TechRevu Review

Tamron AF 18-270mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC LD Aspherical IF Macro Zoom Lens with Built in Motor for Nikon
Review by Ernest Lilley
Tamron Electronics ISBN/ITEM#: B001DYC0CS
Date: 16 November 2009 List Price $1,333.95 Amazon US / Amazon UK

Links: Tamron AF 18-270 Page / Flickr Tamron 18-270 User Group / DPReview's Test Results / Show Official Info /

Tamron calls its Tamron AF 18-270mm f/3.5-6.3 zoom lens travel insurance, and we have to agree. In fact, we'll go one better. Don't leave home without it, at least if you have a choice. Its has excellent optical characteristics across an unprecedented 15x zoom range, built in vibration reduction, and thanks to being designed to work with APS-C sensors it's small, light, and fast.

Tamron's 18-270mm (28-419 35mm equivalent) is a brilliant lens, crisp, flexible and with optics that compare very well to OEMs like Nikon and Canon. Tamron's Di II lenses have been impressing DSLR owners with APS-C sized sensors (2/3 full size). The smaller size of these sensors allows for more range to be built into lighter lenses, proof of which is the new 18-270mm (28-419 equivalent) lens. That's 15x and for almost anyone it's all the lenses you'd ever need for your DSLR.

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There are plenty of 18-200 AF zooms available, but Tamron's 18-270 does more than just add another 100mm 35mm equivalent zoom. It keeps its form factor down, while providing really excellent optics. Though we'll leave the serious lab work to others (see the DPReview's test results link above), we did take compare some images with the Nikkor 18-200 we've been using for several years and found that Tamron's lens had no trouble keeping up. In fact, when it came to chromatic aberration, the Tamron seemed to have an advantage. That's not to say there's none, but we didn't find it pronounced, even at wide angles.

The vibration reduction works very well, allowing us to capture scenes in fading light at an ultimate Frisbee match, or to grab night shots in Times Square. Another feature that we were happy with was the silent wave focus motor, which is nearly silent in operation, and quick to focus on our Nikon D5000 test body.

The zoom range is of course the most important feature of the lens, and the APS-C size equivalent sensor turns the 18mm-270mm into an 35mm equivalent 26mm-405mm. That means you get view angles from 65°36' - 4°55' (horizontal). The minimum focus distance of 19.3in is constant over the entire zoom range, so you wind up with a macro ratio of 1:3.5 using with the zoom set at 270mm.

The lens isn't especially heavy at just over a pound (19.5oz), though our D5000 is so light it made a significant change in balance and overall weight, and the 3.1 x 3.9 inch size is quite manageable, even in crowds.

If you want to see what the lens can really do, there's no better way than by checking out the thousands of images on the Flickr Tamron 18-270 User Group set up by Bill Stockstill, (Flickr Member: slick1ru2)

The bottom line is that Tamron has created a lens that can easily go head to head with the best optics from the camera makers, and if you don't already own a camera branded wide range zoom, you should seriously consider this lens. In fact, if you were to trade in your 18-200 zoom for this, it wouldn't be a bad idea either.

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