I’ve just published my full-length review of the Tamron 70-300mm f/4.5-6.3 Di III RXD, which is Tamron’s first official lens for the Nikon Z system! The lens is also available for Sony E mount. You may have already seen my comparison articles between this Tamron lens and some of Nikon’s alternatives over the past couple of days. In total, I’ve written five articles of coverage on the Tamron 70-300mm f/4.5-6.3 so far:
- Tamron 70-300mm f/4.5-6.3 Di III RXD Review
- Tamron 70-300mm f/4.5-6.3 Sample Images & RAWs
- Nikon Z 24-200mm f/4-6.3 vs Tamron 70-300mm f/4.5-6.3
- Nikon AF-P 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6E vs Tamron 70-300mm f/4.5-6.3
- Nikon Z 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 S vs Tamron 70-300mm f/4.5-6.3
The reason for this extended coverage isn’t anything to do with the Tamron lens specifically. Rather, it’s part of my new approach to provide multi-article coverage of all lenses that I review at Photography Life! Alongside my usual detailed lens reviews, this will include RAW sample image galleries and head-to-head comparisons for every lens, plus additional articles for certain lenses.
Also, note that we are adding all new lens reviews to the Lens Database section of Photography Life. As a result, they will not appear on the Photography Life homepage, so I will write announcement posts like this one whenever a new lens review is complete. All lens reviews will still continue to appear under the Lens Reviews page as well.
Thanks, Spencer, for your excellent review of the Tamron 70-300 for Nikon Z. I have its predecessor, for Nikon F mount, and am very very pleased with its performance in outdoor sports photography using a D850. I don’t know if Tamron can update the firmware of the older F-mount lens to support the Z cameras, I’m checking with them right now. It does not have a USB connector :-(
Until your review, I felt the only choice for Nikon Z-Mount sports photography would be the Nikon 100-400, which you and N. gave a superb review. It should be, at $2700 USD! I’ll probably go for the Nikon in the future, but in the meantime, basically your review gave me enough positives to allow me to save money and get, say, 90% of the performance at less than 1/4 the price!
Your raw photos were quite beautiful and very informative for a purchase decision. Ironically, one usually doesn’t consider a 70-300 for landscape work, but I know that’s your specialty. Still, some of your landscape photos with a less-than-optimum lens are magnificent. I intend to put the 70-300 to work largely in sports photography (e.g. motocross). I’m not as certain of its application for birds in flight, as it doesn’t have the reach of my Sigma 150-600 or Nikon 200-500. But we shall see: your little bird in the tree is a very nice capture for a medium telephoto.
Thanks very much again! Keep up the great work, you two.
Always appreciate real photos, not just stuff around the house as a test.
I also want to thank for this review and the comparisons. I have the Tamron 70-300 and just recently the Nikon Z 100-400. I learned a lesson with my early purchase of the Tamron lens as I might have held off buying it . However, for casual action shots at the telephoto distance, it’s easy to carry and more than sufficient. Its quality at the close end does not make it an ideal match to the Z 24-70 F4 which is such a good lens. I look forward to you adding the new Z 70-180 to the comparisons. The Sony version has had such good reviews. I’m hopeful.
Just wanted to second DavidK’s comments about looking forward to the comparison with the Z 70-180, I’m really interested to see how this one stacks up. Really like the new review format.
Thanks Spencer! appreciate your hard work very much. The best on the web. Danny (Belgium)
Thanks! I like your approach to comparing products with each other, thank you for your work and patience!