We review the Tamron 150-500mm f/5-6.7 Di III VC VXD

news7g06/29/2023

1 4 minutes read

We review the Tamron 150-500mm f/5-6.7 Di III VC VXD

The Tamron 150-500mm f/5-6.7 Di III VC VXD is a super-telephoto lens for Fujifilm and Sony APS-C cameras, and it has quite a few tricks up its sleeve. In this review, I detail my experience using this lens for sports and nature photography with a Fujifilm camera.

Big and responsible

The Tamron 150-500mm is an impressive lens to see and use. While it’s not fast, the variable aperture of f/5-6.7 is nothing short of bad for such a long focal length. On APS-C camera systems, the lens has a full-frame focal length equivalent to 225-750mm. The lens weighs 3.77 pounds and is 8.3 inches long, it’s relatively compact for such a great zoom range. However, if you need to get hold of it right away, it’s perfectly manageable, at least for a short while. The lens boasts excellent build quality and an impressive range of features. It’s weatherproof, uses a quiet, fast linear motor for autofocus, and has different image stabilization modes (Tamron calls them VC, short for Vibration Compensation): Mode 1 , standard; Mode 2, dedicated to panning; and Mode 3, frame priority. The lens features a minimum subject distance of 23.6 inches (150 mm tip), an Arca-Swiss compatible tripod, and an ingenious “Flexible Zoom Lock” mechanism. In addition to the standard lock, you can lock the zoom at any focal length by simply pushing the zoom tube forward. A small white line appears around the lens when you use the flexible zoom lock, which makes it easy to tell that you have indeed locked the lens, and I find this to be an extremely practical and well-balanced feature. Be careful when moving. The lens also has a standard lock button. Smooth and oversized zoom ring, rotates 75 degrees from 150 to 500mm. This makes zooming in or out to capture an elusive subject much easier. On the lens body there are oversized buttons for zoom lock, VC mode, focus limiter, and AF/MF control. Everything about this lens feels solid and premium, making it very enjoyable to use for sports and nature.

auto focus

The linear autofocus motor in the Tamron 150-500mm provides fast, quiet, and reliable focusing. Using this lens for about a month, I had no trouble capturing birds, bees, or people with fast and accurate autofocus. In difficult situations like photographing a bird among tree branches, bird-priority AF and Vibration Compensation work well together. I used the lens in VC Mode 3 for most of my shoots and consistently produced sharp images, whether in handheld mode or when using a single tripod. For a lens with a variable aperture of f/5-6.7, the autofocus speed and accuracy are actually quite excellent. When using the Fujifilm X-H2 and X-T5, there were only a few times when the lens had difficulty focusing, and that was always when the scene was dark with minimal contrast.

Image quality

The image quality of the Tamron 150-500mm is excellent. Using the X-T5 and X-H2, I was able to capture some great and even closer cropped images, such as the bee shot in this review, which was cropped around 100% . At 500mmmm, the quality is very good, but I found that my favorite shots were taken at the wider zoom angle. Another pleasant surprise of the Tamron 150-500mm is the pleasing bokeh and subject separation, as well as the excellent contrast and colors. One thing to keep in mind when using a zoom lens at this range is that there will be some compromises in image quality, but for a 500mm lens, the images are excellent.

Best for outdoor shooting

The Tamron 150-500mm is well-suited to many applications, but it’s important to note that with a lens with a maximum aperture of f/5-6.7, it will perform best when shooting outdoors with lots of natural light. For example, this lens shines when it comes to outdoor sports photography. However, if you plan to shoot indoor sports without flicker, the ISO requirements will be too high so the results will be mixed. Even outdoors on a sunny day when photographing birds in the shade of trees, I had to increase the ISO to get a shutter speed fast enough to freeze them as they flew. If you’re shooting sports, nature, or even portraits, you’ll be extremely pleased with this performance as long as there’s enough ambient light to keep the ISO low and shutter speed up. I tried using this lens in a very bright room during the day, and even in that situation I still needed ISO 6,400 and 12,800, which really didn’t yield good results. This is not a small issue compared to this particular lens, but something to think about when purchasing any telephoto lens with a similar maximum aperture.

Value for date

As I close this review, the main point I want to emphasize is how excellent the Tamron 150-500mm is. Right now, it costs $1,299. The regular price is $1,399, but Tamron is offering an instant $100 discount. This is where the Tamron 150-500mm really excels. That is a great value. For instance, when compared to a Fujifilm 150-600mm that retails for $1,999, or a Fujifilm 100-400mm that costs $1,899, the Tamron 150-500mm is a great choice for APS-C shooters using the camera. Fujifilm photo.