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Tamron AF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 SP Di VC USD (EOS) - Full Format Review / Test Report |
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Lens Reviews -
Canon EOS (Full Format)
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Page 1 of 3
Review by Klaus Schroiff, published February 2011
Special thanks to Alfredo Tollon for providing this lens for testing!
Introduction
Tele lenses were difficult fishing grounds for third-party manufacturers - Canon basically owns the place and the only way to penetrate the market was via low pricing. Tamron just introduced the Tamron AF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 SP Di VC USD to change the game at least in the market of slow speed consumer grade tele-zoom lenses. It faces rather stiff competition from its direct competitor - the Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 USM IS - which has been immensely successful ever since it was introduced. On paper the Tamron throws a new optical design with XLD glass ("Extra Low Dispersion"), VC ("Vibration Control", 4 f-stop effectivity) and the new USD ("Ultrasonic Silent Drive") into the fight. Price-wise it is on the same level as the Canon lens.
The Tamron lens belongs to the SP ("Super Performance") series - Tamron's professional-grade product range. The build quality is not comparable to e.g. Canon's EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 USM L IS but it's very good nonetheless. The lens body is made of quite high quality plastics based on a metal mount. The inner lens tube extends when zooming towards the long end but there's no wobbling even at 300mm. The focus and zoom control rings operate smoothly. The front element does not rotate during focus operations so using a polarizer remains easily possible. A flower-shaped lens hood is part of the package.
The USD ("Ultrasonic Silent Drive") is a new development by Tamron and used in the AF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 SP Di VC USD for the very first time. It provides fast and near-silent AF operations. FTM, full-time manual focusing, is possible in one-shot AF mode. LiveView-(contrast)-AF is slightly slower than average but that's usually no use-case for such a lens. The AF accuracy of our test sample was good. The Tamron lens offers a VC ("Vibration Control") which is comparable to Canon's IS. It has a claimed efficiency of about 4 f-stops. Based on our field experience it seems closer to 2.5 f-stops though. Canon lenses distinguish between standard IS mode and panning whereas the Tamron detects the situation on-the-fly so you don't have to care. The VC does not offer a tripod detection so you've to switch it off in such a situation.
Let's compare the Tamron lens to its primary competitors now:
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Tamron
AF 70-300mm f/4-5.6
SP VC USD |
Canon
EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6
USM IS |
Canon
EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6
USM L IS |
| design: |
17 elements in 12 groups, 1x XLD & 1xLD element |
15 elements in 10 groups, 1x UD element |
19 elements in 14 groups, 2x UD elements, floating system |
| size: |
82x151mm |
77x143mm |
89x143mm |
| weight: |
765g |
630g |
1050g |
| image stabilizer efficiency: |
4 f-stops, 1 mode (auto-detect) |
3 f-stops, 2 modes |
4 f-stops, 2 modes |
| aperture blades: |
9 |
8 |
8 (circular) |
| min. focus: |
1.5m |
1.5m |
1.2m |
| filter size: |
62mm |
58mm |
67mm |
| AF motor |
USD with FTM and non-rotating front element |
micro-USM, no FTM, rotating front element |
ring-type USM with FTM and non-rotating front element |
| sealing |
no |
no |
yes |
| approx price tag: |
450 EUR/US$ |
450 EUR/US$ |
1500 EUR/US$ |
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