Tamron 16-300mm f/3.5-6.3 VC PZD MACRO Lens Review

This Sunday I got a chance to shoot with Tamron’s new 16-300mm f/3.5-6.3 VC PZD MACRO. Although I tested it during a short photo walk in a local zoo of my town Indore, the walk was organized by Indore Photographers Community in association with Tamron India. There’s always been some quality concerns with high range zooms lenses and specially with those which are made for crop bodies. General perception in the market is that all megazoom glasses produce poor quality images. Some mega zooms were already in the market like 18-200, 28-300, 18-270 etc., but a zoom range from 16mm wide to 300mm at the tele-end is really mouth watering so before any tests this lens is an absolute winner in this regard. So here is my small review and some photos I clicked to test this lens with an amazing zoom range of 18x and that too from a wide angle focal length of 16mm to 300mm at the telephoto end. I used this lens for two hours in a zoo and tried to click different subjects and based on those photos here are my observations and some of the clicks using this megazoom from Tamron. So let’s start with its built quality. As this lens is being promoted as a multipurpose lens by Tamron itself, its weight and size makes it a good walking around multipurpose lens. So if someone wants to keep him/her kit bag light it’s a good option for them. Its casing is really nice and sturdy, its overall feel and weight is good, both rings are nice and smooth. Although both rings rotates opposite to canon lenses. Lens comes with a zoom lock button which is really helpful in restricting accidental zoom in or zoom out while pointing camera up or upside down, although its zoom ring is reasonably stiff and lets you zoom in and out very smoothly. This lens is equipped with internal auto focus mechanism with a rear focusing ring. It means its front element won’t rotate during focusing which is really helpful if you want to use any filters on it. Its autofocus PZ drive is really smooth, reasonably silent and very accurate in well lit conditions. Lets talk about results and image quality. Generally its image quality is good and satisfactory. One might not get a very nice bokeh as compared to primes but if you are aware about the foregrounds and backgrounds of your subject you can get a good smooth background. Lens is acceptably sharp in close-ups as well specially above 6.3 aperture. There are some fringing issues around edges at 16mm in open apertures but that can be fixed in post processing in a single mouse click. Fringing reduces if we close aperture beyond f/4.5 in wide angles. Its VC (vibration compensation) also works well at all focal lengths and one can easily click handheld even at 300mm. So all in all this lens is really very good for beginners who can’t afford multiple lenses. It is also a good walking around lens because of its zoom range and size.