Sigma 18-50mm F2.8 or Tamron 17-70mm F2.8 for Fuji X-Mount | Which is Better?

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Hi, I'm Dustin Abbott and I'm here today to give you my findings after some months of
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research trying to determine which is the best third-party fast aperture standard zoom
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for Fuji X-mount. Now up for consideration here today are two non-Fuji lenses
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This is the Sigma 18-50mm f2.8 DN lens on my right and then the Tamron 17-70mm f2.8
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VC lens here on my left. Now obviously also worthy of consideration, particularly if you're wanting to work on
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the premium end of the space, is Fuji's own 16-55mm f2.8. It does run considerably more expensive than either one of these lenses but obviously also
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has some strengths to offset that. It's a little bit more premium in build and design and I probably will do a little bit
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of a revisiting in the future. For one thing I want to see how that works on the 40 megapixel sensor of my X-H2
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Now I've been doing Fuji reviews for years at this point but it was only in 2023 that
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I bought my first Fuji camera. I'd always been using those that have been loaned to me before and so as a byproduct
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when I reviewed the X-H2 I felt like it was the camera that checked enough boxes for me
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personally that I would like to own one and thus I had to start considering about having
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a bit of a Fuji kit myself to actually have lenses to use on the camera
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And so that began this kind of journey of exploration, trying to determine which of
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these lenses kind of made more sense for me. As I explored them, I reviewed them both in 2023 and both of them have strengths that
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we're going to see today. Both of them have some weaknesses. Today's episode is brought to you by Phantom Wallet, the minimalist, modern wallet that
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So let's talk about a couple of the shared strengths between the two lenses. They both have a maximum aperture of f2.8 throughout their respective zoom ranges
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That's very useful and it is one advantage over the 18 to 50 millimeter OIS lens coming
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from Fuji, which runs roughly the same as these when it comes to the price point falling
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kind of right in between them. And so that is one advantage that they both have
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They both are significantly cheaper than what the Fuji 16 to 55 millimeter is
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And so that is probably a primary reason why a lot of people might consider them over
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the Fuji. There's a little bit more of an advantage for the Sigma in the regards of also being
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much, much smaller and lighter. We'll get to that in just a moment
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So we've discussed a few common strengths. How about a couple of common weaknesses
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Both of these lenses have no aperture ring or on lens controls
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And so the Fuji options will have an aperture ring. So that's one thing that both of these are missing
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The other thing I noticed on both of them when testing the zooming in and out while
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shooting video, I noticed that both of them did some really obvious and bad warping and
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also some very noticeable focus adjustments during that video zoom. So some shared weaknesses, one basically as bad as the other
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So let's talk about some reasons to choose the Sigma that I have found as I have been researching
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First of all, the Sigma is very obviously much, much smaller. These lenses don't even hardly seem like the same class of lens
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And frankly, the Sigma seems a whole lot more like an APS-C zoom than what the Tamron does
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which seems like a not even small full frame zoom. So the Sigma is 61.6 millimeters or 2.4 inches in diameter
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The Tamron is 3.28 inches or 83.3 millimeters in diameter. They're really different in length
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The Sigma being only 76.8 millimeters or 3 inches in length, whereas the Tamron is
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106 millimeters or 4.17 inches in overall length. So obviously if you're wanting to travel compact and you have maybe a compact bag you're wanting
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to travel with, the Sigma is going to fit in much more spaces and is a much smaller
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lens carrier. Similarly, it is much, much lighter. It is only 285 grams or 10 ounces compared to 523 grams or 18 ounces for the Tamron
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And by the way, the Fuji lens is heavier still, a little bit more premium build, but also
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it's a fairly chunky and substantial lens itself. Now price-wise is a third area of win for Sigma
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It is only $549 at retail compared to $799 for the Tamron
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So that's a fairly significant difference of about $250 in price between the two
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I found that at wide apertures that the Sigma showed a little bit better flare resistance
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Both of these lenses aren't perfect when it comes to flare resistance, but the Sigma felt
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like it was just a little bit better. The Sigma also has the opportunity of unlocking higher magnification
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In fact, here you can see that it has a higher magnification both on the telephoto end, but
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more importantly on the wide end where it hits a maximum magnification of 0.36 times
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Now that's not always entirely useful because you have to get very, very close to your subject
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to achieve that. But even on the telephoto end, it has a little bit better magnification
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The Tamron, the maximum you can achieve is 0.21 times. So the Sigma has some significant advantage there
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I also found when doing my chart test and shooting the lenses side by side that the
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Sigma has a slightly sharper center and mid-frame performance, both wide angle and then through
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the middle of the zoom range up until the telephoto end. And so a little bit stronger performance there
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Now when I talk about some of these optical differences, I will demonstrate them in detail
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if you want the breakdown at the end of the video. So stay tuned for that if you want the deep dive into the optics
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I also found that it had slightly better telephoto performance, wide open, fairly close
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in the center and mid-frame, but actually a little bit better in the corners, which was kind of a reversal of what we'll see otherwise
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It also exhibited slightly lower vignette. And when it comes to the autofocus side of things, I found that the Sigma focused faster
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and quieter. You can see in these back-to-back focus tests that there's just less pulsing as the Tamron
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pulses a little bit more as it locks onto the subject. The Sigma was just kind of smoother going back and forth in this
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And it was also quieter in operation. Not that either of them has a lot of focus sounds, but the Tamron is fairly clattery
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when it comes to the aperture blades opening and closing during focus
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And so you hear a little bit of clatter from that. So the Sigma was quieter as well as being a little bit faster and more confident
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I also found during the focus pulls on the video side of things that there was less visible
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stepping and so the focus pulls were just a little bit smoother and more confident
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Now when I went to something like doing my hand test, in that case I didn't really see
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a radical difference between the two lenses. Autofocus was pretty good actually from both of those in the transition from the hand to
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the eye and vice versa. And so overall you can see that they perform quite well there
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I would give the autofocus edge in general to Sigma because it does have some significant
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advantages in a few areas that the Tamron did not exhibit. So how about some reasons to choose the Tamron
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Now obviously Tamron went with a much larger lens for the simple fact that they kind of
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gave you everything. This is a bigger zoom range with that large maximum aperture than what you're seeing on
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any of the competing lenses. So to go all the way from 17 to 70 millimeters means that you're going to get a little bit
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more width on the wide angle of things. You can see from this comparison shot that it is, there is a difference
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It's not radically obvious in the shot but you can see a much more noticeable difference
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if we zoom into the telephoto range. So let's give it two points here because it gets both extra width on the wide angle but
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it also gets more telephoto zoom. And so that gives it just an all around advantage if your priority is to get as many focal lengths
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as possible covered in one lens. The Tamron does that while keeping that constant maximum aperture of f2.8 which is impressive
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and it's the reason why the lens is so big. The lens also comes with Tamron's VC, vibration compensation, which is their optical stabilization system
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Whereas the Sigma does not. By the way, neither does the Fuji 16 to 55 millimeter
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So if you happen to be shooting with one of Fuji's bodies that doesn't have in body image
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stabilization, that's going to be a really obvious difference between the two
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Now I did my test on my Fuji X-H2 which does have effective in body image stabilization
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So frankly I didn't really notice much of a difference between the two when it came to those things because of the good in body stabilization
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But if you happen to be shooting on one of Fuji's many bodies that doesn't have stabilization
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that's going to be a huge advantage for the Tamron, particularly if you want to do some
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handheld video capture. The Tamron has better weather sealing. It doesn't just have a rear gasket but it has seal points at the rings and up to the
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front fluorine coating on the front element. And so it has a more thorough weather sealing throughout
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Whereas the Sigma has only a weather sealing gasket just at the lens mount
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No internal seals. And so that is an area where it is set apart and has a little bit more of an upscale design
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element there. It also exhibits lower chromatic aberrations. Particularly of the fringing variety
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Not that either of these lenses is terrible but I did notice doing a lot of side by side
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comparisons and as you can see in this example the Sigma is definitely showing some fringing
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whereas the Tamron stays almost perfectly neutral. And so it's control of chromatic aberrations is a definite strength for the lens
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I also found that up until the extreme telephoto end that the Tamron had obviously sharper
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corners when I did side by side comparisons. Although the Tamron goes wider than what the Sigma does, surprisingly it is the one that
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has the lower levels of distortion. And so another win for Tamron there is that it does control distortion throughout the
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zoom range but particularly on the wide end better than what the Sigma does
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And finally because it, I would say that the quality of the bokeh is similar across the
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two lenses but the Tamron certainly has the capability of producing more of it
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For the simple reason that it has that extra 20 millimeters of focal length
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So at a variety of distances it's going to be able to provide more separation from the
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subject as you tap into beyond the 50 millimeters range. And so that obviously is going to make it a little bit more advantageous particularly
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if you're shooting portraiture or things like that where you're wanting to separate your
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subject from a background. So in conclusion both of these lenses exhibit a really radically different approach to the
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standard zoom formula. It's obviously that in this case often you know you have two lenses that are very similar
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in a lot of details. That's not the case here at all. So Sigma has chosen a very different formula than what Tamron has here
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And I think that what lens is going to be best for you really depends on whether kind
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of what category of the market you fit into. And so if your idea of traveling with APS-C and you bought into APS-C to stay nice and
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compact the Sigma is the really obvious choice there. I would argue that it is the better size match for most APS-C cameras you know and really
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including my X-H2 which is about the largest of Fuji's bodies. And so in this case I would say that it is the more natural pairing for most of Fuji's cameras
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And if you're looking for a general purpose standard zoom that is a nice fit maybe you
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want to travel with the lens you know obviously go for the Sigma
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It is the compact kit is a nice travel option for that reason
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Tamron has obviously gone for maximum utility. The biggest zoom range plus having that image stabilization built in
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So I would say buy the Tamron if number one you don't have in body image stabilization
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in your body, your camera body and you don't intend to upgrade to one of Fuji's cameras
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that has that anytime in the near future. Or if your priority includes maybe doing portraiture or weddings where you're going to be able
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to maximize the telephoto end of the zoom range a little bit more
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And you value that versatility maybe even for shooting events to where in lower light
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conditions you don't have to stop at 50mm but you have that additional 20mm of reach
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which can be a serious difference maker. Both of these lenses do have value and frankly when it comes to the optical performance there's
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not really a big standout from one to the other. They both have some give and take, some strengths and weaknesses there
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And so I think that at the end of the day you need to buy for which lens suits your
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actual typical priorities and needs. And because they are such radically different lenses in terms of size I think that makes
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it a pretty obvious choice for you. Now if you want more information on either one of these lenses in the description below
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I do have links to my full reviews on both of them along with buying links if you've
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already made your choice. But if you want a deeper dive into how they compare optically stay with me as we dive
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into the optical performance and how they come out head to head
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Okay, for the sake of consistency across these comparisons I'm going to keep the Sigma
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on the left, the Tamron is going to be on the right. We'll start by taking a look here at our vignette and distortion
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You can see that there is a significant amount of barrel distortion on the Sigma at 18mm
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The Tamron also has some barrel distortion but you can see it is a much milder amount
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and thus the original framing was tighter because there's extra room that's left on
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the Sigma to correct for that distortion. Correcting the Sigma took a plus 24, a very significant amount to correct for that distortion manually
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And you can see that vignette was a plus 92 so I had to move the slider most of the way
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By comparison the Tamron only required a plus 6, though you can see it's a little bit of
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a complex pattern so it didn't perfectly correct it but removing the main body of the distortion
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manually took a plus 6. Whereas the vignette I had to max out the sliders at plus 100 so a little bit more vignette
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on the Tamron versus the Sigma. Now if we take a look at this comparison here we can see that if we zoom in and look at
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our focal point here on this old camera then we're looking towards this defocused area
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you can see that there is some significantly more amount of green fringing on the various
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textures for the Sigma versus the Tamron. And so that's an area where the Tamron certainly gets the win
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You can also see something similar on my chart here that if you look at the results of the
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Sigma on the left there is significantly more fringing as we transition out of focus
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So taking another look at the framing here on the left you can see there's a little bit
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more showing on the Tamron versus the Sigma. Down here along the bottom of the tub you can see that there's more that's present there
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on the Tamron. If you look at the towel more present on the Tamron
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And if you look up here at the ceiling there's a little bit more of a transition between
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the top of this and the top of the frame. But you'll probably also agree that this is fairly minuscule and if I didn't point out
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those areas probably the average layperson wouldn't notice the difference. The difference in magnification on the telephoto end though is much more obvious and you can
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see looking at the right that the Tamron is showing a much more magnified image in this
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portion of the well in all portions of the frame but particularly here this kind of stands
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out and you can see looking at here that the decoration is not even completely in frame
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whereas there's lots of empty space before you even get to that decoration on the Sigma
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So that's our primary difference in our framing. Now obviously bokeh is somewhat subjective
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I've done my best to equate framing here as much as possible trying to make things equal
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It's a little bit hard to do because the way that each one of these lenses registers focal
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length is not identical. And so you can see there is a few millimeter difference between the two
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But if we look towards the defocused areas here you can see that the Tamron is exhibiting
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just a little bit more bokeh there. And the other issue that I would say makes the Tamron just a little bit better is the
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fact that there is some fringing in the bokeh highlights, specular highlights from the Sigma
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that are missing from the Tamron. At the same time however the Tamron is showing some concentric rings here
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You can even make out in this image that you're not seeing the same way on the Sigma
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So a little bit of give and take there. Again it's not like one of them is just amazingly creamy and the other is terrible
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They're really not all that different. Now if we do a comparison at 18mm versus 17mm, so on the wide end, I'm going to show you
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these results at 200% magnification and this is a 40 megapixel body
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You can see in the center of the frame that the Sigma definitely has an advantage here
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There's just more contrast and detail in the various textures here, more information there
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If we move to the mid-frame area you can see that that advantage remains and the Sigma
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definitely looks sharper in the mid-frame. Moving down to the corner however and the opposite becomes true and the Tamron has better
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clarity and more detail there and that's true if we look here over on the left side as well
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See the Tamron continues to look better and very obviously better here down in this corner
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Now what's also interesting to me is that really these results stay quite constant if
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you stop the lens down. Now I would say in the center of the frame the difference is not as noticeable but it's
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still does favor the Sigma that has a little bit better clarity, a little bit better contrast
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in the mid-frame. Results are more similar now and I would say it's here that Tamron has made the largest
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strides and it is just as good, maybe even arguably a hair better than what the Sigma is
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Down in the corners, obviously the difference is not as pronounced here now as what it was
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wide open but you can still see that Tamron is better overall there
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Looking at this zone, they're close but I would favor Tamron and off into the corner
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it's still fairly obviously the Tamron that is the winner there. Looking at the mid-frame up here, the results are very similar but I would favor Tamron
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So I will say this, maybe Tamron has a slight more capacity for improvement when stopped
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down than what does the Sigma. So if we grab a point in the middle of the zoom range and of course that's not identical
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with both of these because there's more zoom on the Tamron but roughly the center of the
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zoom range and we pop in again here at f2.8, we can see that the mid-frame results are
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actually quite similar. Contrast is very, very similar, amount of detail is very similar
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Looking at the mid-frame results, again very, very similar, slightly more maybe for the
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Sigma but not a significant advantage and once again the Tamron retains the ability
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to have better corner performance. So kind of your takeaway there is how important are corners to you because if they are important
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to you, if you're maybe you're thinking about landscape photography, Tamron might be just
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a little bit better because it is a little more consistent in its sharpness across the frame
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As on the wide end, stopping the lenses down doesn't make a radical difference
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The Sigma continues to look a little bit better in the center of the frame
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The mid-frame results still slightly favor the Sigma, not a big difference but a little
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bit one there and the corners are looking much better for the Sigma but the Tamron's
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corners are looking really quite fantastic and so that is definitely the strongest corner
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performance we've seen. Over in this zone, I slightly favor the Tamron and down into the corner, again it's Tamron
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there moving up very, very slightly Tamron and then in this upper left corner as well
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you'll see that the Tamron result looks a little bit better. Now if we jump to the telephoto ends of these zoom lenses, we're going to find that in the
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center of the frame, there is not a whole lot to distinguish these two
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They look very, very similar. The mid-frame, we can see that they're similar but I think there's just a little bit better
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contrast for the Tamron. Now ironically here, it's the Sigma that is actually a little bit better in the corner
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at the telephoto end versus the Tamron, kind of a reversal of what we saw everywhere else
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and so that's actually true on both sides of the frame even if we look up here towards
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the corner. And as before, stopping down to f5.6 doesn't really change the calculus very much
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We can see that both lenses look good though I do think that there is a little bit more
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improvement for Tamron than what there is for Sigma but the corners are still a little
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bit better for the Sigma and that's true if you look on all the different areas of the
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frame that we have looked and so there's a fairly consistent performance there across
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the frame. Now one area in the discussion of flare resistance that didn't make it into the previous portion
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is that I also slightly favor the Sun-Star result from the Tamron
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The Sigma has a lower blade count, seven blades, whereas the Tamron has a higher nine blade count
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So as you can see, that results in just a little bit more interesting sunburst or sun
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star effect with a little bit more defined rays there and so I do favor that
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And so at the end of the day, there is some give and take between both of these lenses
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Some wins, some losses, and hopefully this gives you a better sense of which one performs
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more to your taste. Thank you for sticking around to the end
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As always, have a great day and let the light in

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Sigma 18-50mm F2.8 or Tamron 17-70mm F2.8 for Fuji X-Mount | Which is Better?

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