Sony Photography News and Rumors

Tamron has released a formidable lineup of lenses for Sony E-mount over the past few years and now they are releasing lenses for X-mount starting with the Tamron 18-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Di III-A VC VXD (Model B061). Tamron does not have a lot of APS-C mirrorless lenses at this time, but I have heard good things about the few they have released and I really enjoy their full-frame lineup. Of course with this announcement, Tamron is giving interviews and the first big one is with DC.Watch and you can read the translated summary below:

• Tamron started development for X-mount more than a years ago
• Tamron started the development because they want as many people as possible to get into photography
• Sony has a larger market, but Fujifilm’s X mount has a sufficiently large market share now to support 3rd party lenses
• Many have been asking Tamron to release lenses for more than just Sony too
• Tamron choose to make a high magnification zoom first because Fujifilm doesn’t really have one except for the XF18-135mmF3.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR and Sony can’t match the 18-300mm either
• Mr. Yukio Misawa says this lens is for photographers that want to be able to shoot everything with one lens and to make travel easier
• There are no 16.6x high magnification zooms at this time for mirrorless and the ones that are out do not provide high image quality like the 18-300mm
• Even within Tamron there was a desire to limit the lens to 200mm for safe performance and size, but accepted the challenge of 300mm and succeeded
• The prototype was initially much larger, but Tamron was able to get the size down while maintaining high optical performance and operability
• The 18-300mm needs 3 motors to control the lens AF, Aperture, and IBIS
• The optical system had to be lightweight to be driven by small motors which made it very difficult to design
• The biggest problems they ran into were with the mechanic shop which caused Tamron to have to go back to the drawing board to start over again
• High magnification zooms require the barrel to be expanded and contracted so the lens groups move through the lens right and this is the most difficult thing to arrange which is why the mechanical work took a lot of effort and adding IBIS made it even more difficult
• The first prototype had a diameter of 80.5mm, but Tamron was able to shrink it and give the lens its standard 67mm filter size and it is even sharper now
• They were able to balance the zoom torque and diameter well by increasing the number of metal cylinder parts
• The Tamron 18-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Di III-A VC VXD will be about 620g so you could shoot it with one hand, but it is not recommended
• Achieving 620g required the precise engineering of metal and plastic parts
• The close focus shooting distance at 18mm will be about 0.15m with a working distance of about 5mm
• Wide-angle macro is very exciting and interesting
• Smartphone photographers are used to getting close so they wanted to remove restrictions to see what photographers do with a focus distance that is close enough to touch the front element
• This is Tamron’s sharpest high magnification zoom with 7 lens groups for image quality
• The image quality is high enough to be good on even the best mirrorless camera even without digital correction
• This is Tamron’s first high magnification lens to use a linear motor VXD (Voice-coil eXtreme-torque Drive)
• The Tamron 70-180mm f/2.8 Di III VXD was their first lens to use this motor and it’s very fast and accurate
• The Tamron 18-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Di III-A VC VXD should be fast enough for users thanks to the VXD motor
• VXD motors are also very quiet so they can be used for shooting video
• Many Tamron users like to take photos and video

Tamron 18-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Di III-A VC VX D (Coming Soon):
B&H Photo / Amazon

The new Tamron 18-300mm f/3.5-6.3 is now listed on B&H Photo, which is a bit odd since the press release for its announcement mainly focuses on the lens being developed.

Key Features

• X-Mount Lens/APS-C Format
• 27mm-450mm (35mm Equivalent)
• Aperture Range: f/3.5 to f/22
• VXD Linear AF Motor
• Maximum Magnification: 1:2
• VC Image Stabilization
• Weather-Sealed Construction

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