Tamron 50-400

Jack Flesher
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p.1 #1 · Tamron 50-400

I just got this lens and after a few days of shooting with it had a few comments I thought perhaps worth sharing.

First my usual disclaimer, please view these at native size as the FM site auto scales images to window size. All are sized to 2048px, except the B&W pano is 4056px wide.

I had limited expectations for an 8:1 zoom, but this lens is quite good and a lot better than expected. It focuses plenty fast, allows the camera to lock onto moving things and AF on them pretty predictably. Color is good overall and contrast is remarkably good as is sharpness edge to edge across the zoom range even wide open.

A couple of things I wasn't expecting are first it's close focus ability. Not half life size, but feels like it gets to a quarter or maybe 1/3rd life size. MFD changes with zoom, so that can be a bit annoying, but after a bit I got the hang of it. I think adding an extension tube or good 2-element diopter, this lens could satisfy my limited needs for a true macro. Bokeh is somewhat mixed in the macro range with most images having smooth OOF transitions, but then some get a little busy depending on background textures.

The other thing I was somewhat surprised by is how often I used it in the 50 to 100 range. I honestly didn't think that mattered much so debated long and hard between this lens and the Ver i 100-400 Sony. I went for this initially due to its slightly smaller footprint and cost savings.

Here are some initial shots with it.

ILCE-7CM2 E 50-400mm F4.5-6.3 A067 lens 85mm f/8.0 1/100s 250 ISO 0.0 EV

ILCE-7CM2 E 50-400mm F4.5-6.3 A067 lens 106mm f/8.0 1/125s 640 ISO 0.0 EV

ILCE-7CM2 E 50-400mm F4.5-6.3 A067 lens 400mm f/8.0 1/500s 400 ISO 0.0 EV

ILCE-7CM2 E 50-400mm F4.5-6.3 A067 lens 115mm f/8.0 1/640s 100 ISO 0.0 EV

ILCE-7CM2 E 50-400mm F4.5-6.3 A067 lens 50mm f/8.0 1/640s 100 ISO 0.0 EV

ILCE-7CM2 E 50-400mm F4.5-6.3 A067 lens 58mm f/8.0 1/640s 100 ISO 0.0 EV

Jul 23, 2026 at 01:00 PM

WillR
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p.1 #2 · Tamron 50-400

I've also found having a lower limit of 50 mm to be surprisingly useful. The Tamron 50-400 is the lens I take most often when I'm someplace where I don't want to do lens swaps.

Its not that I'm constantly running from one end of the range to the other, but sometimes if I'm mainly going for the wider shots, I see a detail that I want to get, and sometimes its vice versa. For example, these two images taken from the same spot.

-Will

ILCE-7RM4 E 50-400mm F4.5-6.3 A067 lens 59mm f/11.0 3s 200 ISO -1.0 EV

ILCE-7RM4 E 50-400mm F4.5-6.3 A067 lens 368mm f/8.0 1s 160 ISO -1.3 EV

Jul 23, 2026 at 01:59 PM


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