Angle of View
Tamron super-zooms, Photoshop CC and more in our gear round-up
Tamron has been very busy on the super-zoom lens front recently. First [1 in picture below right], there’s a 16-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD Macro (£529 / $629) for APS-C format cameras. Set to be available in Canon, Nikon and Sony mounts, it should offer superb versatility for anyone who only wants to carry one lens.
Naturally, there are bound to a couple of compromises in a lens with such a wide zoom range – you’ll see a bit of chromatic aberration along high-contrast edges, for example – but the focussing is impressively fast. Although it’s not a true macro lens, its closest focussing distance of 39cm is surprisingly short.
Next up [2], the 14-150mm f/3.5-5.8 Di III (£389 / $589) is designed for Micro Four Thirds cameras. I’m sure its effective focal length of 28-300mm will make it popular among Olympus and Panasonic compact system camera users.
Perhaps the biggest surprise in this line-up [3] is the 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 Di lll VC (£389 / $499). This lens is specifically designed for the Canon M compact system camera, which hasn’t exactly challenged for many sales records.
Not wishing to forget full-frame users [4], the 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD (£619 / $849) will be available with Canon, Nikon and Sony mounts and is aimed at Canon 6D and Nikon D610 users who want an all-in-one travel optic. Tamron makes some very worthwhile alternatives to own-brand lenses, and this quartet looks set to maintain that reputation.
What I like: Superzoom lenses offer a handy way to cover a wide focal range
What I don’t like: Inevitably image quality is compromised to an extent