While the Tamron 70-300mm's blur characteristics held up quite well on the 5D's larger sensor, shading was another matter. There was a full 1/2 stop of light falloff in the corners at all focal lengths, decreasing as the aperture was stopped down. One stop down cut the falloff about in half, two stops brought it down to a pretty low level.

Tamron 70-300mm f/4-5.6 SP Di VC USD Lens Review Tamron 70-300mm f/4-5.6 SP Di VC USD Lens Review

The other standout feature is Tamron's Vibration Correction (VC) system - an optical stabiliser that offers 4-stop performance in fending off camera-shake. Our image stabilization test is almost finished for this lens, which advertises four stops of improvement. The difference in image quality between the 70-300 L and the Tamron 70-300 VC is readily apparent in the results. This will be noticeable in certain shots - such as when an evenly-blue sky is in the corner of a frame.In general, this is the highest quality Tamron SP zoom I have ever used. It outperforms the Nikkor 70-300 VR much. With the Nikon Z mount version, users can employ the dedicated TAMRON Lens Utility software that was developed in-house by TAMRON[4]. This application enables users to easily update the lens to the latest firmware themselves without going through the camera[5]. The Tamron 70-300mm f/4-5.6 Di VC USD Lens features Tamron's Vibration Compensation technology (the VC in the name), promising 4-stops of camera shake assistance. With their deeper DOF (Depth of Field) with identical framing, APS-C camera bodies will not show the focus errors as readily as full frame bodies. Here is a comparison of the aperture step down between the Tamron and some Canon telephoto lens models.

DPReview TV: Tamron 70-300 F4.5-6.3 review

But the tamron is a newer design, is cheaper, better build, has ring AF and full-time manual focus. Aperture ring and other control elements: The focus ring on the Tamron 70-300 can be assigned in camera to operate the aperture, exposure compensation, or ISO sensitivity – or simply switched off. This is similar to the multi-function control ring on the Z-Nikkor 100-400 but there are no other control elements/buttons/switches. The F-Nikkor 70-300 has no aperture ring but sports two switches to control focus and VR mode. [+] While it is for a different mount (they have not done other mounts yet), it is more comparable to the similarly priced Nikon AF-P 70-300 f/4.5 to f/5.6 VR (full frame version of the lens) The close-focus point is 0.8m / 31.5inch from the film/sensor plane at 70mm and 1.5m / 59.1inch at 300mm, with a maximum reproduction ratio of 1:9.4 at 70mm and 1:5.1 at 300mm. Bokeh Unlike most lenses who have macro in their name and don't really offer that much max. magnification this wasDo you recall the saying when everything else fails read the instruction book. If you do so you will find that you need to set the focusing ring to a 1.5 meters or more to take out of Macro. Furthermore, the zoom needs to be set to between 180 and 300 mm to turn the macro switch on. There is more valuable information if you bother to read the instruction sheet I suspect better samples of this lens exist since not every online review I've read about it notes the issues with blurring and chromatic aberration.

Tamron 70-300mm f/4-5.6 Di LD Macro 1:2 AF Review

Narrowing the aperture a bit lessens the effect, but you'll want to go down to f/11 to get off-center results that show good resolution. Compare this with the Sony FE 70-300mm—we've not had a chance to test it on the a7R IV, but with the 42MP a7R II it captures photos with much more consistently good resolution from center to edge. The larger pixels of our full-frame Canon EOS-5D test bed make for somewhat better blur performance. We were surprised by how well the lens did in the corners of the frame, where we often see increased softness at the edges of a lens' image circle. A surprisingly good performance, as long as your camera's pixels are large enough. Overall the lens is usable through its entire focal length, when you keep a few large aperture values in mind that you might want to avoid because of noticeable corner blur. The purple fringing can be quite disturbing in high-contrast photos and it cost quite an effort to alleviate the effect in Photoshop. However, what makes this lens still very attractive is its low weight and relatively small dimensions, making it a good choice for travellers. Given the very low price of this lens, the image quality is actually quite acceptable. Chromatic aberrations, typically seen as purple or blue fringes along contrasty edges, are fairly well controlled with this lens - the example below shows the worst-case scenario. Light Fall-off and DistortionIn August of 2010 Tamron released an updated version of its 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, with a few notable improvements. The first and most obvious is the addition of Vibration Control (VC) technology, to reduce the effect of camera shake and provide sharper images. The lens appears to be completely redesigned, with 4 additional lens elements and a new autofocus system. The first point of comparison is between the old and new. Apart from a bit of a price hike, the old lens matches the new for sharpness, and in some cases, betters it. However the new lens offers improved CA tolerance, and less corner shading, as well as the obvious benefits of USD focusing and Vibration Control. The nine-blade diaphragm stops down to f/32-45 as you go through the zoom range, whereas the largest available apertures range from f/4-5.6 For Sony or Nikon photographers who are concerned about the Tamron name on this lens, keep in mind that the modern landscape of third-party lenses has changed dramatically in recent years. Companies like Tamron are no longer confined to the periphery. In fact, Nikon respects Tamron enough to enlist their help with some Z-series lenses (such as the Nikon Z 17-28mm f/2.8, Nikon Z 28-75mm f/2.8, and Nikon Z 70-180mm f/2.8).