Tamron 18-400mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC HLD Lens Focus Issues

infinitempg

Senior Member
Stepped up to the full frame world beginning of the year buying a D750 and a couple lenses. Really like macro work so snagged a Nikon AF-S VR Micro-NIKKOR 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED lens and really LOVE this lens. Great clear and crisp shots. Also bought a Tamron 18-400mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC HLD Lens for general use when not shooting macro. Haven't used the Tamron lens much but decided to start getting used to this. Have taken this out several times now and yesterday was a real eye opener. Bright Florida sunlight and nice steady subjects and thought I was snagging some great shots. When I got home I was extremely disappointed with how soft and often out of focus all the shots were. The Nikon 105 shots I can zoom in super close and have great clear focus, the Tamron didn't take a single shot that look crisp or sharp :mad:

Have read about some of these Tamron lenses having focus issues but usually with hunting. Have also read about doing some tweaking to the focus points but feel with a brand new lens I shouldn't have to do that.

Any suggestions or hints to get crisp shots with this lens? :confused:

Thanks in advance for your help.
 

Dangerspouse

Senior Member
First of all: welcome! Looking forward to seeing some of your bright, sunny Florida shots...during the winter when I'm buried under 36 feet of Jersey snow :)

I don't have experience with that lens myself, but I've seen a fair number of other members talk about their Tamrons so hopefully one will be along shortly with their thoughts on this. Can I ask, have you tried shooting it in manual focus? And if so, are the results the same?
 

Chris@sabor

Senior Member
Often 3rd party lenses need adjustment in camera. They may be front focusing, focusing in front of the subject. Or back focusing, focusing behind the subject. Read about how to make this determination and adjustment...
 

mikew_RIP

Senior Member
Welcome, its not just third party lenses, sometimes Nikon lenses can need in body adjustment, as Chris said look it up and test.
 

Marilynne

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Welcome!

I have that lens on my D7100. No problems. SOOC, no processing, only resized.

dsc_3039_001_928755.jpg


Post a sample with the EXIF.
 

hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Contributor
Are you sure the VC is working properly? And you know that your shutter speed should be at least as fast as the focal length, right? For example, if you are shooting at 400mm, at a minimum your shutter speed should be 1/400" - preferably a little faster just to be sure.

Please give us some examples of your focal length and shutter speed used.
 

infinitempg

Senior Member
I'll try to get time to shoot some test shots and upload what I'm seeing. Not sure how to adjust the D750 for in body adjustments. If that is done will that be specific for that lens as my Nikon 105 is working extremely well and would not want to mess that up? How do you do the in body adjustments? (newbie talking here, sorry). And not at all sure about how to test if the VC is working properly. Thanks.
 

Needa

Senior Member
Challenge Team
There are several methods to tune the body to the lense. Look in to dot tune it is fairly easy. It is lens specific affecting only the one being adjusted and can be set back to the original settings if you don't like the results.
 

infinitempg

Senior Member
Sorry for the delays but have some family issues I'm dealing with. Will do some test images soon but wanted to upload an image that's an example of what I'm talking about. This was in bright indirect sunlight using auto focus. Doesn't look bad from a distance but very soft focus and no crispness to the image. The same shot with my Nikon 105 would pop with clarity.

SJV_2885.jpg
 

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
Sorry for the delays but have some family issues I'm dealing with. Will do some test images soon but wanted to upload an image that's an example of what I'm talking about. This was in bright indirect sunlight using auto focus. Doesn't look bad from a distance but very soft focus and no crispness to the image. The same shot with my Nikon 105 would pop with clarity.
Was the shot taken hand-held? I ask because the first thing I notice about this shot is a focal length of 400mm and a shutter speed of 1/320. The other thing I notice is what looks to me to be back-focus. Hard to be 100% certain because the image you've uploaded is really, really small. Still, I've circled in red areas that look to me to be MORE in focus than the bee on the flower. If you could upload a raw file, or at least a full-res .JPG, we could make a better assessment.
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319573d1566816918t-tamron-18-400mm-f-3-5-6-3-di-ii-vc-hld-lens-focus-issues-sjv_2885.jpg
 

infinitempg

Senior Member
Totally frustrated with the website. Tried to add a link to the NEF file that I uploaded to my webspace and get the message that the post is denied for too many links. Then I tried to insert the NEF image to the post and it won't insert it. Not sure how you upload an NEF file to this website. I added some spaces to the URL below so if someone can look at the raw image they can.

h t t p : //5 7 w e b . c o m / v p i x / n i k o n /SJV_2885.NEF

Also, I opened the image in Nikon's Capture NX-D and can view the focus points:

nfocus01.jpg

Hope that helps. Thanks!
 

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
Totally frustrated with the website. Tried to add a link to the NEF file that I uploaded to my webspace and get the message that the post is denied for too many links. Then I tried to insert the NEF image to the post and it won't insert it. Not sure how you upload an NEF file to this website. I added some spaces to the URL below so if someone can look at the raw image they can.

h t t p : //5 7 w e b . c o m / v p i x / n i k o n /SJV_2885.NEF

Also, I opened the image in Nikon's Capture NX-D and can view the focus points:

View attachment 319710

Hope that helps. Thanks!
You can't upload raw files to the website because they're not image files, they're data files and they require hosting so we can download them and view them in a raw converter. In the future just using something like h**p://57web.com/vpix/nikon/SJV_2885.NEF would work if you don't want to insert a live link into your post.

Anyway, I downloaded your image and I'm seeing two issues: motion blur and back-focus. The motion blur stems (ha!) most likely from the fact you were shooting at 400mm with a shutter speed of 1/320. What would have been better would have been a shutter speed of no less than the focal length and, really, a little bit over that; say 1/500 or better.

It's pretty clear to me though, based on that image, the lens is back-focusing. If you want to check it yourself I suggest reading this article:

How to Quickly Test Your DSLR for Autofocus Issues

My quick and dirty method for checking for front/back focus is to mount my camera on a tripod, set it to use a short shutter delay (two seconds or so) and then photograph a tape measure set at a 45 degree angle to the camera. I put the center focus-point on, for instance the 12" mark, and take a shot. If I see the 13" or 14" mark is more in focus than the 12 mark is, I've confirmed back-focus. Conversely if the 10 or 11 mark is more in focus than the 12 mark is, then I know I have a front-focus situation.

You can correct the back-focus by using the Tamron Tap-in Console or you can contact Tamron directly and have them do the focus-calibration for you. If you want to go the latter route they're going to want both the lens and the camera body so the lens can be calibrated specifically to the camera body it will be used on. Turn around time for this service is usually three days and the cost of calibration will be covered under warranty.


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mikew_RIP

Senior Member
I see from an early post you are concerned about focus adjustments upsetting your 105mm, dont be they will only effect the lens on the camera at the time, the camera can have adjustments set in for a few lenses.

This is not a Nikon or Tamron problem its just the way phase detect focusing works,it would only be a problem if it didnt focus correctly in live view which uses contrast detect focusing.

One other point you will need to use a single point focusing for this as if you use multi point you cant pick the exact focusing place.
 
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mikew_RIP

Senior Member
Something else to prove it could be needed with Nikon lenses although not with your 105,Nikon do not want you to buy Tamron or Sigma etc,so if all Nikon lenses focused correctly out of the box focus fine tune would not be in the camera menu, please to get the best out of your top notch Nikon camera spend the time getting your head round the fine tune side of things.
 
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Texas

Senior Member
Eager to see how this turns out. I've got an 18-200 Nikon but reluctant to even try an APS-C lens on a full frame camera.
 

infinitempg

Senior Member
Thanks for the amazing help and information, learning a lot. We are a little distracted right now as we're about to be able to get some first hand pictures of Hurricane Dorian kicking our butts here in central Florida. Getting the focus to work correctly isn't the top priority right now. Hopefully this passes and I can get back to more fun stuff again.
 
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