From a distance…
These lenses give big telephoto reach, but some are more powerful than others
For Nikon cameras, a longstanding favourite supertelephoto zoom range is 80-400mm. The original Nikon AF 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6d VR was launched back in 2000 and eventually replaced by the AF-S 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6g ED VR in 2013, as featured in this Big Test. Nikon’s first and so far only Z-mount super-tele zoom has a similar range of 100-400mm, as do the more budget-friendly Sigma and Tamron F-mount lenses on test.
Naturally, if you mount a 100-400mm lens on a DX camera, the APS-C format crop factor boosts the ‘effective’ zoom range to 150-600mm, without the one or two f-stop reduction in aperture width of using a 1.4x or 2x teleconverter respectively. All of the lenses on test are FX (full-frame) compatible, and all but the Nikon Z 100-400mm are designed for F-mount DSLRS. However, these can also be used on mirrorless Z system FX and DX cameras via an FTZ or FTZ II mount adapter. The only caveat is that early examples of the Tamron 100-400mm and 150-600mm lenses in the group will need a firmware update to V3 and V2 respectively.
For extending your telephoto reach even further, Nikon offers the AF-S 200-500mm f/5.6e ED VR, while Sigma and Tamron have supersized their longest zooms to a range of 150-600mm. On a DX body, the effective zoom range of these lenses gets bumped up to 300-750mm or a huge 225-900mm. You can use the lenses here with the same make of teleconverter but, if you’re starting with an aperture of f/6.3 at the long end, a 2x tele-converter will narrow it to f/13.
For tracking the action in sport and wildlife photography, fast autofocus (AF) is needed. These lenses oblige with rapid and quiet ring-type ultrasonic AF systems, apart from the Nikon Z 100-400mm, which features super-fast and near silent AF based on dual linear stepping motors.
Effective image stabilization is crucial when shooting handheld – or even with a monopod – at such long focal lengths. Sure enough, all of the lenses on test feature optical stabilization, competing systems being Nikon VR (Vibration Reduction), Sigma OS (Optical Stabilizer) and Tamron VC (Vibration Compensation).