If you are on the lookout for a single lens that features a focal
length for any photographic occasion, Tamron’s 16-300mm
18.8x zoom might be the answer to your prayers. Damien
Demolder tests one of the widest focal ranges on the market

THERE was a time when bridge cameras
were all the rage. This was the time when
digital SLRs were a massive price, and digital
compacts were not quite up to the job. It
was also when the term 'bridge camera' was
invented, because these all-in-one, multi-
purpose zoom-lens cameras were literally
a causeway, a step, a holding area, for
photographers who really wanted a DSLR
but who couldn't justify the price.

When DSLRs eventually became more
affordable, some manufacturers, Canon in
particular, were surprised that there was still
a demand for bridge cameras. People liked,
and still do like, the convenience of a camera
that does what a DSLR does, but which
never needs the lens changing and never

needs a bag to carry the extra lenses they
no longer need.

A fear of dust on imaging sensors was
another massive plus point for bridge
cameras, as they never had to expose
their innards to the elements. Also, people
generally liked the convenience, while
swallowing the disadvantages of the bridge
camera's inevitably smaller sensor.

Bridge cameras these days have much
larger sensors, but you can get that same
'bridge effect' with an APS-C or full-frame
DSLR if you find the right lens. Get a zoom
that covers every focal length you will ever
want to use, stick it on the camera and you'll
never have to take it off. This presents all
the advantages of having a bridge camera,

but with the quality advantage that a larger
sensor affords. Great idea? Well, Tamron
knows there are enough people who will
think that it is for the company to justify
the production of this all-encompassing
16-300mm mega-zoom.

While there are certainly advantages to
using an APS-C sensor, there will also be
costs in having a zoom with such a range.
Unfortunately, the laws of optics dictate that
some of those costs will be higher in a lens
designed for APS-C sensors than they are
for those designed for the thumbnail-sized
sensors of the original bridge models.

BUILD AND HANDLING

The version of this Tamron 16-300mm
f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD Macro lens I had to
test was fitted for Canon EF-S, so I chose to
mount it on an EOS 70D - being perhaps
at the upper end of the kind of camera
with which we might expect this lens to

be used. Extended or contracted,
the lens makes a fine mate for the
body. The two balance well, and

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53

Lens test Tamron 16-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD Macro

while somewhat heavy for all-day
carrying, it is no worse than most
enthusiasts are prepared to lumber

themselves with.

The lens is not especially small until one
considers the focal range it covers, but it
has a deceptive look of a lens that should be
small. In fact, when collapsed to 16mm, it is
not much longer or broader than we might
expect a 90mm f/2.8 macro lens to be, and,
apart from the dual rings, it does not look
especially unlike one. Its ability to double its
physical length when set to the 300mm
mark is quite surprising, because this 16-
300mm f/3.5-6.3 macro lens does not
look like a mega-zoom lens. I was expecting
something a little more brash and bulbous,
more along the lines of the 150-600mm
optic from Tamron's SP series that I tested
in AP 12 April. This model, by contrast, is
'quietly designed' and features a remarkably

‘The construction is
a pretty complicated
business, with 16
elements arranged
in 12 groups’

narrow barrel with a 67mm-diameter lens
cap. It is designed to look small, and it does.

Tamron has used the same rectilinear grid
pattern for the zoom and focus rings that we
have seen in previous models, with the zoom
control forward of the focus. These feel
good to the touch and are easy to grip and
turn even with thick gloves. A focus-distance
scale sits between the two rings beneath
a glass viewing window, creating a decent
distance to distinguish one from the other
when our eye is to the viewfinder. A rotation
of a little over 120°, or a third of a full turn,
takes the focus from 0.39m to infinity.

The build of the lens seems solid enough,
and there's not too much wobble when
the three-part barrel is fully extended. The
supplied hood is a little squidgy, but that
flexibility may well protect it from breaking
when under pressure.

A lock is provided that retains the barrels
when stowed in the 'home' 16mm position,
but it seems hardly necessary as, in this
factory-fresh unit at least, there is more than
enough resistance to counter the draw of
the Earth's gravity when the lens is pointing
down or up.

The construction is a pretty complicated
business, with 16 elements arranged in
12 groups. The more significant area is
inevitably at the front end, where Tamron
has used an element of only about 60mm
in diameter made from the company's
ultra extra refractive (UXR) glass, the
refractive properties of which are claimed
by Tamron to play an important part in the
miniaturisation of the whole unit. An
additional forward lens is made from
extra refractive (XR) glass, and there

Image quality

Coloured fringing in distant subjects extends well into the
frame atf/6.3

\

At f/11 fringing still exists, but it is less obvious in the centre
of the frame

This image demonstrates the degree of barrelling
present at 16mm

Most software will allow barrelling to be easily fixed

54

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Tamron 16-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD Macro Lens test

IMAGE quality is where we might expect
to pay the price for the convenience of
the all-in-one-type zoom. We should
remember, though, that while £600 is a lot
of money, this is in no way an expensive lens.
At this price, and with all those focal lengths
packaged into something very small, we
shouldn’t expect first-class results. I am not
preparing you with excuses, but just trying to
temper my findings with a degree of reality.

I will begin with the worst - chromatic
aberration. Coloured fringing is one of the
more difficult optical problems to correct
after the event - and beforehand too, it
seems - yet it is one of the more obvious
to the eye and therefore one of the most
objectionable. There are some aberrations
I can live with, but I find purple and green
glowing edges around high-contrast areas
very difficult to accept.

While there have been a number of
occasions when those edges have appeared
during this test, with red and cyan too, those
occasions were fewer than I had expected.
Some fringing appears in the extremes of
the frame when the wider focal lengths are
used, but at the longest end of the zoom
the fringes become wider and creep their
destructive way towards the centre of the
image. We know that it is the extremes
of a zoom that are used the most, and in
one that features such reach that length
will be used a great deal. I suspect, then,
that fringing will have an impact on a
disproportionately high number of images
shot with this model. One way to reduce the
effects of these fringes is to tidy them into
narrow bands by using a small aperture, but
we have to be careful that we don't sacrifice
resolution for the sake of a purple edge.

As one might expect, image sharpness
does not come at either end of the aperture
scale when using this lens. While the larger
apertures are decent when coupled with
wider and mid-range focal lengths, they

perform less well at the longest ends of the
zoom. I made a tripod-mounted comparison
using the 70mm focal-length setting (about
100mm in 35mm terms) and found that
at this focal length resolution starts well
enough, at f/5, and gradually improves to a
peak between f/11 and f/16, but then drops
off rapidly to become worse at f/22 than
it is at f/5. The peak is narrow and clearly
defined. When shooting at the 300mm

Below and bottom:
With the lens set
to 70mm, I shot
this scene across
the entire aperture
range. You can see
how resolution
increases to f/11
and then falls off
beyond f/16

setting, I found the peak even narrower
and quite difficult to find in distant subjects.
Certainly f/6.3 and a focus point at infinity
does not provide anything that looks sharp
or even detailed, but when focused on a
closer subject things improve a good deal.

In fact, close-up the lens performs well. I
photographed a duck's head 6ft (2m) away
at the 300mm setting and used an aperture
of f/10, and I am impressed with the detail
and texture captured (see page 56).

I had expected to write at length on
the subjects of vignetting and curvilinear
distortions, but on the darkening of corners
the lens has rather disappointed me. While
some fall-off in illumination is detectable in
technical subjects, in the real-life situations
in which I'd expect this lens to be used that
darkening is not really noticeable.

Barrelling and pincushion distortion do
make an appearance, though, bending lines
close to the edges of the frame at almost all
focal length positions. While the barrelling at
the 16mm end is not as bad as it could be
in distant subjects, when we focus on closer
things it is an issue. A church interior, for
example, will suffer only a little, but the small
bedroom of your house might take on an
obviously distorted look.

Beyond the 50mm mark, the bending
switches to the other way - inwards in the
middle - and we enjoy pincushion distortion,
the slimming properties of which chubby
faces appreciate so much.

‘One way to reduce
the effects of these
fringes is to tidy
them into narrow
bands by using a
small aperture’

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