tamron 18-400mm auto-focusing capability with Nikon D5200

Abey · Jul 23, 2020

Does anyone experienced any focusing issue on tamron 18-400mm with Nikon D5200? Is it works perfectly?

photoflyer · Jul 23, 2020

I have it for Canon so that does not help but keep in mind that at 400mm it is F 6.3 and some cameras, especially older ones, need a fair amount of light for the AF to be effective.

Maybe you could describe the issue in a bit more detail.

Abey · Jul 24, 2020

I own a Nikon D5200 camera. As per my understanding this camera does not have a built-in auto-focus motor.
Is 18-400mm (B028N) fully compatible with D5200. Does the lens have built-in AF motor for auto-focusing, or its built-in motor capable of doing auto-focusing with Nikon D5200 body?

photoflyer · Jul 24, 2020

I am unaware of any camera that has a built in autofocus motor although there may be one. My guess is that is will work on a 5200 but again results vary base on numerous factors. I would head to a camera store that has the lens in stock, mount it, and see how you like it. That is what I did. If you have any doubts try it first.

@Derrel is very knowledge about the Nikon line. Maybe he could weigh in.

Derrel · Jul 24, 2020

The Nikon version of this lens uses an E diaphragm. I have read the Ken Rockwell review of this lens, and he does not mention that it uses AFS protocol focusing, so my understanding is that this lens requires an in-camera body focusing motor, which would make it a very bad choice for your Nikon D5200. I am not sure of this, and I found the Ken Rockwell a review to be very poorly written with regard to the focusing protocol used by this lens. If you have a camera that has an in-body focusing motor then this lens would be capable of auto focus operation. But since you have a Nikon D5200, I do not think this lens would be a good choice for your camera.

DarkShadow · Jul 31, 2020

The Tamron 18-400mm has focus motor built in so it should work fine on the D5200.It suppose to be compatible with Nikon D3000,D5000,D7000 series. A friend of mine uses the Tamron 18-400mm on the Nikon D5500 and it works great for her. If you plan on any wildlife or sports it can struggle with fast moving objects such as birds in flight, some focus breathing and chromatic aberration color fringing but for a do it all lens it performs pretty well and its sharp enough from what i have seen. That's all i really know, never field tested one my self but Photo lady has one a member here on TPF and gets some cracking good bird shots with it.