GROUP TEST: TELEPHOTO ZOOMS

A classic optic reinvented for the latest DSLRs, the traditional 70-300mm tele zoom has had something of a makeover

Four lenses are put under the spotlight in this issue’s group test, with telephoto zooms from Canon, Nikon, Pentax and Tamron put to the test

Think telephoto zoom and you’re probably envisioning either 70200mm f2.8 or 70-300mm lenses with a variable aperture rating of around f4-5.6. There’s no beating the former for pro-grade quality and a ‘fast’ aperture, but they tend to be big, heavy lenses weighing in at around 1,500g. Smaller, traditional 70300mm zooms are much more convenient for travel, and lighten the load for prolonged periods of handheld shooting.

Naturally, while you lose two f-stops of aperture width at the long end of the zoom range, you also gain an extra 100mm of telephoto reach, compared with a 70-200mm lens. Better still, if you’re shooting on an APS-C camera body, the crop factor gives you an ‘effective’ reach of 450mm (480mm for Canon DSLRs). Brilliant for action sports, wildlife and other scenarios when you can’t get physically close to what you’re shooting, this combination of body and lens takes you into super-telephoto territory, while avoiding the cumbersome and frankly massive, weighty pairing of a full-frame body with, say, a 150-500mm lens.

While 70-300mm lenses have been highly popular since the days of 35mm film photography, they’ve recently had something of a resurgence. Tamron completely revamped its 70-300mm lens back in

2010, upgrading the optical elements and adding ring-type ultrasonic autofocus along with highly effective optical stabilisation.

Over the last year or two, Canon, Nikon and Pentax have come up with new and improved formulas. The first two are fullframe compatible, whereas the Pentax is a 55-300mm lens designed specifically for APS-C format bodies, and goes all-out for compactness. Let’s take a closer look at how they compare.