Test of the Tamron Z 70-300 f4.5-6.3

Tamron 70-300 at 300mm f/6.3

I bought this lens to accompany my 24-70 f/4 with an affordable telephoto lens. I have the Nikon Z 24-200 too, but the 24-70 is my carry-around lens due to its weight, its image quality which exceeds the 24-200 visibly, and the one stop gain at 50-70mm. The idea was to have the 70-300 in the bag in case a longer lens is needed.

I am a travel photographer more or less. For serious work, I prefer the quality of a prime lens, like the Z 105mm MC or the 50mm f/1.8. For street work, the 28mm f/2.8 is good enough for me. I rarely shoot wildlife, but have done some nice stuff in the zoo with my 24-200 already.

The images on this page are all done with the Tamron Z 70-300. They range from close micro ranges to telephoto wildlife. I am sorry to be unable to show you the intended use of this lens as a telephoto lens for landscapes or in cities. 

To make a long story short, I returned the lens. There are several reasons.

• Test images did not reveal a major difference to the 24-200 in the shared range. I did shots at several focal distances between 70 and 200, and several f-stops. I could not see any improvement. The longer reach to 300mm does not justify to burden myself with this telephoto lens.
• At 70mm, the lens has such a bed field curvature that you cannot use it for flat scenes. Stopping down does not help. Focusing at a spot outside the center of the frame gets sharpness there, so it is definitely field curvature. I could imagine situations like shooting an image of the front of a building or a mountain at 70mm.
• There is too much cat's eye Bokeh for my liking. This creates a circular effect in the background which is sometimes disturbing. See the image below for an example.

The lens has much to recommend itself, especially the price, the size and the weight. It is a very long lens, but other options are much more bulky. If you need a small wildlife option, your best bet is still MFT. But that is a completely different story.

The lens does also have some micro capabilities with its relatively close focus distance. Together with the smooth background at 200-300mm, you can create some nice images.

Finally, a photo where the telephoto range is used for the purpose most photographers associate with it. But any true wildlife photographer will tell you that 300mm is not enough. You could mount the 70-300 to an APS-C camera like the Z50 to get 450mm, or to a Z7 in DX mode. As said, this kind of photography is not my cup of tea.