“Wait what?” is literally what I said this morning when I received the announcement that the Tamron 150-500mm f5-6.7 Di III VC VXD for the Fujifilm X-mount is coming. We tested this lens a while ago and according to our affiliate sales it’s very popular with Sony E-mount users. It’s a full-frame lens, though, meaning Fujifilm is adapting a full-frame lens to APS-C cameras. What that means is insanely good image quality potential.
Specifications for the Tamron 150-500mm f5-6.7 Di III VC VXD
We tested the Tamron 150-500mm f5-6.7 Di III VC VXD and here are our specs:
- Focal Length: 150-500mm
- Maximum aperture: F5-6.7
- Viewing angle: (diagonal) 16°25′-4°57′ (for mirrorless full-frame format)
- Optical construction: 25 elements in 16 groups
- Minimum object distance: 0.6 m (23.6 in) (WIDE) / 1.8 m (70.9 in) (TELE)
- Maximum magnification ratio: 1:3.1 (WIDE) / 1:3.7 (TELE)
- Filter Size: φ82mm
- Maximum diameter: φ93mm
- Length: 209.6mm / 8.3in (front tip of lens to lens mount)
- Weight: 1,725 g (60.8 oz) (without included tripod mount) / tripod mount 155 g (5.5 oz)
- Aperture blades: 7 (circular aperture, the circular aperture remains nearly perfectly circular up to two stops below the maximum aperture)
- Minimum aperture: F22-32
- Standard accessories: round lens hood, lens cap, tripod mount
- Compatible mounts: Sony E-Mount and Fujifilm X-Mount
- Available in October for $1,299
Below are sample images from our test of the lens on the Sony E Mount.
The growth of Fujifilm 3rd party support
Folks, it’s finally happening! For many years, Fujifilm has only worked with third parties for flash support. But now lenses come into their own here. Sigma also made lenses for the Fujifilm X-series, but Tamron really makes what the X-series needs: zoom lenses. Sure, Fujifilm has made some good zooms over the years, but they lacked magic and soul. At least it wasn’t like the prime lenses. But Tamron lenses are affordable, weatherproof, lightweight and offer unrivaled image quality. Honestly, many of us on the site are fed up with lens manufacturers striving for clinical perfection. We feel like Tamron is throwing that out the window and adding a look that’s uniquely theirs.
We plan on calling them to update our review. We’ve already done this with the Tamron 17-70mm f2.8 and Tamron 18-300mm lenses.
Who is this new Tamron 150-500mm f5-6.7 Di III VC VXD for? Well, you can guess from the title that they are wildlife and bird photographers. Also, we used it for sports shooting and it worked pretty well. But now, combined with the AI autofocusing of the Fujifilm XH2 and Fujifilm XH2s, it can potentially deliver photos like the ones you saw in the magazines growing up. Fujifilm doesn’t have anything like this in its current lineup, so Tamron is working to complement Fujifilm rather than compete with it. And in my opinion that offers a lot more value than what Sigma does when it comes to creating confusion about lenses.
Because the Tamron 150-500mm f5-6.7 Di III VC VXD is so large, it fits the XH2s and XH2 better than the XT4 or X Pro 3.
With all this new support, I’m wondering about the future. As we’ve seen, Canon doesn’t play well with third parties, while Sony plays exceptionally well. OMDS and Panasonic say they aren’t trying to fool each other with the same mount, but I have my doubts. The L-Mount alliance isn’t all that screwed together, the individual manufacturers simply use different components instead. With this new partnership between Fujifilm and Tamron, I hope that Tamron will not be tampered with in its autofocus performance. And that’s why Tamron built USB-C ports into many of its lenses: so they could update them directly with new firmware.
Let’s see how that plays out. But I’m excited, are you?
