Tamron is a Japanese industry founded in 1950. Since then, Tamron has slowly grown to become a worthy competitor in the industry. The company holds an excellent reputation due to the cutting-edge technology in all its products. It is the first-ever company that has introduced the concept of an interchangeable lens system for SLR cameras.
Tamron’s legacy continues today, after 60 years in the business. The Tamron 70-300mm f/4.0-5.6 Di LD Macro Zoom Lens is an advanced form of a macro lens with features like a 1:2 magnification ratio. This means that this lens can capture details of small objects, with a minimum size of 5 x 7 cm. This lens is a top performer among the rest of the macro lenses available in the market. With its seamless macro switchover functionality, you can enjoy shooting photos without experiencing any lag.
The Tamron 70-300mm has a digitally integrated design, “Di,” which implies that this lens fulfills the quality requirements of hi-tech DSLR cameras. This lens is compatible with both APS-C and full-frame digital SLRs.
The Tamron 70-300mm is a multipurpose telephoto zoom lens that pairs with the Nikon D3500 perfectly to capture concerts, landscapes, full-frame, and sports. This lens allows professionals and beginners to explore photography from an altogether new macro perspective at an affordable price.
It takes a lot of effort to capture sharp and precise photographs with macro lenses. The Tamron 70-300mm makes it easy and fun to shoot wide-angle photos that are able to focus well on the subject of the image.
We have done a detailed review of all the specifications and operations of the Tamron 70-300mm to understand its functionality and use. This lens already has an excellent reputation in the industry and is used by many leading photographers.
Performance And Functionality
Specifications
- Focal length – 70-300mm
- Maximum aperture – F/4-5.6
- The angle of view – 34 21′ – 8 15′
- Lens construction – 9/13
- Minimum focus distance – 1.5m
- Maximum magnification ratio – 1:3.9
- Filter size – 62mm
- Length – 116.5mm
- Diameter – 76.6mm
- Weight – 435g
- Hood – DA17
- Diaphragm blades – 9
- Optical elements – 13
- Motor Type – Micromotor
- Focus method – Front extension
Digital Integrated Design
This lens is designed to meet the advanced optical specifications of APS-C and full-frame cameras. The Di design of the Tamron lens is a key performance indicator that affects different features of DSLR cameras. You need to consider all the parameters of internal, manual, and automatic focus before capturing photos with this macro Di lens.
Optical Design
The lens design consists of 13 optical elements in a total of nine groups. It implies that the diaphragm is made up of nine-blades that makes this Tamron lens an ideal choice to shoot sharp photos during both the day and night. The aperture of the lens ranges from f/4 to f/32. The minimum aperture offered by Tamron is smaller as compared to similar lenses. Consequently, this minimum aperture extends the depth of field in macro photography mode.
Telephoto Zoom
With a focal length ranging from 180mm to 300mm, this feature has revolutionized the concept of macro photography by empowering users to zoom into distant objects. Tamron has made it convenient for users to switch to the macro mode by aligning the zoom ring with a zoom range between 180-300mm. After setting your camera to the correct orientation, you can easily switch to macro photography mode.
Macro photography mode is the key to capturing detailed and sharp close-ups of far-off objects at a focus distance of around 37.4 inches and at 0.5x magnification. The features offered by the Tamron macro lens are not common in the market. There is only one another macro lens by Sigma 70-300mm that comes with similar telephoto zoom capability.
Internal Focus Mechanism
The Tamron 70-300mm comes with an internal focusing system. This feature makes the angle of view at farther distances (except for infinity) wider as compared to lenses without any internal focusing mechanism. Macro photos captured by this automatic lens at a wide-angle are clear and precise.
Autofocus Mode
This Tamron lens comes with a standard electric motor instead of the new ultrasonic silent drive motors. This is not a drawback, though, as the motor doesn’t affect the operations and performance of the lens itself. However, most other lenses come with the newer ultrasonic motors for the autofocus mechanism.
The focal point may not be at its optimal point while capturing photographs in the autofocus mode. These types of variations in the technologies deployed in lenses make it complicated for you to capture photos under certain circumstances.
Vignetting
You should take extra precautions while using the built-in flash of the camera. It may lead to a decline in picture quality by causing vignetting, corner illumination, and fall-off light. However, the Tamron 70-300mm is well-suited with Nikon D3500 because it matches the image circle of the camera. This kind of compatibility minimizes the chances of vignetting.
Tamron recommends that its users use a separate flash unit instead of the in-built flash system to capture high-quality photographs. Chromatic aberration is noticeable only when the lens is set to the maximum zoom of 300mm.
Sharpness
This lens results in sharp pictures during the whole zoom range of 70 to 200mm. The sharpness and precision of the objects remain consistent throughout the photo. However, sharpness seems to drop off around the maximum focal length of 300mm. Luckily, you won’t need to use the 300mm setting a lot for macro photography, because lower focal lengths give the results you need.
If you select the maximum resolution and the smallest aperture value, then the resulting photos may not be sharp. The challenge is to choose an optimal resolution, not a maximum resolution, with a small aperture in order to capture wide-angle photos.
The lens doesn’t come with an image stabilizer sensor, so it is advisable to use a tripod stand if you want to avoid the chance of taking blurry photos.
There are several reviews on this lens available on the internet. These reviews detail the first-hand experience of various users. If you want to know more about the Tamron 70-300mm, you can check some of these reviews.
User Interface And Control System
The Tamron 70-300mm comes with a user-friendly interface that allows photographers to handle the lens with ease. The lens comes with a larger lens hood to protect the lens from dust, sunlight, and moisture. The nomenclature of the lens consists of a total of 22 controls and marks.
- Lens hood
- Hood attaching alignment mark
- Hood attaching indicator
- Filter ring
- Hood attaching bayonet ring
- Distance index
- Distance scale
- Focusing ring
- Zooming ring
- Focal length scale
- Zoom index mark
- Zoom lock switch
- Lens mount and contacts
- AF-MF altering switch
- Lens attachment mark
- AE lock (minimum aperture0
- Aperture scale
- Aperture index
- F-number index mark for long focal lengths
- F-number scale for finder display
- Aperture ring
- Macro selector switch
Focus
The lens has an automatic and manual focus mode. In automatic mode, the lens automatically focuses on a subject when you lightly press the shutter button. The in-focus mark lights up when the subject is in focus.
When you switch the focus to manual, you’ll have to manually focus on the subject by rotating the focus rings present at the rear side of the lens. Tamron comes with a standard motor rather than an advanced motor, but the movement of the focus rings is still quite smooth.
Macro Setting
The macro settings of the Tamron 70-300mm are enabled only within the 180-300mm range. As this lens is quite compact, the macro mode switch, focus rings, and zoom rings are interlocked with one another. You can select the macro option after setting the zoom rings between the 180 and 300mm range.
However, the process to switch from macro to normal mode is a bit complicated. You’ll first need to rotate the focus rings out of the macro range to shift back to normal mode.
Zooming
The zoom rings are present at the front side of the Tamron 70-300mm. The zoom rings rotate more seamlessly as compared to the focus rings. When the camera is positioned in a vertical position, it is impossible to experience “zoom creep” with this Tamron lens.
The lens allows the user to capture vertical close-ups of insects and flowers with their selected zoom option.
Lens Mount And Unmount Procedure
The lens comes with two caps—one for the rear and the other for the front. The rear cap must be removed to attach the lens to the camera. There is a lens attachment mark on the lens’s barrel, which you must keep aligned with the camera mount mark. Once the mark alignment is done, you should rotate the lens in the clockwise direction until you hear a click. This click-lock indicates the lens has been mounted successfully with the camera body.
The procedure to mount this lens on the Nikon D3500 requires one more step. It is a two-step configuration that consists of both the lens attachment mark and the zoom index alignment. In the Nikon models, the lens is rotated in a counterclockwise direction until the lock clicks.
A lens release button is available at the bottom of the camera. The lens can be unmounted by pressing the release button and then turning the lens in the clockwise direction for Nikon models. You must be careful while mounting a Tamron lens on Nikon cameras as the rotation direction is opposite to other camera models.
Build Quality And Design
The Tamron AF 70-300mm is a full-frame macro lens. However, it is quite lightweight and compact. The lens has a plastic body. So, the total weight of the lens is less than 500g. To some users, this may be a disadvantage as the build quality seems to be less durable.
Although the lens body is made of plastic, the lens mount is metallic. This ensures seamless mounting of the lens on the camera body.
The total length of the lens varies from 77 to 117mm, without the lens hood. The lens hood itself is around 97mm only. The overall length of the lens does not exceed more than 237mm, at the maximum telephoto zoom and 0.5x macro mode.
LD Glass
The lens contains a high-quality, low dispersion class. This helps to correct the color fringing and light fall-off that sometimes appears at the corners of images.
Lens Hood
While attaching or removing the lens hood, you must set the Nikon camera to MF mode. In the MF mode, the focusing rings are synchronized with the hood attaching bayonet rings. The focus rings will move in AF mode when the lens hood is attached. This may cause damage to the lens focus rings affecting the lens’ performance. It is possible to reverse-mount the lens hood to store the camera in a compact space.
Conclusion
The Tamron AF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 Di LD Macro Zoon lens is a hi-tech lens with autofocus capability and the ability to magnify objects by 0.5x. It is an advanced macro lens with a low dispersion glass lens to nullify chromatic aberrations and shading.
You can take full-frame photographs with optimal aperture and maximum zoom. The operations of the lens are quite smooth and responsive. It gives ample time to the user to capture instantaneous photos of sports events and wildlife photography. This Tamron lens is compatible with Nikon D3500 and will attach to it without causing any hassle.
You can carry the lens with you anywhere because of its light weight. This Tamron lens’s key features include a digitally integrated design, micromotor focus, and a photo filter thread size of 62mm. The Tamron AF 70-300mm comes with all the qualities required by a telephoto ultra-zoom lens in a price half than the similar lenses available in the market.
If you’re a macro photography enthusiast, then Tamron AF 70-300mm is an excellent available choice that enables you to capture sharp and consistent photos even from a long-range. This lens is already quite popular and has a great reputation among many photographers.
