What is It?
The Tamron 50-400mm f/4.5-6.3 first appeared for the Sony FE mount in 2022. In August 2024 Tamron announced a version in the Z mount, which is the lens being reviewed here.
There's a lot going on here, as this lens has a wide focal range (8x) plus an extended range of features at a relatively low price (US$1300). 50mm is about 47° (diagonal), while 400mm is 6°11' (also diagonal). That's basically from just within our color viewing capability (60°) down to our typical word recognition angle (5-10°). This focal range feels very natural when put up to the eye at 50mm and then zooming in for detail. That's similar to what our brain does trying to make out detail. By comparison, a 100-400mm lens tends to already feel like it's picking out detail when you put it up to your eye at 100mm; if you're a find-then-zoom type when composing, the 50mm is a nice touch compared to 70/100/more.
The 50-400mm f/4.5-6.3 is not only fully weather sealed, but has a fluorine coating on the front element to ward off water and dust as well as BBAR-G2 coating to combat reflection. You get a HA067 lens hood with the lens.
Other features include an AF/MF switch, a single Lens Fn button, and a focal length lock to keep the lens minimized during carry. An optional tripod collar is available with an Arco-style foot (A035TM), though that foot is very short, and not much of a handhold point.
Optically, the lens is complex, with 24 elements in 18 groups. Those groups fall into four other groupings, with the frontmost group of eight elements being mostly where the "zoom" is done (by extending the barrel), while a much smaller group handles the focus. Two of the elements are aspherical, and five use special low dispersion glass. Up front, there's the usual 67mm front filter ring Tamron tries to standardize on. That has implications for maximum aperture:
- 50-60mm — f/4.5
- 61-86mm — f/5
- 87-157mm — f/5.6
- 158mm+ — f/6.3
Focus is done internally using Tamron's typical voice coil (VXD) motor, which provides fast, quiet focusing. By fast I mean that the full focus range from infinity can be transected in a bit more than a half second, which is fast for a telephoto lens that nears macro status. The bonus is that Tamron has enabled near macro level focus, at least at the wide end. From 50mm to 70mm the maximum reproduction ratio is 1:2. This then slowly scales to 1:5.3 by the time you reach 200mm, but then drops again to 4:1 by the time you reach 400mm. Working distance at 50mm is slim 5cm, while at 400mm the working distance is reasonable 1.2m.
Tamron has provided their form of lens stabilization, VC, on the lens, but they don't specify a CIPA number. The stabilization is controlled by the camera. Unlike the Sony model of this lens, which has a VC switch, the Nikon version instead has a Custom switch with three positions, .
The lens is 7.3" in length when collapsed, and 88.5mm in diameter, so travels in your bag fairly sveltely. Tamron doesn't provide any cloth sack or carrying case with the lens.
The Tamron 50-400mm f/4.5-6.3 is made in Vietnam, and sells for US$1300. Note that it cannot be used with teleconverters.
Tamron's Web page for the lens
Source of the reviewed lens: purchased
How's it Handle?
The lens feels on the heavy side, particularly on a smaller body such as the Z5II. At 41.6 ounces (1180g), it's not a light plastic wannabe. The rings are easily found and distinguished (zoom in front, focus towards the camera). The zoom ring on my sample has no hitches, doesn't zoom creep, and goes from 50 to 400mm in about a quarter turn. At 400mm, the lens is about 3" (~75mm) longer than at 50mm. This makes balance on a small, light body more front heavy.
Like many Tamron's, the rear lens cap doesn't cinch to the lens as well as Nikon's; I kept finding it falling off if I didn't over tighten it.
While you can treat the Lens Fn button and focus ring the same with the Tamron as you do with Nikkor lenses (via Custom Setting #F2), if you download the Tamron Lens Utility you have access to additional functions on the Custom switch. This can get confusing, so read the manual carefully.
I couldn't get the Tamron utility to load correctly on my state-of-the-art Apple Silicon Mac. It worked fine on my Intel-based Mac.
Overall, I found the material Tamron uses to be a little more slippy than Nikon's. This is particularly true if the outer shell gets moist from humidity or even wet. The good news is that the rubber rings do provide a good grip in those conditions.
How’s it Perform?
Focus: As noted, very fast and reliable focus performance. What was surprising is how little focus breathing the lens has, particularly at the wide angle end, where it's almost not measurable (~1%). Focus does change during zoom.
Sharpness: We have clear variability depending upon focal length to take into account with the lens used wide open (maximum aperture). At the wider focal lengths (50-70mm), the center is excellent, the DX boundaries are still very good+, but the full frame corners show clear blurring due to astigmatism (more at 50mm than 70mm). In the mid-range (71-299mm) the center falls a bit to excellent-, the DX boundaries are very good, put the full frame corners pull up to perhaps the good- range. Finally, at 300mm we see a return of what we see at 50mm (poor corners but strong center). By the time you get to 400mm the lens again starts to lose some sharpness in the center while gaining it back in the corners.
Stopping down obviously improves sharpness, to the point where the full DX area is probably fully at excellent or excellent- at f/8. Compared to my Nikkor 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 VR S, the Tamron holds up quite well except in the extreme full frame corners.
When pushed to its close-up boundaries, the center is exceptionally sharp, but you absolutely need to stop down to get even the DX boundaries into reasonable shape. Corners are always going to be blurry at minimum focus distance at 50mm due to field curvature. At 400mm things work the other way: the center is down to good but the DX boundary is excellent and the full frame corner very good. I’d tend to say stop down a stop to get the best close up performance at full zoom.
Looked at a different way, I have no issues at all with the Tamron from 100-300mm. I can accept its results pretty much edge to edge in that range, even wide open. 50mm has a bit of corner blur, while 400mm has a gentle softening compared to 300mm. Considering the price, size, and range of this lens, this is remarkable performance for what really is a budget lens.
Coma is very well controlled.
Central sharpness is fine, and well suited to most subjects you'd photograph with the lens. Note that the background bokeh is a little bit busy in this image, a typical problem with lower cost telephoto zooms (the slower aperture doesn't help).
Vignetting: Very clear vignetting wide open, and worst at 400mm. This tends to be mostly deep vignetting in the extreme corners, with less impact to the DX frame boundaries, with 50mm having a very wide vignette free area, 400mm having some modest vignetting even into the DX boundary. Stopping down even one stop reduces the visibility considerably.
Linear distortion: Pincusion distortion in the 2% realm, particularly at the shorter focal lengths.
Chromatic Aberration: longitudinal CA is mostly absent near the focus plane, though it can sometimes be seen in the background bokeh. Likewise, lateral CA is well controlled.
Flare: You’re probably not going to notice any of the usual ghosting type flare, as that flare with in-frame light sources is low. Ghosting is there, just in very low, non-obvious form. However, veiling flare can be high both with in-frame light sources as well as strong backlit subjects. The lens is a bit worse with flare at 400mm than 50mm, but it’s rare you’d be framing light sources at 400mm. Still, be careful with backlit subjects.
Bokeh: very bright borders and a pepperoni style mess in the center (not onion ring, but clear blobs). At long distances, there's some color to the border (due to modest LCA). Cat’s eye shows up by the DX border wide open; stopping down can erradicate it at the DX boundary, but you’ll still have some in the outer border area.
Final Thoughts
The Tamron 50-400mm f/4.5-6.3 is a very good lens on full frame cameras, a better lens on DX bodies (though heavy). It has a wide focal length range and close focusing abilities that should be attractive to users looking for an all-around telephoto zoom.
Compared to Nikon’s own 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 VR S lens, the Tamron 50-400mm f/4.5-6.3 lags a little optically in the corners, has slower apertures at similar focal lengths, and the Tamron VC doesn’t work as well as the Nikon VR. But the Nikon lens is US$2700 and the Tamron half the price at US$1300 (both are list prices; both lenses come on sale fairly regularly). Thus, you can also think of the Tamron as the budget option without much in the way of clear drawbacks. It packs a little smaller, too.
It would be easy to nitpick, but I don’t think you want to do that at this price/quality point. It would be difficult to find anything that comes close to matching what this Tamron can do at its price. Do note, however, that the tripod mount for the lens is an option, and that you can’t use teleconverters with this lens. That suggests that it is a great walk around lens for someone that needs longer focus lengths and some closer focus ability.
Z5II users extending into the telephoto range should take a close look at this lens, but I wouldn’t feel uncomfortable at all putting it on a Z8 or Z9, particularly for wildlife, where the center-to-midframe is the most important.
Recommended (2025 to present)
Support this site by purchasing from the following advertiser:
