Tamron 14-150mm f/3.5-5.8 Di III Zoom Lens for Micro Four Thirds Review

The Tamron 14-150mm f/3.5-5.8 Di III Zoom Lens, (compare prices) is Tamron’s first foray into the micro four thirds world. It’s an “all-in-one” zoom with angular coverage similar to that of a 28-300mm lens on a full frame, so it covers everything from wideangle to telephoto. The focal length multiplier of 2x for micro four thirds makes this possible in a physically small lens. The Tamron 14-150mm f/3.5-5.8 Di III is only 3.4″ long and weighs less than 10 oz.

The lens has two molded glass aspheric elements, two anomalous dispersion glass elements, one low dispersion glass element, and one hybrid aspheric element in order to better control aberrations. Focus uses a stepper motor for smoother zooming when shooting video. There is no internal optical stabilization, which isn’t an issue for those shooting with Olympus camera bodies since Olympus uses in-body stabilization. However, for those shooting with cameras that do not have in-body stabilization, such as those made by Panasonic, the lack of image stabilization in the lens may be an issue.

The Tamron 14-150mm f/3.5-5.8 Di III is a lens that will be of great interest to micro four thirds camera owners who want a single “do-it-all” lens to minimize the size and weight of their system, but who want better image quality than they can get with a small sensor compact digital camera. The wide focal length range makes it suitable for shooting almost anything, from wideangle landscapes to wildlife close-ups.

Tamron 14-150mm f/3.5-5.8 Di III Specifications

Focal Length	14-150mm Comparable 35mm focal length: 28-300mm
Aperture	Maximum: f/3.5-5.8 Minimum: f/22
Camera Mount Type	Micro Four Thirds
Angle of View	75.4°-8.2°
Minimum Focus Distance	1.64’ (50cm)
Maximum Magnification	1:4 (0.25x)
Elements/Groups	17/13
Diaphragm Blades	7
Filter Thread	52mm
Dimensions (DxL)	2.48 × 3.36″ (63 × 85.24mm)
Weight	9.88 oz (280g)

The Tamron 14-150mm f/3.5-5.8 Di III feels solid and well constructed. Despite the light weight of the lens, the barrel is made of metal rather than the more commonly used plastic. Zooming action is smooth and there is no zoom creep (i.e. the zoom position remains constant regardless of the orientation of the lens). There is a zoom lock that can be engaged when the lens is fully retracted (i.e. at the 14mm position), though I’m not sure it’s needed. Focal length is marked at 14, 25, 35, 50, 70, 100, and 150mm. There are no DOF markings and no distance scale. There is no AF/MF switch on the lens since that function is accessed via controls on the camera body. The maximum aperture varies with focal length as follows:

14mm – f/3.5
25mm – f/4.4
35mm – f/4.7
50mm – f/5.2
70mm – f/5.6
100mm – f/5.8
150mm – f/5.8

Closest focus distance is 50cm at all focal lengths, which gives a magnification of about 1/4 life size (0.25x) at 150mm as shown below:

The Tamron 14-150mm lens at maximum magnification (150mm).The Tamron 14-150mm f/3.5-5.8 Di III comes with a lens hood and Tamron’s 6 year warranty.

Image Quality

Overall image quality is pretty good, with the center always being sharper than the edges. Sharpness doesn’t change much with aperture, especially in the center of the image, though generally it gets slightly sharper at the edges and corners when closed by 1 or 2 stops. There is visible, but not excessive, chromatic aberration in the corners of the image, though that can be minimized by shooting in RAW mode (.orf files in the case of Olympus) and correcting during RAW conversion.

Here are some examples. These were all shot with the Tamron 14-150mm f/3.5-5.8 Di III mounted on an Olympus Pen EPL-1 (12MP) micro four thirds camera body.

The first set of images show the performance at 14mm both wide open at f/3.5 and stopped down to f/8.

As you can see, there’s really not much change in the center of the image. However, at the corner, stopping down gives a slight sharpness increase and eliminates vignetting.

At 38mm the story is much the same with little difference in the center between f/4.8 (wide open) and f/8. Again, the corner shows more improvement than the center.

At 70mm stopping down from f/5.6 to f/11 doesn’t make much difference to center sharpness, but it does improve the corners.

Finally at 150mm you can see that stopping down from f/5.8 to f/11 doesn’t make much difference to the center or corner sharpness, but it brightens up the corner of the image.

Vignetting is worst wide open at the ends of the zoom range (14mm and 150mm). This is illustrated below:

At 14mm stopping down to f/5.6 almost completely eliminates vignetting, but at 150mm there is still some vignetting at f/8, though it’s much reduced.

Finally here’s a comparison of center and corner sharpness between the Tamron 14-150mm f/3.5-5.8 Di III at 85mm and a Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 adapted to the same micro four thirds body (Olympus Pen EPL-1). These are 100% crops from RAW images converted to JPEGs. Manual focus with magnification was used to maximize sharpness (and the adapted Canon lens was manual focus only, of course).

This answers the question of how much sharpness is lost when using a superzoom versus a prime lens. If you’re looking at 100% crops, the answer is quite a bit. In small or medium prints you might not see much difference. The Canon lens has only one focal length and it’s bigger and heavier than the Tamron 14-150mm f/3.5-5.8 Di III, though it is a little cheaper ($420 compared to $590). It’s also much less versatile.

Conclusions

The Tamron 14-150mm f/3.5-5.8 Di III is a lens with pretty good performance even used wide open and is one of the smallest and lightest interchangeable lenses with a 10.7x zoom range. However, there are two concessions you make when choosing a wide zoom range in such a small package. First, there is some compromise of image quality. While the Tamron 14-150mm f/3.5-5.8 Di III is a pretty good performer, it’s not as good as some narrower zoom ranges or prime lenses. Plus it’s relatively slow, especially at the long end of the zoom range (f/5.8 at 150mm). Second, the Tamron 14-150mm f/3.5-5.8 Di III isn’t cheap at an initial price of $589, but neither are similar lenses from Olympus and Panasonic, which sell at around the same price. Nonetheless, for many users the convenience of having just one small, lightweight lens is more important than absolute performance and cost.

Restored B-17 bomber detail, taken with the Tamron 14-150mm f/3.5-5.8 Di III at 14mm f/3.5 (with the Olympus Pen EPL-1 camera body).Overall the Tamron 14-150mm f/3.5-5.8 Di III Zoom Lens, (compare prices) is certainly a strong contender if you want one small, light, versatile lens for a micro four thirds body. Such a combination will give you significantly better image quality than a typical compact digital camera with a small sensor, while being significantly smaller than an APS-C format DSLR with similar coverage lens.

Taken with the Tamron 14-150mm zoom at 28mm f/4.5. 

Alternatives

Interestingly, rather than shoot for a real superzoom like their recent APS-C 16-300mm lens that would have had no competition, Tamron has decided to go head-to-head with the camera makers, who also have 14-150mm zoom lenses. At 14-150mm, Olympus has the Olympus ED 14-150mm f/4.0-5.6, (compare prices), which is around the same price as the Tamron lens ($599). Panasonic has the Panasonic 14-140mm f/4.0-5.8 OIS Micro Four Thirds Lens, (compare prices), which has optical stabilization built in and is actually quite a bit cheaper than the Tamron lens at around $420. Panasonic also has a new and improved Panasonic Lumix G Vario 14-140mm f/3.5-5.6, (compare prices), which likewise has optical stabilization and sells for slightly more than the Tamron lens at around $630. Panasonic shooters will probably chose the optically stabilized Lumix lenses, but Olympus shooters have in-body stabilization with any of these lenses.