Fuji Tamron 18-300 for Fuji

Bobby T

Out Of Nowhere
This lens has moved from internet rumor to official announcement.

 
I wonder how it will compare in size and IQ to the XF 70-300? While it's not a lens I'd ever carry on a bike ride, it might come in handy as a walk-around lens, or for songbirds around the yard or local parks.
 
$699 is a good price. I’ll be very curious to see some pics and review. Still, adding the XF 70-300 to a kit with the 16-80 (which I already have) is probably better a better quality kit. Or even a fast prime between 16 and 35, depending on the target.
 
I saw someone using a 70-300 the other day for wildlife. Had a quick play with it and it seemed like a really good bit of kit - especially as you say, for the money.
 
I have my doubts on the overall quality of a superzoom of that magnitude. If a third party lens manufacturer can pull off a winner with that, it would be Tamron. I'll give them that. They are my fav 3rd party lens maker.

I too have the 16-80 and the 70-300 and I can't see much of anything having better IQ than those. I do see and can appreciate the convenience of what it represents and wish Tamron all the best.
 
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I ended up getting one of these for my X-T4 and have mixed thoughts.
I think for the zoom range the IQ is OK. It is a bit softer at 300mm but not sure if that is because of the stabilization not working. I have IS mode set to "Shooting Only" Originally set to "continuous" Shooting Menu page 2/2
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Unlike my Olympus or Panasonic Mu-43 cameras the when I half press the shutter the image does not stabilize, nor can I hear the little Whirring" sound the Mu-43 cameras make when they try to stabilize the image.
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From what I can see in the manual Page 146 the X-T4 only shows a stabilization icon when it is not working in stills mode. I presume this only refers the Fuji lenses. As far as I can tell there is no way to tell if the camera IBIS or lens VR [vibration reduction -Tamron Description] is actually working causing a bit of softness at the long end hand held.
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The only place I have found in the X-T4 manual so far that mentions both IBIS and OIS is in the video section manual page 160. I never take video but checked the video settings and stabilization is set to IBIS/OIS. The only time the camera shows the stabilization icon in video made is the same a stills mode, IE when stabilization is turned off.
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Does anyone know of a way to tell is the camera is using the stabilization with the Tamron lens. After using Mu-43 gear definately cant tell trying to use it.
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The only other anoying thing about the lens is the manual over ride focus ring is behind the zoom ring, making it far to easy to bump the way I cradle the camera & lens. So I disabled AF & MF.
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If anyone using an X-T4 can shed a bit of light on the IBIS and third party lenses it would be appreciated, and if there is a way to show an icon on the display showing IBIS / OIS working in stills mode. I may be missing a setting as it looks like from the wobble that in stills mode the stabilization is not working.
 
Did a bit more testing of the X-T4 with the Tamron 18-300 stabilization again today.

I think I may have been expecting too much.
Reviews by some youtubers indicated that the X-T4 stabilization was getting close to Olympus and Panasonic Mu-43.
I was partly basing my results on those claims as I thought those reviewers were fairly accurate as they were not the usual click bate reviewers.

One of the problems I can see is that there is no way of knowing what stabilization method is being used by the X-T4.
IBIS only
OIS only
Dual with both. I hope it is not dual with both as that would indicate very poor stabilization compared to Mu-43.

I may be wrong from what I can see of the three options for stills continuous is the only one that can steady your view.

Continuous....Stabilization on all the time, even before initial half press for focus
Shooting Only.... Only comes into play with the final full press of the shutter button
Off....Off

There does not seem to be an option for the stabilisation to be enabled on the half press. Hope I am wrong here but can't find it if it is there. Please let me know if this option does exist for stills.

Unfortunately I do not own any of the red badge zooms to compare what they can do in dual mode, so I can only use my Olympus & Panasonic gear as a reference. So using this reference I can see the stabilization is there with the X-T4 and Tamron 18-300, but the results I get are no where near what is claimed by some. But that is subjective at best I guess.

Now that Fuji are getting third party lenses like the Tamron 18-300 it would be nice for the cameras to show what sort of stabilization is being used. Plus have a permanent icon showing what is being used for Fuji lenses, not just the icon for when stabilization is off. Hope I have that last statement right :hmmm:

Anyway let me know where I am wrong
 
I haven't been able to find the Tamron 18-300 for Fuji in stock anywhere since the lens was introduced. Until late last night... on Amazon. Armed with a gift card credit that brought my final price down to $499, I pulled the trigger. I plan to use it most on the X-S10.
I’ll definitely want to hear some comments and see some results.
 
When I first purchased my Tamron 18-300 I could not update it's firmware, kept getting the error message mentioned at the end of the instruction page on the Tamron site.

This ended up being a issue with my X-T4 that has an intermittent problem.

I have since been able to update the Tamron 18-300 to v2 firmware the same way as all Fuji lenses
 
Did a bit more testing of the X-T4 with the Tamron 18-300 stabilization again today.

I think I may have been expecting too much.
Reviews by some youtubers indicated that the X-T4 stabilization was getting close to Olympus and Panasonic Mu-43.
I was partly basing my results on those claims as I thought those reviewers were fairly accurate as they were not the usual click bate reviewers.

One of the problems I can see is that there is no way of knowing what stabilization method is being used by the X-T4.
IBIS only
OIS only
Dual with both. I hope it is not dual with both as that would indicate very poor stabilization compared to Mu-43.

I may be wrong from what I can see of the three options for stills continuous is the only one that can steady your view.

Continuous....Stabilization on all the time, even before initial half press for focus
Shooting Only.... Only comes into play with the final full press of the shutter button
Off....Off

There does not seem to be an option for the stabilisation to be enabled on the half press. Hope I am wrong here but can't find it if it is there. Please let me know if this option does exist for stills.

Unfortunately I do not own any of the red badge zooms to compare what they can do in dual mode, so I can only use my Olympus & Panasonic gear as a reference. So using this reference I can see the stabilization is there with the X-T4 and Tamron 18-300, but the results I get are no where near what is claimed by some. But that is subjective at best I guess.

Now that Fuji are getting third party lenses like the Tamron 18-300 it would be nice for the cameras to show what sort of stabilization is being used. Plus have a permanent icon showing what is being used for Fuji lenses, not just the icon for when stabilization is off. Hope I have that last statement right :hmmm:

Anyway let me know where I am wrong
I highly doubt that any non OEM lens is going to work in dual stabilization mode. I don’t know of any camera maker that has that.

Fuji stabilization is much like the Tamron G2 VC modes.
Shooting only kicks in once the shutter is fully depressed
Continuous runs the stabilization at half press and full press of the shutter

You only really know which one by looking at the menu option. I chose to use shooting only as to save battery life. If seeing the visual confirmation of the IBIS it lens OIS, then you will want to use continuous with the battery expenditure.
 
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