As the demise of DSLR lenses continues, it seems no lens is safe from the cull
(Image credit: Future, www.vecteezy.com)
As the domination of mirrorless cameras in the interchangeable lens camera market continues, it's not just DSLR cameras that are disappearing. With fewer and fewer compatible cameras, lens manufacturers have little choice but to follow suit and downsize their DSLR lens range. Third-party manufacturers like Sigma and Tamron seem to be culling the greatest percentage of their respective DSLR lens ranges, but you can't really criticize this approach. There's little business sense in investing valuable resources to continue producing lenses designed for what's now an obsolete camera format.
And now it seems yet another DSLR lens may be not long for this world. According to Japanese camera rumor site asobinet.com, production of the Tamron 18-400mm F3.5-6.3 Di II VC HLD may now be "complete", or to put it another way, it may have been discontinued.
(Image credit: Tamron)
While it's not particularly surprising that another DSLR lens appears to have bitten the dust, this particular lens wouldn't have been top of our list of likely candidates for being pensioned off. This APS-C superzoom lens for Canon and Nikon DSLRs is not a particularly old design, having been introduced in 2017, and it won the 'Photo Innovation of the year 2017-2018' EISA Award. The 18-400mm was also unrivalled in the superzoom sector, with no other lens offering this kind of focal range for APS-C cameras. Somewhat surprisingly for a superzoom lens - lenses which aren't renowned for producing particularly scintillating image quality - we found the 18-400mm to be a surprisingly sharp lens, if quite susceptible to chromatic aberration.
But ultimately, as innovative, unique and competent as a lens may be, if the market for which it was designed is in rapid decline, we shouldn't be surprised to see its demise.
Disclaimer: we do not yet have official confirmation that the Tamron 18-400mm F3.5-6.3 Di II VC HLD has been discontinued, and it is still available to buy new from multiple retailers. You can check current availability in your area with our price checker below
Ben is the Imaging Labs manager, responsible for all the testing on Digital Camera World and across the entire photography portfolio at Future. Whether he's in the lab testing the sharpness of new lenses, the resolution of the latest image sensors, the zoom range of monster bridge cameras or even the latest camera phones, Ben is our go-to guy for technical insight. He's also the team's man-at-arms when it comes to camera bags, filters, memory cards, and all manner of camera accessories – his lab is a bit like the Batcave of photography! With years of experience trialling and testing kit, he's a human encyclopedia of benchmarks when it comes to recommending the best buys.
