Tamron has announced a new superzoom in its lineup, the 18-400mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC HLD, the world’s first ultra-telephoto all-in-one zoom lens for APS-C DSLR cameras. This latest addition offers a huge focal length range of 18-400mm, that’s equivalent to an astonishing 29-640mm on APS-C DSLRs, giving a zoom ratio of 22.2x. To enable this a new lens barrel design utilizing three-step extensions was developed to enable the necessary elongation.
This latest superzoom from Tamron has been designed to have mass-market appeal with those who’d like an all-in-one lens that’s highly versatile. Despite being an all-in-one zoom lens that achieves 400mm, it is surprisingly compact and lightweight, weighing 705g and measuring 121.4mm when fully retracted. It’s ideal for travel and everyday use, enabling photographers to switch from wide-angle to ultra-telephoto without changing lenses, making it faster and easier to capture a much wider range of subjects.
Click here to read our Tamron 18-400mm lens review
The optical construction of the 18-400mm lens consists of 16 lens elements in 11 groups. As well as featuring two molded glass aspherical elements and one hybrid aspherical element, the optical design includes three low dispersion (LD) elements, which claims to help minimize wide-ranging aberrations, including chromatic aberrations and distortion for excellent image quality. In addition to this, Tamron has included its broad-band anti-reflective (BBAR) coating, designed it to be resistant to flare.
Tamron have used their HLD (High/Low torque modulated Drive) motor for high-precision AF and compact construction. The power-saving HLD motor produces adjusts motor rotation from low to high speed to enable accurate and quiet focusing. Thanks to its small size, the HLD motor takes up less space, which is what allows the size of the lens to be reduced. The lens is also equipped with Tamron’s VC (Vibration Compensation) system, which is vital for shooting at the ultra-telephoto focal lengths.
The lens also features moisture-resistant construction with five internal weather seals, a 72mm thread for screw-in filters and adapters, plus a zoom lock switch to prevent undesired movement of the lens barrel.
The Tamron 18-400mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC HLD will be available from July 2017 and will cost £649.99.