Subscribe here for an ad-free experience!

The Phoblographer may receive affiliate compensation for products purchased using links in this article. For more information, please visit our Disclaimers page.

Lenses

Tamron 50-300mm F4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD Review: A Lens for General Shoots

Chris Gampat
No Comments
Last updated on 06/03/2024
06/06/2024
7 Mins read
Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Tamron 50-300mm f4.5-6.3 review product images 41-60s400
Spread the love
          

I need to start this review with a statement: I don’t love shooting with Sony cameras. In fact, I’m convinced that people who do need to understand that the soul of a product is being engineered out of it. I hated math growing up — and when there’s too much math put into something, it removes the human element. But what saves Sony cameras for me has consistently been Tamron lenses. And today, the company is announcing their Tamron 50-300mm F4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD. This lens is designed for various photographers. You’d probably use it if you were doing sports photography with your kids running around. And you’d probably also use it for photojournalistic affairs. Better yet, it’s also an incredible portrait lens. Our favorite thing about this lens, though, is the colors.

Declarations

The Phoblographer is one of the last standing dedicated photography publications that speaks to both art and tech in our articles. We put declarations up front in our reviews to adhere to journalistic standards that several publications abide by. These help you understand a lot more about what we do:

  • At the time of publishing this review, Tamron is an advertiser with the Phoblographer. However, our campaign focuses on driving sales by convincing folks how great their lenses truly are at such an affordable cost. This review isn’t sponsored, and the advertising spent has nothing to do with our reviews.
  • We’re initially publishing this review with a pre-production unit. Later, we’ll update it with a production unit, which could even be updated as new firmware comes in.
  • Note that this isn’t our final review of the lens. It will be updated, and it’s more of an in-progress review than anything. In fact, almost all our reviews are like this.
  • This review, and none of the reviews on the Phoblographer, are sponsored. That’s against FTC laws and we adhere to them just the same way that newspapers, magazines, and corporate publications do.
  • Tamron loaned the Tamron 50-300mm F4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD to the Phoblographer for review before the announcement. There was no money exchange between Tamron and the Phoblographer for this to happen. Tamron and several other manufacturers trust the Phoblographer’s reviews, as they are incredibly blunt.
  • Tamron knows that they cannot influence the site’s reviews. If we don’t like something or if we have issues with it, we’ll let folks know. We often call them out on their weak points, and in our sponsored work, they even ask us to use different quotes within our reviews about certain products if they feel the statement isn’t lively enough for their needs.
  • Tamron shipped the lens to the Phoblographer in NYC for loan. Our home office is based in New York.
  • The Phoblographer’s standards for reviewing products have become much stricter. After having the world’s largest database of real-world lens reviews, we choose not to review anything we don’t find innovative or unique, and in many cases, products that lack weather resistance. We’ve also steered away from Micro Four Thirds and APS-C as they’re dying formats. This is a conclusion that even the other members of TIPA agree on. Unless something is very unique, we probably won’t touch it.
  • At the time of publishing, the Tamron 50-300mm F4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD isn’t replacing the company’s 70-300mm lens. It remains to be an innovative option on the market and no one has anything like this for full-frame cameras.
  • In recent years, brands have withheld NDA information from us or stopped working with us because they feel they cannot control our coverage. These days, many brands will not give products to the press unless they get favorable coverage. In other situations, we’ve stopped working with several brands for ethical issues. Either way, we report as honestly and rawly as humanity allows.
  • At the time of publishing, the Phoblographer is the only photography publication that is a member of Adobe’s Content Authenticity Initiative. We champion human-made art and are frank with our audience. We are also the only photography publication that labels when an image is edited or not.

More can be found on our Disclaimers page.

The Big Picture: Tamron 50-300mm F4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD Review Conclusions

What am I to say about the Tamron 50-300mm F4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD that isn’t already apparently obvious? It gives so many photographers extra reach at the cost of raising your ISO just a bit more — if you even have to at all. Most lenses in this category start at 70mm, but at 50mm, you’ve got more versatility. You can truly go from shooting far away things to pretty close things with relative ease.

What’s more, this lens is weather-resistant, fast to focus, and has nice image quality. And for me, it makes shooting with Sony cameras pretty fun.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

I don’t have a single bad thing to say about the Tamron 50-300mm F4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD. It’s getting five out of five stars. Want one? Check it out on Amazon.

Pros

  • Weather resistance
  • Fast autofocus
  • USB-C port in the side for firmware updates
  • Fairly compact
  • Nice image quality that’s very vivid
  • Incredible image stabilization
  • Close focusing abilities

Cons

  • Nothing really, to be honest.

Gear Used

We tested the Tamron 50-300mm F4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD with the Sony a7r III and the Profoto B10. The lens was loaded to us by Tamron. The camera and light are our own, which we purchased a while back.

Innovations: What Makes the Tamron 50-300mm F4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD Worth a Review?

Most camera companies have a 70-300mm lens. But this lens goes wider at 50mm at the cost of around half a stop of so of extra light. Regardless, it doesn’t matter all that much. By all means, this is the single most innovative lens option in this consumer bracket.

Who Should Buy It?

Who should get the Tamron 50-300mm F4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD?

  • Amateur Sports photographers
  • Amateur birding photographers
  • Amateur photojournalists and event photographers
  • Those who shoot photos mostly during the daytime.

Hardware

The Tamron 50-300mm F4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD is a lightweight lens — even though you wouldn’t necessarily think so when hearing about it. The exterior feels like it’s made of plastic, and that keeps it lightweight. However, it’s also weather-resistant. Tamron’s weather resistance is some of the best in the industry — and that means that your Sony sensor will remain much cleaner.

When attached to a Sony camera body, it will also fit easily into most camera bags. It’s really that compact.

On the exterior, you’ll find the focusing ring and zoom ring. Further, there’s a USB port for updating the firmware. Tamron tells us that these ports on their lenses are sealed with the same standards as a phone.

Ease of Use

With a close focus of under 9 inches, the Tamron 50-300mm F4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD is really fun to use for a variety of subjects. I’m typically a photographer that likes shooting closer to subjects and wider. But when using the Tamron 50-300mm F4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD, I found myself still enjoying what it could do. What I’m most surprised by is how good the image stabilization is.

Focusing

Well, there’s a lot to talk about here. Folks like to often say that 3rd party manufacturers aren’t good with their autofocus. But Tamron is partially owned by Sony, so the two share algorithms. That makes them faster than Sigma. And indeed, I never missed a shot when shooting with the Tamron 50-300mm F4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD. At times, the tracking would sometimes jump around in low light with subjects, but I could easily readjust.

With newer cameras, it would be even better in low light.

As it is, when using this lens, I barely ever missed a shot. That’s great for photographers who shoot constantly in burst modes. But if you’re shooting one frame a second to document things as they’re happening, you’ll have no issues at all.

Image Quality

Remember how I said that Tamron lenses are what make Sony cameras so fun for me? Well, I’m not kidding here, either. Where I find Sigma and Sony way too mathematically sterile, lacking soul, and forcing me to do much post-production, Tamron doesn’t do that. Instead, Tamron speaks to me by making the skin on someone’s face look nice and soft so I don’t need to do a lot of skin smoothing. The colors are also overall very nice and vivid.

Additionally, the bokeh too is quite nice as it makes the subject pop from the background in a way that I’ve only really seen from Tamron’s higher end lenses. If I ever shot with only Sony cameras, these would be the lenses I reach for. There’s character, soul, beautiful colors, just enough sharpness, and enough detail for us to be really happy with what we’re getting.

Extra Image Samples

The Phoblographer has been huge on transparency with our audience since day one. Nothing from this review is sponsored. Further, many folks will post reviews and show lots of editing in the photos. The problem then becomes that anyone and everyone can do the same thing. They’re not showing what the lens can do. So, we have a section in our Extra Image Samples area to show edited and unedited photos. From this, you can decide for yourself.

Unedited

Edited

Tamron 50-300mm F4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD Tech Specs

These specs are taken from the Tamron press release:

Model: A069
Focal Length: 50-300mm
Maximum Aperture: F4.5-6.3
Angle of View (diagonal): 46°48′-8°15’　(for full-frame mirrorless format)
Optical Construction: 19 elements in 14 groups
Minimum Object Distance: 8.7”/ 0.22m (WIDE), 35.4”/ 0.9m (TELE)
Maximum Magnification Ratio: 1:2 (WIDE) / 1:3.1 (TELE)
Filter Size: Ø67mm
Maximum Diameter: Ø78mm 
Length: 5.9” (150mm)
Weight: 23.5oz (665g)
Aperture Blades: 9 (circular diaphragm)
Minimum Aperture: F22-32
Standard Accessories: Flower-shaped hood, Front cap, Rear cap
Mount: Sony E-mount
autofocus Bokeh focusing image quality sharpness tamron Tamron 50-300mm F4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD tamron 70-300mm
Shares
Written by

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.
'
0