Easy to use inexpensive telephoto | Dragon 100-400mm VC lens evaluation

Zoom telephoto lens in recent years, a very high degree of popularity, super-telephoto lens with a large aperture shooting better though, but a larger aperture lens also brought two important issues: First, the volume has become very large , But also very bulky; Second, the price is expensive, most people can not accept.So a small aperture telephoto zoom lens has its own market, Dragon launched 100-400mm F / 4.5-6.3 Di VC USD is also cater to this A little smaller aperture, in exchange for a more lightweight mirror body design, generally do not love anti-equipment out of the user can also easily use super-telephoto lens to reduce the burden on photographers, the other is a good price .

A, Tamron 100-400mm F4.5-6.3 VC lens appearance comments

This Dragon 100-400mm F / 4.5-6.3 Di VC USD hands, the first glance this is the SP series of lenses, the overall style and recently launched Dragon SP series style, but to give me the feeling that the block is relatively small , Than the same telephoto lens lighter. Although the weight loss in the case, there is no quality shrinkage, we follow-up detailed evaluation. Perhaps positioning is different, this lens did not join the Dragon MG top lens series, but from The actual use of the process can feel the damping sense of zoom moderate, extended to 400m end no signs of loosening, work quite solid.

Tamron 100-400mm F / 4.5-6.3 Di VC USD telephoto lens overall is not heavy, with the Canon EOS 6D body no better, there will be no top-heavy situation. The overall design of the lens with the SP series is very Like a simple mirror lines, there is no very complicated mirror body design, matte surface texture, SP series with a SP mark on the difference.

The mirror body with a zoom lock, which prevents the camera suddenly protruding during transport, causing unnecessary accidents. Zoom ring is very wide, feel good, very easy to turn.

Focus on the lens with the lens design information about the SP series, clear. Focus ring is also very wide, manual focus is particularly easy to use when used. Focusing with IF focus design, the recent focus distance of 1.5m, as well as dual MPU micro-processing The high-speed control system of the unit greatly enhances the speed and accuracy of the autofocus, and reduces the problem of running the focus. The part between the zoom ring and the focus ring is made of magnesium alloy, which greatly improves the lens's robustness.

There are two levers beside the mirror body, which are two kinds of anti-shake mode switch and three kinds of focus mode switch. Anti-shake with '1', '2' and 'OFF' three gears, two anti-shake mode corresponds to different Up to 4 levels of optical image stabilization MODE 1 is the basic mode of balance between viewfinder image stability and compensation, and MODE 2 is a follow-up mode for motion-taking scenes.

Focus also has three positions of 'AF', 'LIMIT' and 'MF', among them LIMIT file is AF focus limiter, when the focusing distance is beyond 7m, its range is limited to the distance to infinity to 7m; On the contrary, when When the focusing distance is shorter than 7m, the range is limited to a distance of 7m to 1.5m, and the relative intelligence is used.

Tamron 100-400mm F / 4.5-6.3 Di VC USD The lens body weighs 1,135g (Canon bayonet) or 1,115g (Nikon bayonet), the lightest in its class. The lens set features 11 sets of 17 designs , Of which 3 LD low dispersion lenses, large diameter LD low dispersion lens accounted for two, the material is not counted.

Hood is straight type, plastic material, no locking buckle. Lining is a tooth-shaped anti-reflection design, anti-reflection effect compared to flocking almost fitted with sunshades, the overall lens will be a lot of mighty.

Tamron 100-400mm F / 4.5-6.3 Di VC USD telephoto lens provides Canon EF bayonets and Nikon F bayonet two bayonet, Nikon version with electromagnetic iris control mode, and Nikon's new lens is the same design, You can see that the design of the dragon took a lot of thought this lens. Other aspects of the metal bayonet and gold-plated contacts, dust-proof apron, the others are all together.

The front and back mirrors can be seen green coating, which is original Tamron, with excellent anti-fouling anti-reflective eBAND wide-angle multi-angle anti-reflective coating, the whole body with a simple dust-proof structure, enough to cope with the usual Shooting needs. Lens filter diameter 67mm, not too much, after all, Dragon intends to make a sharp reduction in weight and size.

Second, Dragon 100-400mm F4.5-6.3 VC lens sharpness evaluation

After all, there is no signs of SP, the quality of this lens will be much worse, we use the Canon EOS 5D4 body to do the evaluation, through the screenshot to see the wide-angle end and telephoto end of the aperture of the image quality performance, the following is Evaluation results:

1, 100mm end

Tamron 100-400mm F / 4.5-6.3 Di VC USD maximum aperture is F4.5, because the maximum aperture is not large, so the maximum aperture under sharp performance is also very good, from the screenshot you can see the sharpness of the center and the edge of the performance Basically the same, the center sharpness will be slightly better and the edge from the maximum aperture F4.5 to F11 aperture imaging are quite sharp, but reduced to F22 aperture it is clear to see the picture quality dropped to the minimum aperture F32 significantly Dropped a lot.In fact, the actual shooting process, rarely used F32 aperture such a small aperture, the default F4.5 aperture to F8 aperture will be more commonly used.

2, 400m end

The following screenshots are shown in the red box above

Telephoto end sharpness performance is not so good at wide-angle end, the overall sharpness is slightly worse, while with the 100m end of the performance is similar, basically to F22 aperture quality began to deteriorate.In fact, as mentioned above, in general We will not use the minimum aperture to shoot, so under normal circumstances can avoid sharpness of the aperture value, after all, this price can have such a quality performance has been very conscience, coupled with excellent workmanship, weight and size smaller It is not easy to maintain a good level of circumstances.

Third, Tamron 100-400mm F4.5-6.3 VC lens dark angle distortion test

Vignetting distortion is a pervasive problem in every lens, just to see how serious this objective problem is, the actual situation of the lens through real shots, the results are as follows:

1, 100mm end

Tamron 100-400mm F4.5-6.3 VC USD lens Vignetting distortion test (100mm end)
F4.5	F5.6
F8.0	F11
F16	F22
	-
F32	-

This Dragon 100-400mm F / 4.5-6.3 Di VC USD telephoto lens in the distortion that there is a little pincushion distortion, whether it is wide-angle or telephoto end.Now many Canon cameras have no correction data for this lens , So at the maximum aperture has a more pronounced dark corner, shrinking to the F11 aperture can completely eliminate the corner problem, I believe in the latter part of the firmware upgrade will improve this problem.

2.400mm end

Hidden corner situation in the telephoto end also have the contraction of the F11 aperture after darkness was completely eliminated, with the same situation with the 100mm-side vignette, in the absence of correction data, the dark corner needs to be achieved through post-processing, of course, you can Maintain such a slight edge loss of light.

Fourth, Dragon 100-400mm F4.5-6.3 VC lens bokeh test

1, 100mm end

Dragon 100-400mm F4.5-6.3 VC USD lens bokeh Test (100mm end)
F4.5	F5.6
F8.0	F11
F16	F22
	-
F32	-

2, 400mm end

Tamron 100-400mm F / 4.5-6.3 Di VC USD Telephoto lens Although the wide-angle end of the maximum aperture of only F4.5, telephoto end of the F6.3, but after all, is a super-telephoto lens, born with bokeh effect. 100mm end to the end of the 400mm virtual effect is very obvious, and coke feminine natural, no two linear, 400mm open to the smallest aperture F45 bokeh is still to force, the general large aperture lens hard to have such a beautiful blur effect.

Fifth, Tamron 100-400mm F4.5-6.3 VC real shot proofs

Tamron 100-400mm F / 4.5-6.3 Di VC USD telephoto lens is a full-frame telephoto lens with a magnification of 1.6 times (Nikon 1.5 times) on the APS-C SLR camera, which is equivalent to The 160mm-640mm ultra-telephoto lens for shooting distant objects and shooting close-ups, etc. The following proofs use the Canon EOS 5D4 with Tamron 100-400mm F / 4.5-6.3 Di VC USD long Focus lens shooting. All proofs HD picture, Please click"Tamron 100-400mm F4.5-6.3 VC lens proofs "View.

Focal length: 208mm Aperture: f / 5.6 Shutter: 1/400 ISO: 100

Focal length: 300mm Aperture: f / 6.3 Shutter: 1/250 ISO: 1250

Focal length: 312mm Aperture: f / 6.3 Shutter: 1/320 ISO: 1250

Focal length: 400mm Aperture: f / 6.3 Shutter: 1/320 ISO: 1250

Focal length: 400mm Aperture: f / 6.3 Shutter: 1/320 ISO: 800

Focal length: 400mm Aperture: f / 6.3 Shutter: 1/400 ISO: 1250

Focal length: 258mm Aperture: f / 5.6 Shutter: 1/250 ISO: 1600

Focal length: 400mm Aperture: f / 6.3 Shutter: 1/320 ISO: 800

Focal length: 400mm Aperture: f / 6.3 Shutter: 1/320 ISO: 250

Focal length: 400mm Aperture: f / 11 Shutter: 1/400 ISO: 4000

Focal length: 400mm Aperture: f / 6.3 Shutter: 1/320 ISO: 500

Focal length: 400mm Aperture: f / 6.3 Shutter: 1/400 ISO: 800

Focal length: 400mm Aperture: f / 6.3 Shutter: 1/320 ISO: 500

Focal length: 174mm Aperture: f / 5.0 Shutter: 1/50 ISO: 800

Focal length: 188mm Aperture: f / 5.6 Shutter: 1/60 ISO: 800

Focal length: 325mm Aperture: f / 6.3 Shutter: 1/50 ISO: 800

Focal length: 352mm Aperture: f / 6.3 Shutter: 1/25 ISO: 1600

Focal length: 181mm Aperture: f / 5.6 Shutter: 1/200 ISO: 100

Focal length: 100mm Aperture: f / 4.5 Shutter: 1/25 ISO: 12800

Focal length: 400mm Aperture: f / 6.3 Shutter: 1/30 ISO: 1600

Through the actual shooting, the quality of this lens is quite adequate, positioning mid-end to see the performance is very good. And because there is no calibration data, some photos can see the hidden corners, but it looks more feeling, so there are vignettes It's not a bad thing, it's an advantage to use well, but you can only wait for new firmware or post-processing if you do not want to dim the corners by shrinking the aperture. There is no fixed focal aperture lens so sharp, in fact, not bad.And there is praiseworthy is the lens of the anti-shake performance, it can be said is stable as a dog, the above real proofs are handheld shooting, and not Less proofs shutter speed no more than 1 / 400s the safety shutter speed, and even some 1 / 25s handheld shot out, which made me feel very surprised.

Six, PConline evaluation room summary

This Dragon 100-400mm F / 4.5-6.3 Di VC USD telephoto lens gives me the feeling is worth buying, very cost-effective, regardless of price and imaging factors, the weight of the body has been very attractive to me The lens color difference control is not bad, but the aperture will be more open full of dark corners will be more obvious, a small aperture image quality dropped significantly, but the depth of field compression effect, only the telephoto lens to shoot out at the same time this lens Of the anti-shake performance is considered a conscience, usually to 400mm without 1 / 400s more than the safety shutter plus years of iron hand training will be blurred. Therefore, you are not going to pursue F2.8 like a large aperture and fast focus, then , For general household or enough, professionals can on the original or Dragon SP series of lenses.