Tamron 18-250mm f/3.5-6.3 Di ll LD (IF) Macro

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The star attraction on the Tamron 18-250mm f/3.5-6.3 Di ll LD (IF) Macro is the impressive focal range. The massive 18-250mm range makes this the world’s only 13.9x zoom lens (based on Tamron’s research into lenses for DSLRs) designed for DSLRs with APS-C sized sensors.

Once mounted on your camera, the 18-250mm will give you an effective focal length of 27-375mm (1.5x) or 29-400mm (1.6x), which is pretty impressive in anyone’s book. It’s seriously compact though and at only 430g this lens has got to rate highly on your list for the perfect travel lens. There’s a close focus setting of 45cm too, which, when combined with the 250mm focal length, allows you to get almost macro shots of subjects.

The zoom ring is covered in the usual Tamron rubber non-slip finish and features a zoom lock to prevent the lens from extending while you are carrying it. Unlike some other lenses, the 18-250mm has the focus ring in front of the zoom ring in the more traditional style. One thing that does grate – quite literally – is the manual focus, although the fact that the focus ring is fairly stiff actually makes it easier to get more precise focusing than on some of the looser rival models.

The autofocus is also rather noisy, as rather than use an internal focusing system, the focus ring externally rotates while the system locks on. However, it performs well when adjusting focus between subjects on a similar focal plane and kind of judders into a solid lock-on. It could also really use some sort of image stabilisation to help you out with getting sharp images at the long end of the focal range. It performs really well when used for basic macro shots, and while you can’t quite get as close as you could with a true macro lens, it’s a definite advantage over long zoom lenses.

The lens will produce the sharpest shots using the wide end of the focal range from around f/5.6, with the optimum sharpness being at around f/11. At the long end, you’ll get critical sharpness at f/11 but by the time you get to f/16 the sharpness severely declines and by f/22 there is a serious lack of sharpness. And it’s really not a good idea to use the f/40 setting at all.

While the performance may not be top-notch this lens offers a truly amazing focal length at a very attractive price. If you want a lens for taking on your travels, then you simply can’t get anything else close to what this lens offers.