Tamron 100-400 mm f/4.5-6.3 Di VC USD review - Autofocus

Have you rated your lenses yet?

Tamron 100-400 mm f/4.5-6.3 Di VC USD

8 May 2018

Arkadiusz Olech

10. Autofocus

The autofocus of the tested lens is quiet and fast. No matter what focal length you employ, running through the whole distance range and confirming the focus takes about 0.5 of a second. It is a very good result; still remember that the lens provides you also with a focus limiter ranging from 7 meters to infinity. If you switch it on you can shorten the focusing time to about 0.3 of a second. You can also customize the value of focus range – it’s enough you attach the lens to the TAP Console.

In that category the Tamron performs noticeably better than the Sigma which was slower even though its focusing range was limited as it started from a distance of 1.6 meters. What’s more, the Tamron’s focusing mechanism had no hunting or wavering tendencies, both of which could be noticed during the Sigma performance. Overall, in our opinion the Tamron’s autofocus was definitely better than that of the Sigma, simply a joy to use.

Both in the case of sample shots and our studio session we didn’t notice any accuracy problems. In most of cases the lens was focusing accurately and the number of distinct misses never exceeded 4%.

Please Support Us

If you enjoy our reviews and articles, and you want us to continue our work please, support our website by donating through PayPal. The funds are going to be used for paying our editorial team, renting servers, and equipping our testing studio; only that way we will be able to continue providing you interesting content for free.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - advertisement - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Both bodies (the 50D and the 5D MkIII), used in our tests, didn’t need any microcalibration of the autofocus because the lens always hit where it should, no matter what focal length we employed. There was an exception, though – the maximum focal length on the 5D Mk III - where we had to correct very slight front focus from time to time. Still that correction was so insignificant that the lens could work properly even without it because the aim was still in the depth of field range.

Canon 50D, 200 mm, f/5.6