Tamron 70-300mm F/4.5-6.3 Di III RXD for Sony Mirrorless Full Frame/APS-C E-Mount (Tamron 6 Year Limited Warranty)

Product overview

Tamron 70-300mm F/4.5-6.3 Di III RXD: What to Know

Tamron puts the warranty in the name, and that is the right place for it. Six years of limited cover is longer than the one or two years typical of own-brand lenses, and it directly addresses the unspoken worry about third-party glass: that you are buying something with less support behind it. For a telephoto zoom, which has more moving parts than a prime and gets carried outdoors, long cover is worth real money.

The lens itself is built around portability, which Tamron leads with and which is the genuine achievement: a 70-300mm for full-frame mirrorless that is light enough to carry casually. Optics are 15 elements in 10 groups, and the close-focus figures are better than most telephotos manage, 31.5 inches at the wide end for a 1:9.4 magnification and 59.1 inches at the tele end for 1:5.1. That tele figure, roughly a fifth of life size from five feet away, makes it usable for flowers and insects at a respectful distance.

Construction is moisture resistant, which is not full weather sealing but is the right claim for a lens used outdoors in unreliable weather.

The omission to plan around is stabilisation, and the listing hides it: there is no mention in the bullets, and the detail table simply says Image stabilization: No. At 300mm that matters, so this lens assumes a Sony body with in-body stabilisation, which most current E-mount bodies have. On an older body without it, 300mm handheld at f/6.3 will be difficult. It fits both full-frame and APS-C E-mount bodies, where the crop makes it a 105 to 450mm equivalent.

Key Listed Features