I’ve been trying to find out if the Tamron 18-400mm VC HLD is compatible with my Nikon D5300. Answers so far have been ‘maybe’, ‘possibly’, and ‘don’t know’! Can you help? Terry Hutchins

Jason says...the short answer is ‘yes’, the Tamron 18-400mm should work perfectly with the D5300, or any other D5xxx series camera.

Here’s the long version... Like a growing number of recent lenses from Nikon and Sigma, as well as Tamron, the 18-400mm VC HLD has an electromagnetically controlled aperture. Key advantages are that exposure levels are more consistent when shooting in high-speed continuous drive mode, and functionality is enhanced for video and Live View shooting. However, aperture control is incompatible with older cameras including the Nikon D2-series, D1-series, D200, D100, D90, D80, D70-series, D60, D50, D40-series, D3000, and all Nikon’s film SLR cameras.

With these bodies, you’d only be able to use the lens at its widest available aperture, which narrows from f/3.5 to f/6.3 as you extend through the zoom range of the lens.

Like many new lenses, the Tamron 18400mm has electromagnetic diaphragm control, which is better for high-speed continuous shooting, as well as for Live View and movie capture