels reasonably robust as a result. A rubber gasket, located around the metal lens bayonet, will help to prevent the ingress of dust and moisture into the camera body. The construction is a pretty complicated business, with 16 elements arranged in 12 groups. The more significant area is inevitably at the front end, where Tamron has used an element of only about 60mm in diameter made from the company’s ultra extra refractive (UXR) glass, the refractive properties of which are claimed by Tamron to play an important part in the miniaturisation of the whole unit. An additional forward lens is made from extra refractive (XR) glass, and there are four aspherical lenses to ensure good sharpness and contrast from all that light passing through highly refractive elements.

In coming to the soft assessment, I looked at the sample photo of the berries taken in the review, which is quite excellent for such a lens. Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS USM– This might be good if you want a lens on a tight budget. Some of its features include two low-ultra dispersion elements, four-stop image stabilizer, fast and accurate autofocus, and comprehensive weather seals. The contrast and sharpness are perfect throughout the zoom range. Not only have Tamron delivered a lens that offers a uniquely huge zoom range, but they've managed to make one that performs well, is well specified, and is good value too. So if you’re looking for a lens that you can take anywhere with you and will be suitable for almost any conditions you encounter then I can’t go past the Tamron 16–300 mm.

It’s exceeded our expectations and is a pleasant surprise considering the wide focal range. The low weight and compact design make it an excellent choice for travelers and itinerant photographers. It also feels robust, thanks to its high-quality construction. Some users cited slight fall-off at the corners, though. The consensus is that the lens is relatively light and easy to carry around. It is also versatile, and unlike other lenses, doesn’t have an issue vignetting. However, some users took issue with the distortion at wider edges, but what lens doesn’t have the same problem? The lens is not especially small until one considers the focal range it covers, but it has a deceptive look of a lens that should be small. In fact, when collapsed to 16mm, it is not much longer or broader than we might expect a 90mm f/2.8 macro lens to be, and, apart from the dual rings, it does not look especially unlike one. Its ability to double its physical length when set to the 300mm mark is quite surprising, because this 16-300mm f/3.5-6.3 macro lens does not look like a mega-zoom lens. I was expecting something a little more brash and bulbous, more along the lines of the 150-600mm optic from Tamron’s SP series that I tested in AP 12 April. This model, by contrast, is ‘quietly designed’ and features a remarkably narrow barrel with a 67mm-diameter lens cap. It is designed to look small, and it does.

Getting through the maze of lenses can seem like a fulltime job for the unaccustomed buyer. With hundreds of designs and models, how do you know which model is right for you? Here are a few factors to consider during your search: Image stabilization

Tamron 16-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD Macro review

The Tamron AF 16-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD does suffer from chromatic aberrations, more so at the edges of the frame when shooting wide-angle, but it's really not too bad at all.

At 16mm and maximum aperture, the sharpness delivered by this lens in the centre of the frame is already outstanding, and clarity towards the edges of the frame is fairly good. Stopping down improves performance across the frame, with peak sharpness being achieved at f/8. Here clarity is outstanding in the centre, and excellent towards the edges of the frame. The Tamron 16-300mm is a wide-angle telephoto lens designed for DSLR cameras with the APS-C sensor. It offers premium features like a 35mm focal range of 24-450mm, Vibration Compensation for combating blur, 39cm minimum focus distance, Piezo Drive motor, and more. It comes in different fits for various camera types, including Nikon, Sony, and Canon. ProsWhen looking through the viewfinder while engaging and disengaging the VC, you can truly see an immediate and substantial smoothing out of camera shake. Though definitely not a replacement for a good tripod and steady hands, the VC made a noticeable difference in the sharpness of images taken at slower shutter speeds in low light. Small Details Smaller formats like APS-C are kind to vignetting, especially with the modest maximum apertures of a superzoom. Basically it's not a problem here, with the worst figure being 1.3 stops of darkening in the extreme corners at 16mm f/3.5, and even that is hardly serious. Distortion Broadly speaking, there are two extremes of photographer in this world – the happy snapper and the pixel-peeper. The pixel-peeper is serious about technical quality and is prepared to sacrifice convenience to achieve what he believes is perfection. The happy snapper enjoys taking pictures and isn’t too worried about the finer points of quality, but wants to be able to enjoy his hobby. This lens gives the equivalent of 24.8mm wide-angle zooming to 465mm, on Nikon and Sony APS-C crop cameras, and 25.6mm to 480mm on a Canon camera, in 35mm terms. Previously the most optical zoom you could get in an APS-C super-zoom DSLR lens started at 18mm (27/28mm equivalent Nikon/Canon) and zoomed to either 200mm (Canon) 250mm (Sigma), 270mm (Tamron), or 300mm (Nikon). At the 300mm end, the angle of view is 5°20', which is the same as that of a 450mm lens on a 35mm full-frame camera.