Tamron (TC-300) 300mm f/5.6.

A beast of a lens from the days when they made lenses you knew you had attached to your SLR.

Page Last Edited : Wednesday, 18th of June 2025.
© Dave Rowlands. All Rights Reserved.

This is another lens I got from eBay thinking I wouldn't win the auction. It cost me less than £20.00, which is the maximum I'm willing to pay for a used lens these days and that figure includes P&P.

This lens seems to have a good reputation on the manual lens forums, it came complete with both end caps, the Adaptall 2 one on the camera end as there was no lens adapter with it, the lens hood, and the tripod collar mount, which from what I've read on the forums is quite an achievement at this price.

Tamron 300mm f5.6

Released around 1976 and made of steel and glass with a couple of plastic bits.

It came with the scarce Adaptall cap but with a lens cap that belonged on a "Sankyo" lens but for less than £20.00 I wasn't expecting too much anyway.

I think this is thefirst version of this lens, there were three different ones, and these values are based on the 35mm film format.

Aperture Range f5.6 to f22

Field of View (24x36mm format) 8 degrees.

Optical construction (elements/groups) 6/5

Minimum focus distance (from film plane) 1400mm or about 55 inches.

Filter diameter (mm) 62, also made with a 58mm filter thread.

The Hood is built in.

I'll be adding an Adaptall 1 adapter to the Canon FD mount on this lens as the Adaptall 2 mount wouldn't stop the lens all the way down. I'll be using it on my Olympus micro four-thirds cameras along with my FotoDiox focal reducer. The resulting 35mm equivalent focal lengths available to me will be:

600mm f5.6 on the cameras.
432mm f4 on the cameras with the focal reducer.

Well the lens arrived in a very large box, it was well-packaged and was covered in bubble wrap for added protection. After I unwrapped it, I gave it a clean and attached a Canon FD Adaptal 1 mount I was ready to shoot some pictures. I added the lens to my E-M1 II lens database, but I'm running out of space so had to overwrite one of my Canon 50mm entries.

I'm stunned by the size and weight of this lens, it's also in excellent condition but needed a real cleaning session. Here it is standing next to my Tamron 200mm f3.5 and on my E-M5 II the whole thing weighs around 1.7 Kg (About 3 3/4 Pounds), this of course includes the battery grip with spare battery installed, lens caps and the Canon FD to M43 Adapter.

Size Difference

It's nearly twice the size of the 200mm lens and the built-in lenshood makes it look even longer. It also weighs a lot more but saying that it feels really good to hold when your camera has a battery grip. The lens on a camera without a grip looks like a beast but it's still usable.

And of course I had to compare it to my other M43 Lenses. They are mostly Lumix lenses except for the Olympus 14-150mm which is weather sealed.

The M43 lenses are the tiny Lumix 14-42mm with the 46mm filter thread, the brilliant Lumix 45-150mm, and the two Super" zooms are the Lumix 14-140 and the Olympus 14-150mm, The Lumix lenses all have built-in image stabilisation which wasn't available built in for a lot of Lumix cameras at the time and the Olympus of course relied on the camera having image stabilisation. All great lenses in my opinion by the way, and the results you can get from them always feel right.

Now, back to the lens this page is about, and to stick a 2x Teleconverter on it, you will have a 600mm f11 or a 3x teleconverter it would become a 900mm f16 one. Just imagine putting the 2x + 3x converters on, and you'd end up with a lens that had a focal length of 1,800mm and a maximum f33.6 of light-gathering glass (not recommended, but I may give it a shot; keep an eye out for updates).

With the way improvements in sensor technologies are headed, it will produce an image that is well worth looking at, and it may not be pin sharp to the purists but a photograph of a moment in time all the same.

Great Glass

There is always something about these older lenses that makes you feel nostalgic, even the weight alone does it.

A Few Blemishes

On the lens coatings only and and on a lens that first came out in around the early 70's ain't too bad.

Metal and Glass

Everytime I use this lens I feel like I need to push and pull to get the zoom effect.

The Adaptall1 Canon FD Mount

The CT300 takes an Adaptall 1 mount for it to stop down the Iris correctly. I found that using an Adaptall 2 the iris wouldn't stop down all the way. Luckily I still have a couple of the Adaptall 1 versions lying around in my lens junk box.

On Camera

All ready for mounting onto a tripod plate for quick add \ removal to a tripod.

It's a beast

It's surprisingly easy to handle but not something I'd carry around all day long but looks great on the E-M1 II.

Easy to handle

Lets not forget that on the M43 system it has a POV of a 600mm 35mm full frame lens.

And this is how it looks on my Silver OM-D E-M5 II.

Looking Good on the E-M5 II

This combination is not something I'd want to carry around all day, with the battery grip, both batteries, the FD to M43 Adapter, camera strap, and removable tripod mount.

A "Proper" Camera.

The total weight of all these combined bits and pieces comes to just less than 1.69 KG (About 3.72 Lbs) and it's not something I'd like to carry around with me all day, and you may likely or not require a decent tripod.

Here are some shots of the lens on a tripod using the default mount on the lens.

On A Tripod

It's just a tripod that came to my attention when browsing the web and was being offered for £5.00 plus £3.00 P&P.

A Closer Look

It's a shame there isn't a way to hook the camera strap onto to stop it flapping around.

It Helps To Steady

It looks like it's on the floor but it's at least 5 inches above it. The way it steadies the tripod is quite cool.

A few outdoor shots the day after the lens arrived it was as usual: pretty dull and cold out there with hardly any contrast in the light available.

From The Front Door

My usual goto test shot, mainly for the sphire on top of the church. A lot of the lenses and cameras I have tried don't show the sphire at all.

A 100% Center Crop

The visiting seagull was a suprise. It's a decent lens for it's age and as a 600mm f5.6 on my M43 system with IBIS it's quite usable handheld even in poor light especially with "Auto ISO" on.

From The Front Door

As usual, taken from my front door while the rain was coming down. I'm surprised the sign is still there after all these years. The background blur (bokeh) is great, considering I was about 50 feet from the sign.

A 100% Center Crop

I have noticed that the higher the resolution the sensor is the more challenging the results of older lenses become. I should do a comparison between the 16 and 20 MP versions of the E-M5 II and E-M1 II just to see if there is a real difference.

From The Front Door

When I moved into this house there were about three connections and over the years more were added.

A 100% Center Crop

From The Front Door

A 100% Center Crop

From The Front Door

A 100% Center Crop

From The Front Door

A 100% Center Crop

From The Front Door

A 100% Center Crop

From The Front Door

So, I decided to stick my Canon 2x-B Teleconverter on the end of the lens and see what kind of results I'd get. For a start, the combination looks like it could be used as a tool to fend off wild bears.

I was surprised at some of the results I got.

From The Front Door

And here it is mounted onto my E-M5 II with some quick shots below.

Usual Place

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Usual Place

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Usual Place

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Usual Place

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I thought I'd try using the Teleplus 2-3x CF Variable Auto Tube, but after taking a few shots of the setup, I had to think hard about it, but it was sunny for a change, so I stood on the front door step and took a few shots.

Usual Place

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Usual Place

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Usual Place

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Usual Place

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Usual Place

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Usual Place

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