Sony 50-150 GM vs Tamron 35-150 VXD | DA Showdown!
Apr 24, 2025
Sony's new FE 50-150mm F2 G Master is making waves, but is it worth more than twice as much as Tamron's also excellent 35-150mm F2-2.8 VXD zoom? Find out in Dustin's showdown!
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=============================
Table of Contents:
=============================
0:00 - Intro and Concept
1:29 - Similarities
3:04 - Neutral Qualities
3:34 - Reasons to Choose TAMRON
7:59 - Reasons to Choose SONY
14:49 - Conclusion and Recommendations
16:55 - BONUS OPTICAL COMPARISON
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Keywords: Sony 50-150mm, Tamron 35-150mm, Sony 50-150 GM, 50-150 F2, Sony FE 50-150mm F2 GM, Tamron 35-150 VXD, 50-150mm, GM, Sony 50-150 GM Review, Sony 50-150mm Review, Sony FE 50-150mm F2 GM Review, Full Frame, Review, Sony Alpha 1, Sony a7RV, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, let the light in, weathersealing, #letthelightin, DA
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0:00
[Music]
0:06
[Music]
0:10
sony's new 50 to 150 mm f2 G Master has
0:15
created a lot of buzz for being the
0:17
first full-frame zoom to reach 150 mm
0:20
with that constant maximum aperture of
0:22
f2 but Tamron was the first genre
0:26
boosting zoom like this back in 2021
0:29
where they coupled a bigger zoom ratio
0:31
from 35 to 150 mm with a still fast
0:35
variable maximum aperture of f2 to
0:39
f2.8 now obviously both of these lenses
0:42
are kind of unique on E-mount in that
0:46
there are very few other alternatives
0:48
that are quite like them sigma does have
0:50
a 28 to 105mm f/2.8 date however that
0:54
lens is not as fast and certainly
0:57
doesn't go as long and so in many ways
1:00
these are the closest two compet
1:02
competitors in this particular space so
1:05
the question is is this new G Master
1:08
lens worth twice as much as the existing
1:11
Tamron lens that's been on the market
1:13
for a while well this is another one of
1:15
our head-to-head videos and we're going
1:17
to jump in and we are going to find out
1:19
today so the Sony is a loaner from Sony
1:22
USA and we'll be going back to them
1:24
after this review the Tamron is my own
1:26
personal copy that I bought back in 2021
1:30
we're going to start by taking a look at
1:32
the similarities between the two lenses
1:34
because although they look pretty
1:36
radically different there are some
1:38
commonalities that I think are worth
1:39
exploring both of them have a thorough
1:42
weather sealing and you know you might
1:44
argue that well the the G Master is
1:47
probably the better sealed perhaps
1:48
that's true but they both have the same
1:51
ingredients here they both have a gasket
1:53
at the lens mount a flooring coating at
1:55
the front element and then seals at all
1:57
of the various rings and buttons inside
2:01
so they all have those similar kind of
2:03
capabilities they both have three of a
2:06
of the function buttons that are placed
2:08
at three different locations around and
2:10
so that you have the opportunity to have
2:12
one near at hand both of them have the
2:15
ability to do a smooth aperture rack and
2:19
as you can see here the Tamron does a
2:22
good job with that and of course the
2:24
premium G Master lens also does a very
2:27
good job with that and so I don't know
2:30
that I I really saw a difference i do
2:32
prefer the G Master's setup for that and
2:34
we'll get to that in a moment but in
2:36
terms of doing aperture racks uh you can
2:38
do that just as easily on the Tamron as
2:40
you can on the G Master both of them
2:43
share a common flaw and that they both
2:46
have issues with flare particularly on
2:48
the telephoto end but even on the wide
2:50
end they do struggle a bit in certain
2:52
situations with having particularly
2:55
ghosting artifacts and on the telephoto
2:57
end more likely to have a little bit of
2:59
a loss of contrast and so unfortunately
3:02
they both share a weakness in that
3:04
regard now in the category of neutral
3:07
differences areas where they're
3:08
different but not with any kind of
3:10
particular benefit one way or another um
3:12
you could argue either direction one of
3:14
them is very obviously has the white
3:17
finish the other has a black finish
3:19
there are people who prefer the white
3:20
finish there are people that prefer the
3:22
black finish and it really comes down to
3:25
a matter of preference i don't actually
3:27
think that in any kind of clinical way
3:30
is better than the other but obviously
3:33
it is a difference so we're going to
3:36
look at some reasons to choose the
3:38
Tamron it's been on the market now for
3:40
quite a while and so it's a well-known
3:42
commodity particularly to myself because
3:44
this has been the lens that I have used
3:45
probably more than any other over the
3:47
last four years and so we're going to
3:50
look at it first and some reasons to
3:52
choose it the first of those is a
3:55
practical reason it is much much cheaper
3:58
and I mean much cheaper right now you
4:00
can get it for about $1,700 as of
4:02
today's pricing on B&H Photo the new
4:05
Sony is a pre-order at
4:09
$3,898 and so if you're doing the math
4:12
that means that there's about $2,200
4:15
difference between the two lenses you
4:17
could buy two of the Tamron lenses and
4:20
still have a pretty fair chunk of change
4:22
left over to buy something else before
4:24
you could pay for the G Master that's a
4:27
practical consideration for a lot of
4:29
people furthermore the Tamron has a
4:32
bigger zoom range it starts at 35 rather
4:34
than 50 millimeters and as I zoom in and
4:37
out here you can see you have the
4:39
ability to go considerably wider than
4:42
what you you have and I will say also in
4:44
lining things up at around 50 mm and so
4:47
let's just say that the Tamron at 50 mm
4:50
is wider than what the Sony is at 50 mm
4:53
as you can pretty obviously see the
4:55
Tamron is much smaller it is 89.2
4:59
uh millimeters in diameter by 158
5:03
millime in length meanwhile you can tell
5:05
even from the front diameter
5:08
102.8 mm for the Sony lens that is a
5:12
significant difference in diameter and
5:15
it is 200 millimeters long and so that's
5:18
about 32% less lens volume in the Tamron
5:22
now to be fair the Tamron is an
5:24
externally zooming lens so when you zoom
5:26
it out it's not really any shorter but
5:30
the difference is of course for travel
5:32
for packing it's a much easier lens to
5:35
pack along because it is much smaller in
5:37
its retracted state it is also
5:39
considerably lighter it weighs in
5:42
at,65 g whereas the Sony is 1340 g not
5:48
terrible for what the Sony is however
5:50
the Tamron is considerably lighter if
5:53
you're going to need to buy filters it's
5:55
going to be much cheaper to buy them for
5:56
the Tamron which has an 82mm front
5:59
filter thread that is a a pretty common
6:03
filter size and there's a lot of filters
6:06
that come in that particular size
6:07
whereas here on the Sony we're jumping
6:10
up to a 95 mm front filter thread so not
6:14
only are filters going to be less common
6:15
at 95 millimeters they are going to be
6:18
more expensive as well interestingly I
6:21
actually found in a lot of different
6:23
tests that the Tamron is the one that
6:25
has the lower levels of fringing the
6:28
Sony isn't bad but in head-to-head
6:30
comparisons I certainly found that the
6:32
Tamron was even better corrected in that
6:34
regard i also found that the Tamron
6:38
produced more consistently round um call
6:41
them bokeh balls specular highlights
6:43
across the frame and the Sony is very
6:46
good at maintaining a circular aperture
6:48
as the aperture is stopped down however
6:50
it does exhibit far more clipping near
6:52
the edges of the frame and some of that
6:54
clipping is not overly organic looking
6:57
it's a little bit harsher kind of more
6:58
of a straight line whereas the uh the
7:01
Tamron does a little bit better job
7:02
maintaining those specular highlights i
7:05
also found in doing head-to-head shots
7:07
and I'll tell you this as you'll see in
7:09
the optical breakdown at the end there's
7:11
some give and take in this but
7:13
particularly at the 150 mm end I found
7:16
that the Tamron's overall rendering was
7:19
nicer to my eye the there's just
7:21
something about the defocused areas that
7:22
are more pleasing than what I saw out of
7:25
the Sony lens i also found that in
7:28
head-to-head comparisons I actually
7:30
preferred the Tamron's colors to the
7:32
Sony and I feel like the Tamron has a
7:35
little bit more of an organic look to it
7:38
while the Sony is just a little bit more
7:41
clinical i'm don't blow that out of
7:43
proportion it's a minor variance but I
7:45
did just kind of instinctively in
7:47
head-to-head shots I instinctively
7:49
preferred what I saw out of the Tamron
7:52
so there are definitely some very valid
7:54
reasons to choose the Tamron over the
7:56
Sony but of course you can flip that
7:58
around and there are a lot of equally
8:00
valid reasons to choose the Sony over
8:03
the Tamron the first of those is a
8:05
faster maximum aperture remember that
8:07
the Tamron while it starts at f2 it is a
8:10
variable aperture zoom and the truth of
8:12
the matter is that by the time you get
8:13
to 50 millimeters where the Sony starts
8:15
in its focal length the Tamron has
8:17
closed to f2.2 by the time you get to 85
8:21
millimeters it is already at its
8:23
smallest maximum aperture of f/2.8 which
8:26
means that over a fair portion of the
8:28
zoom range the Sony is going to be a
8:30
full stop faster than what the Tamron is
8:34
and that has all kinds of implications
8:36
shallow depth of field light gathering
8:38
potential etc etc
8:41
not as significant of a difference but
8:43
there is a little bit higher level of
8:46
magnification on the Sony lens than what
8:48
there is on the Tamron the Tamron has a
8:51
0.18 times magnification the Sony has a
8:54
0.20 times magnification and so no
8:57
that's not a huge difference and neither
8:59
one of these lenses are going to be
9:01
mistaken for a macro lens but the Sony
9:03
does a little bit better in that regard
9:06
now while I noted that you could do just
9:09
as good of aperture racking on the
9:11
Tamron lens the truth of the matter is
9:13
is that the Tamron it kind of has a a
9:16
backwards way of going about giving you
9:19
aperture control if you want to control
9:21
it that way what it does is gives you a
9:23
custom switch that allows you to change
9:25
the manual focus ring into an aperture
9:27
ring so it means it's always going to be
9:30
decllicked because it's just a
9:31
constantly moving ring the damping feels
9:34
fine nothing wrong with that overall
9:36
however I have found that I actually
9:38
don't love the aperture control through
9:40
this i end up doing a lot of times just
9:42
controlling aperture from within the
9:43
camera because I find that it just moves
9:45
way too quickly too quickly and so you
9:48
don't have as precise control as what
9:49
you would like the G Master has Sony's
9:52
full G Master approach to aperture or
9:54
traditional aperture ring you can either
9:56
click or declick it's got an iris lock
9:59
it's just got a whole lot better
10:01
implementation of aperture control
10:04
i would also say that both while both of
10:06
these lenses are very nicely built the
10:08
Sony is next level i mean it does have a
10:11
build quality that in many ways kind of
10:13
suggest their high-end super telephoto
10:16
lenses and so it's just it's a little
10:18
bit better constructed a little bit more
10:19
featurerich now to the Tamron's credit
10:22
it also has a nice metal body i've had a
10:24
copy that I've been using for years and
10:26
it's held up very well i have zero
10:28
complaints about it however in just the
10:31
overall feel of the lenses I would say
10:33
that the Sony is the more premium of the
10:35
two one big advantage when you're in the
10:38
field is that it is an internally
10:40
zooming lens and we've already seen that
10:42
the Tamron is an externally zooming lens
10:45
but it just means that you're going to
10:46
be able to do things like zooming during
10:49
video for example you can do that more
10:51
smoothly here you can make more quick
10:53
changes means that there's far less
10:56
likelihood of ever sucking in any kind
10:59
of dust into the lens because it's much
11:02
easier to seal overall i mean I so far I
11:05
think the Tamron's actually done well i
11:06
can't really see dust inside my copy
11:09
however the there's just definite
11:12
advantages to having that internally
11:14
zooming design the Sony does have a
11:17
tripod foot whereas the Tamron does not
11:20
i have found that the Tamron while it's
11:22
heavy it's not so heavy that I feel like
11:24
I definitively needed a tripod collar or
11:27
foot on it but obviously that is better
11:29
implemented into the Sony design and so
11:32
it definitely with this lens I feel like
11:34
it's going to balance better and perform
11:35
better if you're using the tripod foot
11:37
and so that certainly is an advantage
11:40
there less of a big deal because they
11:43
both keep a good circular shape but I
11:45
did find that there are 11 blades on the
11:48
Sony lens there are nine blades on the
11:51
Tamron lens and so it just means that it
11:54
is a little bit better in terms of
11:56
keeping that circular shape as you stop
11:58
it down now there is a more significant
12:01
advantage for the Sony lens when it
12:03
comes to the uh autofocus capabilities
12:06
this is I mean for a fast lens like this
12:09
this is as good as what I've seen it's
12:11
got quad XD linear motors and so
12:14
autofocus is pretty much instantaneous
12:16
there is a single VXD motor in the the
12:20
Tamron and while it's a similar type
12:22
motor and it does focus quickly um it
12:25
isn't at the level of the Sony and the
12:26
Sony can track just effortlessly it
12:29
picks up from the very first frame and
12:31
on my Alpha 1 for example it was just
12:34
flawless in tracking across the frame
12:36
very very impressive in that regard on
12:39
the video side of things I also found
12:41
that there is less focus breathing
12:43
actually the Tamron is is better than
12:45
what I expected in this regard but the
12:47
Sony is both natively better and then it
12:50
also has the advantage of Sony's focus
12:52
breathing compensation um that only
12:55
works for Sony lenses and so any kind of
12:57
breathing that was there you can just
12:58
mathematically eliminate through those
13:00
algorithms and the Tamron doesn't have
13:02
that advantage also you're going to find
13:05
that that f2 aperture means that there
13:07
are plenty of situations where you can
13:09
create a more shallow depth of field and
13:11
again it's a fairly significant
13:13
difference at f2.8 and so that just
13:15
means that backgrounds are going to be
13:17
more out of focus there's a little bit
13:18
more separation of your subject from the
13:21
background in my optical test I found
13:24
that while both of these lenses are
13:25
extremely sharp and extremely high
13:27
contrast the Sony is more consistently
13:30
so and I I found that in a lot of shots
13:35
particularly in my chart test that there
13:36
were just areas where the Sony sharpness
13:38
was more consistent across the frame
13:40
it's definitely sharper in the corners
13:42
almost all the time and so it has some
13:46
definite optical advantages in terms of
13:48
sharpness it also typically has better
13:51
contrast relative to the Tamron when it
13:54
comes to just to head-to-head
13:56
comparisons now that higher contrast may
13:58
be part of why I like the defocus
14:01
backgrounds a little bit better on the
14:03
Tamron uh sometimes a higher contrast
14:06
lens there's a trade-off when it comes
14:07
in that regard but anyway uh there's
14:10
definitely better contrast if that's a
14:11
priority for you and then of course
14:13
there are a number of bakedin Sony perks
14:16
that are really important here uh
14:18
unfortunately the use of teleconverters
14:20
is not one of those things so I will
14:21
give another dig over that but you can
14:24
unlock the full burst potential of your
14:26
camera so even if you're shooting on an
14:28
A9 Mark III you can shoot all the way up
14:29
to 120 frames per second you put this
14:33
Tamron lens on the same camera and
14:35
you're going to be capped at 15 frames
14:36
per second because that is going to be
14:38
the cap across all of Sony's camera
14:40
bodies and so it just means that if
14:42
you're happen to use the lens for sports
14:44
this is going to be a more obvious
14:46
choice because you're going to get that
14:48
full potential from it so my conclusion
14:51
is this while there are similarities
14:53
between these two lenses there's also a
14:56
lot of differences and I would say that
14:59
if you are a portrait shooter or even a
15:02
basic event shooter and you already own
15:04
the Tamron lens I I still think that the
15:06
Tamron is perfectly adequate for that
15:09
however if you are someone who shoots
15:12
sports particularly court sports or you
15:14
know smaller venue sports this Sony lens
15:18
is I think it's an amazing lens for that
15:21
and I think that it would be fantastic
15:23
in that setting i think that it it
15:26
really can become the most desirable
15:28
lens that's out there for that setting
15:30
and I think it's got a lot of advantages
15:32
over a 70 to 200 millimeter f2.8 and so
15:35
I think it's well worth considering on
15:36
that
15:37
front as probably an event lens I would
15:40
also consider it as being superior it's
15:43
going to allow you to just have you know
15:45
a brighter uh light intake in all of
15:48
those settings so if you're shooting in
15:50
dim venues you combine that with a
15:52
superior autofocus system and it just
15:53
means that you're going to be able to
15:55
work in the margins more effectively
15:57
than what you can with the Tamron and so
15:59
I think in a lot of ways the Sony is the
16:01
better lens but of course it begs the
16:04
question is it more than two times
16:06
better and the I think the answer for
16:08
some photographers will be yes probably
16:11
for a equally if not larger amount of
16:14
photographers the answer will be no it
16:17
actually depends on what you need out of
16:19
the lens and what you plan to do with it
16:21
both of these are very very capable
16:23
lenses and as always we are an extremely
16:26
spoiled to have such amazing options
16:29
available to us at radically different
16:30
price points and so I hope that this has
16:33
helped you to kind of quantify which one
16:35
of these lenses maybe makes more sense
16:36
for you now if you want even more
16:38
information you can either check out my
16:40
full reviews of both lenses and I've got
16:42
both the video and text reviews linked
16:44
in the description down below or you can
16:46
stay tuned with me right now and we'll
16:48
go into an optical breakdown and I'll
16:50
demonstrate to you how I arrived at the
16:52
conclusions I did previously so let's
16:54
dive in and let's take a look okay for
16:56
this comparison I'm going or series of
16:58
comparisons I'm always going to have the
17:00
Tamron on the left and the Sony on the
17:01
right so you know what you're looking at
17:04
here I'm going to start comparing at 50
17:06
millimeters so at 50 millimeters this is
17:08
on 61 megapixels A7R Mark 5 and 200%
17:12
magnification you can see looking at the
17:14
center of the frame they're both
17:15
extremely sharp they both have good
17:17
contrast but the Sony has superior
17:19
contrast and you can see that the text
17:21
definitely looks more crisp than what it
17:24
does on the Tamron the mid-frame I would
17:27
say there is a very slight advantage for
17:29
the Sony however it's largely in
17:31
contrast you'll see the ink here looks
17:33
inkier than what it does here a more
17:36
significant advantage is down here in
17:38
the right corner where you can see that
17:40
the Sony really looks superior that's
17:43
less true up here on the left corner
17:46
however where the Tamron looks I would
17:48
say about equally good and so not much
17:52
of a difference there if we pop down
17:53
here I would say that they're close i
17:56
like the Sony a little bit better and
17:58
then in the upper right corner again
18:00
they're close but I slightly prefer the
18:03
Sony performance if we stop both lenses
18:06
down to f2.8 we can see that they both
18:10
have improved but I would say that the
18:12
Sony still has an advantage in the
18:15
center of the frame in the mid-frame I
18:17
would say there's a very very slight
18:19
Sony advantage up in this corner i look
18:22
at them and they're very very close it's
18:25
hard to distinguish much of a difference
18:27
between the two there but still in this
18:29
lower right corner the Sony has the
18:31
advantage now if we move on to 100 mm
18:35
you'll see that the Tamron's already at
18:37
f2.8 the Sony is still at f2 at least
18:40
for this comparison again they're close
18:42
but contrast favors the Sony there and I
18:45
would say looking at the text it's not
18:47
just contrast it's resolving at a little
18:49
bit higher level and the mid-frame again
18:52
the Sony is giving just a little bit
18:54
more detail look in the hair here
18:56
compared to where it looks a little bit
18:57
more smeared on the Tamron they're both
18:59
good don't get me wrong but the Sony is
19:02
better up here in the corner I see a
19:04
Sony advantage there higher contrast and
19:07
higher detail right out to the edge of
19:09
the frame and in the lower right corner
19:11
definitely Sony that is a superior place
19:15
more similar on this side though a
19:17
little bit Sony advantage and up in this
19:20
corner again it's closer but it's a Sony
19:24
advantage here as well now if we stop
19:26
the Sony down to f2.8 you would expect
19:29
that advantage to grow even more and I
19:32
think that it does you can see that it
19:34
looks better everywhere that we've
19:36
looked so far up in this corner it looks
19:38
better and down here it was already
19:41
better and it looks much better now over
19:43
on this side it's a more clear advantage
19:45
so at equivalent apertures the Sony is
19:48
definitely the sharper higher contrast
19:50
lens at 100 millm now at 150 mm Tamron
19:53
at f2.8 Sony at f2 you can see once
19:56
again that the uh Sony lens is sharper
20:00
and higher contrast again the Tamron is
20:02
extremely good this is 200%
20:04
magnification so it looks great but the
20:06
Sony is clearly demonstrabably better
20:09
and here again the margins are close but
20:12
you can just see all of that text the
20:14
fine detail here contrast definitely
20:16
favors the Sony lens up in this corner
20:20
the Sony looks to be the sharper higher
20:23
contrast of the two and down in this
20:25
corner for once it's not a huge
20:27
advantage for the Sony it's very very
20:30
close over on this side it's close but I
20:33
think the contrast is better on the Sony
20:35
lens and up in this corner the same is
20:38
true you can see that just the text
20:40
looks a little bit crisper there and as
20:42
before if you stop the Sony down to f2.8
20:44
it definitely has an advantage that
20:46
contrast advantage grows and it's also
20:49
just resolving higher you can see that
20:51
that's just popping off the page where
20:53
it looks just a little dingier on the
20:55
Tamron lens likewise up here looking
20:58
better there and down into this corner
21:00
looking better with better contrast
21:02
though not significantly so but a little
21:05
bit more obvious difference here so the
21:07
big question is are you going to see
21:08
that difference out in the real world
21:11
well the answer is complicated at 100%
21:14
magnification which is the typical way
21:16
you're going to look at things you can
21:17
see that really the detail and contrast
21:20
looks really quite similar and there's a
21:23
little bit of give and take as I pan
21:24
around but they are a very very similar
21:28
performance this is of course f2.8 for
21:32
the Tamron lens and f2 for the Sony i
21:35
also feel like at this stage that Sony's
21:37
bokeh looks relatively good compared to
21:41
the Tamron now where I think that's less
21:44
true is if you'll see in the Tamron in
21:46
the transition towards defocus even
21:48
though it's got uh not as you know
21:51
shallow a depth of field and so this
21:53
should favor the Sony you can see in
21:56
that transition towards defocus that
21:58
it's handled more smoothly on the Tamron
22:00
whereas on the Sony there's just a
22:02
little bit more distracting elements
22:04
that are there now as you get more
22:07
deeply out of focus for example here the
22:10
advantage of having that more shallow
22:11
depth of field favors the Sony where
22:13
things are just a little bit more out of
22:15
focus and thus attract the eye a little
22:17
bit less and so even in this zone I
22:20
think that it looks a little bit softer
22:22
on the Sony if I move on to 150 mm again
22:25
Tamron being f2.8 date Sony being F2 you
22:30
can see here that in the area of focus I
22:33
actually think that the Tamron has
22:35
higher contrast and more detail in the
22:37
real world shot here and if we pan
22:40
around a little bit you can see that
22:42
that remains true it's a little bit
22:45
better here for the Sony and again as we
22:47
get towards these transition areas some
22:50
of this stuff is just a little bit more
22:51
distracting on the Sony as we transition
22:54
towards defocus now if I stop the Sony
22:56
down to f2.8 you can see that now they
22:59
look pretty much identical and I don't
23:02
think that there's any advantage for the
23:03
Tamron any longer in the areas of
23:06
texture and sharpness and as we move
23:08
towards defocus you know they're they're
23:11
just highly similar in many ways in this
23:14
shot for example looking at them
23:16
globally you can see that the Sony's
23:17
background is more defocused at f2
23:20
versus f2.8 as far as the real world
23:23
sharpness and contrast I do think it's a
23:25
little bit higher on the Sony but as you
23:27
can see at 100% magnification you know
23:30
without them side by side I don't know
23:32
that you would see that difference now
23:34
in this comparison the more shallow
23:36
depth of field provided by the Sony you
23:39
can see globally it does have an
23:40
advantage if we look at the contrast and
23:43
detail here I think the Tamron is
23:46
holding up a little bit better here and
23:48
more importantly in the transition
23:50
towards defocus here I do feel like it's
23:52
a little bit smoother on the Tamron than
23:55
what it is on the Sony once again
23:58
however if I stop the Sony down to uh
24:01
f2.8 you can see that now the contrast
24:04
and detail it definitely matches that of
24:07
the Tamron though I still like the
24:09
overall look of the Tamron's transition
24:11
zone to defocus and that's where I think
24:13
the Tamron wins is in that uh transition
24:16
zone there's just more edging more
24:18
circular shapes and so you can see that
24:21
the background area it looks busier on
24:24
the Sony relative to the Tamron which
24:26
transitions to a nicer defocus now
24:28
looking at the images globally I don't
24:30
know that you see that as much i mean
24:32
you can jump in here and look at that
24:35
and a lot of this is just out of focus
24:37
and so it's hard to determine too much
24:39
from that here's another good example
24:41
overall and so again looking at the
24:43
image globally you can tell that the
24:44
background is more defocused from the
24:46
Sony looking at the contrast and the
24:48
detail on the subject you know they both
24:51
look good is the Sony better it very
24:53
likely is slightly better but you can
24:56
tell when you get into these real world
24:57
images and away from the test chart it's
24:59
it's a little bit harder a read but
25:02
where again the Tamron I prefer is in
25:04
these transition zones so as you move
25:06
towards the defocus if you look in this
25:08
area here the Sony is kind of busy
25:11
whereas you get more of just that kind
25:13
of glow creamy background on the Tamron
25:16
as it moves towards defocus now when you
25:19
get you know seriously defocused I don't
25:22
know that there is much of a difference
25:23
there it's more in that kind of
25:25
transition area where the Tamron just is
25:27
a little bit smoother than what the Sony
25:29
is even though the Sony has the
25:31
advantage of the more shallow depth of
25:32
field if I swap to the f2.8 8 version of
25:36
the image you know it gives the Sony
25:39
more contrast and detail i'm not sure
25:41
that that was needed all that much but
25:44
what it also does is you can see that at
25:47
apples to apples f2.8 to f2.8 that
25:50
transition zone is definitely smoother
25:51
on the Tamron lens and now of course the
25:54
Sony doesn't have the advantage of
25:56
having a more defocused background and
25:58
so I think that some of these things
26:00
just become a little bit more obvious a
26:02
little busier looking on the Sony versus
26:05
the Tamron lens and it's really that
26:08
transition zone above all so how about
26:10
for a portrait shot and so here looking
26:13
at the overall backgrounds backgrounds
26:16
uh obviously the Sony is more defocused
26:18
at f2 then look tremendously different
26:21
in this kind of setting as we've seen
26:24
previously when there it's f2.8 versus
26:27
f2 i do feel like the Tamron often shows
26:30
just a little bit more contrast and
26:31
detail part of that has to do with the
26:33
fact that the depth of field is very
26:35
very shallow on the Sony lens if I swap
26:38
to the f2.8 shot you can see that now
26:41
the contrast I would say in detail
26:43
favors the Sony lens and if we look at
26:46
the background again in this case I
26:48
don't think that it's really all that
26:50
radically different you're probably not
26:52
going to see much of a difference just
26:54
kind of looking at what's defocused here
26:57
and they look more similar than
26:58
different I would say now finally on the
27:00
note of magnification you can see that
27:03
there is very slightly higher
27:04
magnification for the Sony image here
27:08
however it's not radically different you
27:10
know neither one of these is going to
27:12
fill the frame even with this mediumsiz
27:14
lens so don't mistake them for macro
27:16
lenses probably more significant if you
27:18
buy either one of these lenses that you
27:20
can see that there is slightly higher
27:22
magnification here on the GM lens on the
27:25
50mm versus the Phil 50mm end but you
27:28
can see that it's there's a little bit
27:31
of a perspective distortion just for
27:33
being so close um here at 50 mm whereas
27:36
you've got a flatter plane of focus at
27:39
150 mm and a more compressed blurred out
27:42
background even though the magnification
27:44
is lower so in some ways I kind of favor
27:46
this than getting here where I feel like
27:49
it feels a little bit stretched and
27:51
distorted so as you can see these are
27:53
very different lenses and there are
27:56
certain similarities and other areas
27:57
where they're not similar at all and
27:59
hopefully the optical breakdown has
28:00
helped you to decide which one is the
28:02
lens for you as always thanks for
28:04
watching have a great day and let the
28:06
light in
28:08
[Music]
Science

