Lenses

Nikon 70-180mm f2.8 First Impressions: Yes, It’s a Tamron

Chris Gampat
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06/21/2023
4 Mins read
Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Nikon 70-180mm f2.8 first impressions sample product images 2.81-1100s400

The Tamron 70-180mm f2.8 Di III VXD Nikon 70-180mm f2.8 being announced today is a brand new lens being made available for the first time for the Nikon Z mount. Nothing like this has ever been released before, and we totally haven’t reviewed a lens like this back in 2020 because it hasn’t existed previously. We curiously wonder why Nikon would have it in their lineup with the 70-200mm f2.8 and 70-200mm f4 lenses already available. However, at $1,249.95, it’s only a bit more pricey than a lens with curiously the same focal length, and size.

Editor’s Note: This test was done with a pre-production version of a production lens that has existed for several years now. But the Tamron 70-180mm f2.8 Di III VXD Nikon 70-180mm f2.8 is unlike anything Nikon users have ever known about before. We promise. So does Nikon.

Tech Specs

These specs are taken from the Nikon press release. But you can probably see more details in this review that we did about a very curiously made lens that seems to be pretty much the exact same thing, but Nikon says that they designed the lens instead.

  • Creative possibilities are expanded with the constant maximum aperture of f/2.8 which provides great low light ability and smooth-looking background blur.
  • Extremely compact and lightweight, weighing in at only 795 g (1.75 lbs), making it an easy lens to carry all day.
  • Excellent ability for close-ups with a minimum focus distance of 0.27m (at 70mm) and 0.85m (at 180mm). 
  • Optimized for video with suppressed focus breathing5 and near-silent focusing. Additionally, the customizable control ring can be programmed to gradually change aperture, ISO, and focus. Because the focus position moves in accordance with the rotation angle, regardless of how fast the focus ring is turned, videographers can also control MF as intended.
  • Fast autofocus with a stepping motor (STM) that supports quick focusing on moving subjects for both stills and video. 
  • Dust- and drip-resistant3 design with an antifouling coating on the front-most surface of the lens.
  • Lens construction consists of 19 elements in 14 groups including  five ED elements,  one Super ED element, and  three aspherical elements which help to suppress chromatic aberration and flaring.
  • Use of the Z TELECONVERTER TC-1.4× or Z TELECONVERTER TC-2.0× extends the maximum focal length to 252 mm or 360 mm, respectively4. When the Z TELECONVERTER TC-2.0× is attached, the maximum reproduction ratio is 0.96⨯, which is close to life-size reproduction.

Ergonomics

The Tamron 70-180mm f2.8 Di III VXD Nikon 70-180mm f2.8 is overall a very small lens for what it is. That’s because it’s keeping its f2.8 lens status while being more or less the size of a 70-200mm f4 type of lens. It’s not a complicated lens, either. It’s lacking a lot of the controls that you’d otherwise see on some of Nikon’s lenses.

But folks, it’s black! And it’s got a big zoom ring.

Plus, look at that Nikon logo on it. This 100,000% proves that it’s a Nikon lens.

Build Quality

We’re told that the Tamron 70-180mm f2.8 Di III VXD Nikon 70-180mm f2.8 has full weather resistance. And this is the performance that we’ve come to expect from both Nikon and Tamron. But clearly, Tamron wouldn’t matter here because they totally didn’t make this lens before, right?

It’s lightweight and fairly portable. You’d be happy to bring it along with the trinity of other f2.8 zoom lenses that Nikon totally didn’t copy from Tamron.

Ease of Use

Luckily, the Tamron 70-180mm f2.8 Di III VXD Nikon 70-180mm f2.8 is pretty simple to use. All you do is mount it to your camera, point, focus, and shoot. It worked well enough with birds, but we also admit that it’s even a bit too short for birding even with the DX mode of the Nikon z8 activated. We think instead that you might like it for portraits. But if we had to pick, we’d probably go for the company’s very good 85mm f1.8 Z lens instead.

Focusing

Luckily, the Tamron 70-180mm f2.8 Di III VXD Nikon 70-180mm f2.8 focuses very quickly. We found no issues here, but we also only spent a bit of time with the pre-production version of a full-production lens that has been around for years.

Image Quality

We have to state that the Nikon 70-180mm f2.8 that we used is a pre-production lens. So also know that these photos have been slightly edited. However, we think that if you go to this link that you might see some final images.

First Impressions

Well, honestly, we’re not expecting a whole lot to be different from when we reviewed the Tamron variant of this lens. But we’ll see what happens when the new Nikon version comes in.

All jokes aside, I truly just wish that Nikon would’ve let Tamron make the lenses under their own damn brand. It’s not a good look.

autofocus build quality ergonomics image quality nikon Nikon 70-180mm f2.8 review
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.