Photographer Dustin Abbott shares a deep dive review of Tamron's new 16-30mm F2.8 VXD G2 lens. | This episode is sponsored by Fantom Tracker. Visit store.fantomwallet.com and use code DUSTIN20 for 20% off.
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Table of Contents:
=============================
0:00 - Intro and Concept
1:59 - Fantom Tracker
2:53 - Disclosure
3:06 - Build and Design
9:50 - Autofocus
11:14 - Video AF
12:29 - Image Quality Summary
20:11 - Conclusion and Pricing
22:03 - Optical Deep Dive
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Keywords: #withmytamron, Tamron, 16-30mm, Tamron 16-30mm Review, Tamron 16-30 G2, Wide Angle, Tamron 16-30mm F2.8 Di III VXD G2, F2.8, f/2.8, Di III, VXD, 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, #Tamron, #16-30mm, #G2, #zoom lens, #wide angle, #Sony E-mount, #Nikon Z-mount, #autofocus, #VXD, #weather sealing, #image quality, #distortion, #chromatic aberration, #sharpness, #macro, #aperture, #flare resistance, #build quality, #compact, #lightweight, #professional lens, #value, #comparison, #Sigma, #Sony GM, #control customization
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
[Music]
0:10
Hi, I'm Dustin Abbott. I think we all expected that Tamron would bring out a G2 version of their 17 to 28 mm at some
0:18
point. Stands to reason they had done that already with the 28 to 75 millimeter and then the 70 to 180 mm.
0:26
But what I didn't expect was that they would not only bring out a G2 version
0:31
with improved autofocus and features, but in this case actually extend the
0:37
zoom range on both ends of the spectrum. One of the main areas of advantage when Sigma brought out their own 16 to 28 mm
0:45
was that it went just that little bit wider than what the Tamron did. That came at a cost. It was very heavy barrel
0:51
distortion. However, it was able to go wider and that was a factor. Tamron has
0:56
really obliterated that advantage by not only going to the 16 mm on the wide end, but also extending out the telephoto
1:03
end, that extra couple of millime to 30 mm that might be just a little bit more useful. Now, not quite as useful as say
1:11
the 16 to35 millimeter of Sony's own G Master lens, but the Tamron is coming to
1:16
market at $929, which is about $30 cheaper than what Sigma's lens is. And when you're
1:24
comparing it to the G Master lens, it is well over $1,300 less. So, that is going
1:30
to obviously play to Tamron's advantage. But, is this a lens that you should consider buying? I'm filming on it at
1:37
the moment and I'll film a few few of these segments on it. If you don't see the lens on screen, I'm filming with it.
1:43
And so, we're going to dive in today and explore whether or not this is the major upgrade that we were hoping for and
1:49
whether or not it is the wide-angle zoom on either Sony E-mount or Nikon Zmount
1:54
that you should consider purchasing. We'll dive right into that right after a word from our sponsor. Today's episode
2:00
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and use code dustin20 at checkout for 20% off. That's store.fanomwallet.com
2:50
and use code dustin20 for 20% off. So, in disclosure, this lens was loan to me
2:56
from Tamron USA. However, they have had no input on my review process. They will
3:01
not see this review before you do. This is a completely independent review. So, let's dive into it. I think the
3:07
highlight thing that we need to discuss is the fact that we do have a definite improvement to the zoom range. So, going
3:13
to 16 mm, we now go as wide as 170° 2 feet and then we go all the way into 71
3:21
degrees 35 feet in terms of the overall uh framing here. So you can see that
3:27
does make a fairly significant difference and gives you just more flexibility both on the wide end and on the telephoto end. And that certainly
3:34
gives it some advantage. You know, it's still not as flexible a range as the 16 to35G Master for example. However,
3:41
definitely an improvement over the 17 to 28 and Sigma's own 16 to 28 millimeter.
3:46
The price of $929 is cheaper than the Sigma uh 16 to 28
3:52
millimeters by $30, but it's $1360 cheaper than the 16 to35G Master Mi.
3:59
They have managed to increase the zoom range, increase the build quality, add some features while really not
4:06
increasing the size very much. Uh compared to the 17 to 28 mm, this lens
4:11
is 74.8 mm in diameter. That's 1.8 mm wider. So, just a tiny bit. It is 101.8
4:19
mm long. So, that's 2.8 mm longer. So, just a hair longer. And it weighs in at
4:26
440 g, which is only 20 g heavier than the 17 to 28 mm. So, that makes it still
4:33
slightly lighter than the Sigma 16 to 28 millimeter. And obviously, it is lighter
4:38
as well from the G Master lens. Tamon has really been made it a priority to
4:43
maintain a 67mm front filter thread on the vast majority of their mirrorless lenses. That remains the case here,
4:50
which means you can share filters with a great variety of lenses and obviously that's going to be incredibly use
4:56
useful. The design language is consistent with their G2 uh overall
5:01
design and it is a more sculpted, a little bit more elegantl looking lens
5:07
and and I appreciate the fact that it's not just like a a flat barrel going out, but now we have sculpted sections. We
5:13
have a little bit more standing out when it comes to the rings. It just feels like a little bit more premium design.
5:19
The build quality is definitely improved as well. It feels a little bit more premium. And I will say this about these
5:25
Tamron lenses. I've used a number of them for quite a number of years at this point and I've had zero issues with
5:31
them. They've actually held up really well. They don't feel like the most premium lenses in the class. Uh now in
5:38
this case comparing to the Sigma, the Sigma comes from their contemporary series. So it's not as nice as their Art
5:43
series lenses. So I actually think this is the nicer build. But in some cases, Tamron lenses don't necessarily feel the
5:49
best, but they do seem to be robust and they're holding up well. And I haven't heard anecdotal feedback of people that
5:55
are complaining to me uh about any of these Tamron zoom lenses. I also find
6:01
now that there is a consistent design language between the trinity of lenses, the now 16 to 30 millimeter, the 28 to
6:08
75 millimeter, and the 70 to 180 mm. You can see there's a consistent look across
6:13
them. Now, this still isn't like a G Master level of features here. We don't
6:18
have a dedicated aperture ring or anything like that. We do have a function or custom button here on the
6:24
side and then also there is a weather sealed USBC port on the side. Now that
6:29
USBC port is important because when it comes to Tamron, not only is that going to allow you to do firmware updates, but
6:35
it really allows you to customize the lens in some ways that are pretty unique to Tamron. For one thing, instead of
6:41
just relying on the function that you set to this uh button that applies to
6:46
all lenses from within the camera, you can set a dedicated function in their lens utility software. And so in this
6:52
case, it doesn't have an AFMF switch. So for me, the thing that I like the best is being able to click that and just
6:58
switch between AFMF, you know, on the fly. That's an option you can do. But there's quite a list of different things
7:03
that you can set it up to do. Some of which are not ordinary functions that you can program through that function
7:09
button. Also, you have the ability to tweak the behavior of the U manual focus
7:14
ring. And so, how far the the focus is going to be, whether it's linear or nonlinear, you actually get some ability
7:21
to customize that. And so, the lens works the way that you want. Again, I really appreciate that degree of
7:27
customization. And of course, then the ability to do quick firmware updates. always great. This lens is thoroughly
7:33
weather sealed, not just at that USBC port, but there are eight different seal points throughout the lens, starting
7:39
with the gasket at the lens mount and then throughout the different seal points. There is a flooring coating on
7:44
the front element, and so that obviously is going to help with fingerprints. It's going to help with moisture resistance
7:50
there. I will also note that this is an internally focusing and zooming lens,
7:55
and so the overall length never changes. The balance doesn't really change for putting it onto something like a gimbal.
8:02
The manual focus feel is is good. Again, you have the ability to tweak that behavior. The damping is good. It's not
8:09
quite as heavy as what I would like. I would like a little bit heavier, but it is very smooth. It's very responsive,
8:15
and so it does feel like a genuine manual focus simulation or experience. So, I appreciate that. Inside, we have
8:22
nine rounded aperture blades. I've recently done a review of the LAA 12mm f/2.8. That lens only has five aperture
8:30
blades and they are straight blades. Actually kind of like that appro approach on a wide angle lens because
8:35
frankly you're not going to have a lot of opportunities to create round specular highlights particularly if you stop the lens down. The ability to to
8:42
create really nice sun stars I think is advantageous. In this case it's an 18bladed sunst star. It doesn't look
8:48
bad. Don't get me wrong. It's not as pretty in my eye as what that fivebladed
8:53
aperture produces. So, it all depends on your taste when it comes to that. Like many modern Tamron zooms, you have two
9:00
different options when it comes to minimum focus distance. At 16 mm, you can focus as closely as 19 cm. At 30
9:07
millimeters, you can focus as closely as 30 cm. Your higher level of magnification is actually on the wide
9:13
end there. You can get up to a zero or 0.19 times level of magnification.
9:19
Slightly better than the Sigma. Not as good as what the G Master is. And I wouldn't say that it's as good up close
9:25
as what the G Master is either. Probably not all that surprised by that. All told, however, this is a really nice
9:32
little package. Comes with this lens hood, which bayonets on nicely. I do find, by the way, reversing it for
9:38
storing seems to work better than it used to be with uh Tamron. on Tamrons used to be really frustrating for some
9:44
reason in reversing their hoods. That's not the case now. So, steps in the right direction. This is a nice package and
9:50
good value for money. So, let's talk autofocus. Tamron has equipped this G2 version of the 16 to 30 mm with their
9:57
VXD, which stands for voice coil extreme torque drive lens. It is essentially
10:04
their higherend, higher powered focus motor. And in this case, focus is pretty
10:10
much instantaneous whether I was shooting indoors or outdoors. It's a lot of thrust that's in this particular
10:16
focus motor. And so it had no problem and pretty much instantly arriving at whatever I pointed the lens at. And so
10:22
you won't have any issues with speed. You also won't have any issues with sound. It is essentially silent in
10:28
operation. You might be able to hear the faintest were if you put your l ear right on the lens barrel, but frankly,
10:35
who's doing that? Certainly not enough sound to ever be picked up by an onboard microphone. So certainly uh it is close
10:42
enough to silent for actual real world purpose. I also found that I had no problem in nailing in lower lighting
10:50
situations. This shot, for example, I shot uh at night. It's back lit. It's
10:55
not an easy situation, but focus locks right on. And when I zoomed in to 100%, it is accurately focused. And so it's
11:02
doing a great job in a variety of lighting conditions. So when it comes to the autofocus speed and autofocus
11:09
accuracy, any of those things, I have zero concerns. This is a great autofocus system for stills. So how about for
11:16
video work? Well, a lot of the same truths for stills are also true here.
11:21
You can see when it comes to doing my focus pull test back and forth that it
11:26
does that smoothly. There's nice damping to it. It isn't just abruptly going back and forth, but there is a nice degree of
11:32
damping there. Focus breathing, even at 30 mm seems to be pretty well controlled, and so I didn't see any a
11:39
significant issue with that. Likewise, when I did my hand test, it did just fine in making that transition from my
11:45
eye to my hand and back and forth. And so, no issues there. I also found in
11:50
real world shooting kind of real world transitions that those transitions were nicely damped and it didn't like
11:56
abruptly jump from one to the other. And so again, for this kind of work, it's
12:01
going to be a great lens. And I will note that it is going to be a very good lens to use on a gimbal, for example.
12:07
It's pretty lightweight. It is internally zooming. And so regardless of what focal length you select, your
12:13
balance point is going to be roughly the same with very little variation. And of course, the ability to have good
12:18
autofocus that is not abrupt, low focus breathing is going to make it an asset
12:24
for using on a gimbal. So, a lot of great applications for video with the Tamron 16 to30 G2. So, how about the
12:31
image quality? We have got a new optical design relative to the 17 to 28 mm. As you probably would expect, this is a
12:38
little bit more complex. It's 16 elements in 12 groups. That includes one extra low dispersion element, two low
12:44
dispersion elements, and three molded aspherical glass elements as a part of it. The optical design produces an MTF
12:52
that looks good overall, though definitely with some variance between the center and the corners of the frame.
12:58
The center looks really sharp. Mid-frame looks good. Then there is a pretty steep drop off to the corners. You see at 30
13:06
mm it's more of a linear drop again doing the same thing. However, it's getting sharper in the center and much
13:13
softer in the corners. I was curious to line up the uh MTF from the 17 to 28 mm.
13:20
And I found that while the overall optical signature is roughly similar, according to the MTF charts, the 17 to
13:26
28 millimeter is probably 1 to 2% sharper. Maybe not surprising in that it
13:32
is a more constrained zoom range and every time you go wider that does come with some optical challenges. And so
13:39
this is not a lens that you're going to buy because it's optically improved over its predecessor. Going to buy it more
13:45
because of the extra versatility that the zoom range and the functionality adds to it. Now, when it comes to uh
13:53
vignette and distortion, I was a little afraid that going wider would really play havoc with the distortion because I
14:00
knew with the Sigma, the Sigma has tons of barrel distortion. Fortunately, they've been able to mitigate that
14:05
fairly well. And I'll give you some perspective on that in just a moment. There is some barrel distortion. It's
14:10
about a plus seven to correct, and it is it's not very linear. It leaves a bit of a mustache pattern uh when you just try
14:18
to manually correct it. However, the Sigma, I went back and looked at results from the Sigma and the G Master Mark II
14:24
from my test. The Sigma required instead of a plus seven, a plus 21 to correct, and it still had mustache pattern. And
14:30
the G Master was even worse, requiring a plus 24 to correct and still having some
14:36
of that mustache pattern distortion. So, while it's not perfect, it's definitely better than the competition when it
14:42
comes to that metric. I also found the vignette wasn't bad. A plus 55 to correct at the 16 mm end. That's no big
14:49
deal at all. About two stops. If you go to the 30 millimeter end, that distortion pattern has switched to a pin
14:55
cushion style distortion. It's significant. I needed a minus 10 to correct for it. That's comparable to the
15:01
other lenses, at least the Sigma. The G Master has a little bit less. The distortion pattern is more linear and
15:07
corrects more easily. However, there's only a little bit of vignette at 30 mm.
15:14
It required a plus 32 to correct, just a hair over a stop. And that is just very slightly more than what the G Master.
15:20
And by the way, it's less vignette on both ends of the spectrum than what the Sigma lens had. Now, I'm testing on the
15:26
the Sony E-mount version. If you're uh using the Nikon Zmount version, expect to see more of the vignette. I'm
15:34
assuming that because it's been the case for every third party lens that I've tested on both Sony and Nikon, they
15:39
always have more vignette on uh Zmount. And I think that's because of the wider diameter of the actual Zmount itself.
15:48
Now the there is Tamron does get good profile support on both of those brands and so I found that it was no problem to
15:55
correct the distortion when I plugged in the standard profile. And so at the end of the day distortion is not going to be
16:01
a big deal I don't think for the average person. When I tested for chromatic aberrations I found that there was very
16:08
little to see in terms of longitudinal style chromatic aberration. a tiny bit of green fringing after the plane of
16:14
focus. No big deal there. And almost no lateral style chromatic aberrations near the edge of the frame. That's kind of
16:20
more the big deal to me when it comes to a wide angle lens because it just means you're going to get much cleaner
16:26
performance near the edges of the frame. So that those metrics, it performed well. When I did my real world results
16:33
using an A7R Mark II and 61 megapixels and looking at the results at 200%
16:38
magnification, that's a torture test for any lens. I was actually really surprised by how well it did. Even wide
16:45
open at f2.8. I expected the center to look good and it does. The mid-frame looks good as well. Not as sharp as the
16:52
center but not but not far behind. But I was surprised that the corners still looked really quite good to me. And then
16:58
what I found when I stopped down to just f4, contrast improved across the frame and now the corners are at really pretty
17:05
excellent levels. And so that means at typical landscape apertures, real world shots look really crisp all across the
17:11
frame. 16 millm performance I would consider to be actually very strong. Now obviously as you hit f11 and then f16,
17:19
you're going to see some softening due to the effects of defraction. That's physics and you really can't beat it.
17:24
Moving on to the middle of the zoom range, I found that it was very very slightly less sharp within 1 or 2% in
17:32
the middle of the range. As before though, I found that there is a significant amount of contrast boost
17:37
even in that little stop down from f2.8 to f4. By f4 results really looking
17:43
quite excellent. And at landscape apertures, I was really pleased with the results I got. At 30 mm, the lens is a
17:50
bit softer still and just a little bit less contrast and the corners look
17:55
softer. Now, I did find that that stopping down to f4 again improved
18:00
contrast. Contrast improves in the corners, but even if I stop further down to f5.6 or f8, they never get as sharp
18:07
as what I saw earlier in the zoom range. However, taking a look at some real world results, uh you can see here a
18:14
comparison between f2.8 and f5.6. Pretty near the edge of the frame. And frankly, it looks really quite good at f5.6. So
18:21
again, I think for most people, it's going to be just fine. You don't buy a lens like this for the
18:26
bokeh quality, but the bokeh quality isn't bad. you're not going to get strongly blurred out backgrounds, but
18:32
the quality of the blur is quite decent. No major issue with that. And I found that that was true with a variety of
18:38
different backgrounds. And so, in general, I I wasn't I was neither thrilled nor disappointed. It's in that
18:45
middle ground, but in a healthy part of the middle ground. More impressive, however, is the BBR Mark II coatings
18:52
that are on this lens. Did a great job in resisting flare. I think an improvement there, I would say, over the
18:58
17 to 28 mm to where I really just didn't see any issue with either ghosting or with loss of contrast. It
19:05
really did quite good when I was pointing it into the sun, which you're going to do far more often with a wide-angle lens. I wasn't able to get
19:12
the kind of weather conditions where I could test coma in a traditional sense shooting stars. However, I did shoot
19:17
fireworks this year for Canada Day and I found that near the edge of the frame, I didn't see any kind of weird things
19:24
happening in terms of growing wings or becoming strongly distorted. And so, if I look back again historically at the 17
19:30
to 28 millimeter, I would expect the results to be roughly similar. I did test for coma there and I found only a
19:36
minimal amount in the corners. I think the same's going to be true here. This should be a pretty decent astro lens because vignette is well controlled and
19:43
so it's not going you're not going to be dealing with extra noise from trying to boost the the uh exposure in the edges
19:50
of the frame due to that heavy amount of vignette that's just not present here. So overall it's there's not really any
19:57
kind of major flaw in the optical performance. It doesn't wow me necessarily, but it's really solid in
20:04
all categories. So kudos to Tamron for increasing the zoom range here, getting a little bit more risky, and we really
20:11
don't have to pay much of a price for it. So in conclusion, I would say that the Tamron 16 to 30mm f2.8 DI3 VXD G2 is
20:22
certainly an intriguing option. I can't say that it necessarily wowed me in any particular way, but it also proved to be
20:29
competent in all the areas that I tested. And when I look compared to the competition, I certainly would easily
20:35
choose this lens over the Sigma 16 to 28 mm. And I'm just not sure that it's
20:41
worth the extra money to spend going all the way to the 2300 G Master lens. It's
20:47
your money, of course, and there are areas where the G Master is still, I would say, the top-notch lens in this
20:54
class. However, on the Sony side of things, I think that this lens probably makes a lot of sense for a lot of
21:00
people. On the Nikon side of things, it may make even more sense because the real competing lens is actually Nicor's
21:08
17 to 28mm f/2.8. And if you haven't figured that out, that's just really a
21:13
rebranded version of the original Tamron 17 to 28mm lens. So, this is a lens that
21:18
actually has a lot of advantages over that one. And while that lens retails for about $1,300, this one is retailing
21:25
for the $929. So, it definitely has a price advantage
21:30
there as well. I think that Tamron has done what it needs to do to not only update and improve this lens, but to
21:36
make it a really compelling option that I think probably makes the most sense on either one of these platforms if you're
21:43
looking for a wide-angle zoom that is higherforming, but isn't going to break the bank. Now, if you want more
21:49
information to back up that conclusion, you can take a look either at my text review that's linked in the description down below. There also is some buying
21:56
links there if you'd like to purchase one for yourself or you can stay tuned with me right now and we're going to jump into a deep dive of the optical
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performance. Let's jump into it together. So, first of all, take a quick look here at the overall focal length.
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You can see that there's a pretty radical difference in the framing. Even at close distances from 16 mm to 30 mm.
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As I zoom here in and out on the uh bridge, you can see what that difference looks like. Now, moving on to vignette
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and distortion. You can see that the quantity of distortion is fairly mild here. You can see a bulge in the center
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of the frame. Uh some of the lines, you know, out here are looking okay. Problem is is that after correction, it does
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leave a mustache pattern behind and so you can get the interior lines looking better, but not consistently good.
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Fortunately, the profile correction does better. To give you some perspective on that quantity of distortion though, here
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is the Sigma 16 to 28 mm. You can see just how much heavier the vignette is.
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A, but then also just how much more uh distortion there is compared to the
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Tamron. Likewise here with the G Master lens, you can see also it has definitely
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more of that uh barrel distortion showing up there. And you can see here it's got a very strong mustache pattern
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as well. So while the Tamron in a vacuum doesn't look great, when you compare it
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to the competition at 16 mm, uh, looks pretty great. Now on the other end of the spectrum you get a pronounced pin
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cushion distortion. This is similar to the Sigma. The G Master is a little bit less at 35 mm. You can also see here
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looking at the right side with even with a manual correction. This is much more linear, much easier to correct. H no big
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deal. Now when it comes to longitudinal style chromatic aberration before and after the plane of focus, you can see a
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little bit of green fringing after the plane of focus. However, because there are so few real world situations where
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you're going to get uh anything that's quite like this, I didn't notice it to be any kind of issue in real world work.
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Likewise, here there is the tiniest bit of fringing that you can see right here
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on this most dominant black line, but that's about it. And this is at nearly 200% magnification. You will never see
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any kind of lateral style chromatic aberrations out in real world shots. So, that's great. So, how about resolution
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and contrast? So, this is a 61 megapixel A7R Mark II. We're zooming in all the
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way to 200% magnification. Center of the frame looks pretty close to flawless here. Great contrast, great detail,
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holding up really well. If we go up here towards the mid-frame, mid is also looking very good. Slightly less
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contrast and detail, but still really at quite excellent levels. Now, if we work down this way and we go all the way
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towards the corner, I was actually the corner looks better than what I expected from the MTR MTF chart. It feels like
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that I would be looking at that and saying that's a good strong corner under normal circumstances. Uh the opposite
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side looks good there. If I look down here looking consistently good. I look up here also looks consistently good. So
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overall I feel like this is a really good wide openen performance here at 16 mm. Now for a little bit of context
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let's take a look back to the Sigma 16mm f2.8 in the center of the frame. The two
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lenses look roughly similar. The Sigma may actually have a very very slight
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edge when it comes to contrast there in the center of the frame. If we look here in the mid-frame zone, it's looks very
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very similar. The signal looks a little bit different because it's darker and so that does impact things. We move down
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towards the corner, we can see that the two results are somewhat similar, but
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the Tamron is has a little bit more contrast and detail showing up here. And we can also see as we move towards edge
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of the frame, we compare here and here that the Tamron holds onto its sharpness a little further out than what the Sigma
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does. Now, if we compare with the G Master lens at 16mm f/2.8 on the right,
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we can see that the G Master arguably has a bit more contrast in the center of
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the frame. Feel like this writing here is looking a little bit better. Uh, we don't have an apples to apples
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comparison because I've updated the bills here. So, let's take a look down in this zone. And you can see that I
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would say there's a little bit more contrast showing up for the G Master lens there. If we look at this area here
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now, I would say that it's roughly a draw between the two. And if we move down towards the corner of the frame, we
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can see that up till about this zone, they're roughly equal. As we move into this area here, however, the Tamron
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shows just a little bit more consistency right out to the edge of the frame. Popping over here to this left side and
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we can see that I I certainly like the feeling of the contrast better from the Tamron. And I would say even when it
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comes to the detail, they're close, but particularly the closer you get towards the side of the frame, I feel like the
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Tamron holds up just further out there. As you can see, for context, here's a
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realworld shot. And obviously not optimal conditions shooting at in lower light, but we can see lots of detail
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even at 61 megapixels. And you can see as we get towards the edge of the frame, detail is holding off right till the
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edge of the frame. So o overall a really nice performance there. Now if you stop
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the Tamron down to f4, I feel like contrast takes a pretty serious bump
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forward. And so any advantage that, for example, the G Master had by f4, I think the Tamron is very, very close there. We
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can see here in the mid-frame, it is looking better. And I really noticed up in this corner that there's just
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definitely more pop by the time you get to f4. Contrast is brighter, detail is
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just sharper. Looking really great even by that point. So that means by the time you get to landscape apertures like f5.6
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here, even on 61 megapixels, tons of detail there in the center of the frame. As we move off towards the side, you
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know, right here at the very edge, I would say that it looks better here than it does here. But it's still looking
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very good right off to the edge of the frame. You know, even if we can look at these edge areas here, even though they
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might be slightly impacted by depth of field, it's still all looking quite good. And so overall, this is a lens
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that's going to produce really stunning landscape images. Now, as per usual, defraction is going to take a chunk out
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of contrast and detail. Starting at f11, it's softened a bit, but still perfectly
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acceptable. by f-16. I would say it's still usable, but you can see it is just a little bit softer due to the effects
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of diffraction. Moving on towards the middle of the range here at 21 millimeters. I've got f2.8 on the left,
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f4 on the right. We punch in, look at the center of the frame, we can see that it looks good wide open. Definitely more
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contrast stop down to f4. You can see that pop a little bit more there. That's true in the mid-range. And while I feel
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like it's close here in the mid-range uh in the corners, it's close. I would say maybe a hair better at 16 millimeters
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than here, but overall still a very good and very consistent performance. And certainly by the time you're hitting f4,
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you're at pretty excellent levels all across the frame. At 30 mm again, f2.8 and then f4, the center of the frame
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feels very slightly softer to me, just a little bit lower contrast. You can see here, you can see that thus it makes a
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more market improvement when you stop down to f4. I mean, look at the moir pattern emerging there. How much inkier
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the text looks there. Likewise, if we look off towards the mid-frame zone, you
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can see that look at just the word Canada for example, it's just much inkier looking at f4. And so, stopping
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down definitely makes a big improvement. However, what I find here is that the corners never get quite as good as what
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they did at uh at other focal lengths. And so even here, if I put now f5.6 on
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the right, you know, it's improved, but it's still not what I would consider to be excellent. Um, and you know, I think
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it's going to be perfectly acceptable in real world shots, which we'll examine in just a moment, but it's just not as
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excellent as it was uh otherwise. Now, if we put that up compared to the Sigma
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at 28 millimeters, both of them at f2.8, the Tamron actually does have better
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detail in the center of the frame. I would say that the Sigma has better contrast. So, it's a little bit of a
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give and take there. Um, if we take a look at another common area here at the midframe. Again, there's definitely more
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detail there for the Tamron. Look at this figure for example, how much more detail is rendered there. And out here
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at the edge, the Sigma has a better advantage at 30 millimeters. I would say that the 30 millimeter corners are the
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weakest part of the Tamron. Um, but it's it's still it's it's not by much of a
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dis distance either. Put it all in context at just a more typical 100% level magnification at 30 mm f2.8, we've
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determined this is weaker, but it still looks really great. Lots of detail uh showing up there in this shot. However,
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if I put f2.8 8 on the left, f5.6 on the right. We can see that in the center of
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the frame, contrast is definitely kicked up. You know, there's detail is improved, but it's primarily the
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contrast that is jumped ahead. But if we look over here closer to the side, you can see there's quite a bit of
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difference in the contrast uh that just shows up there. And so, as we pan over to this side here, you can just see it
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looks richer, better contrast at f5.6. So at 30 mm, stop down a little bit and
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you're going to be in excellent zone in no time. So for a quick comparison, here is the maximum magnification you can get
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at 30 cm, which is about 0.14 times. And then what you can get at 16 mm, which is
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a 0.19 times of magnification. You can also probably make out here, and we'll
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zoom in a bit, that you're also going to get better contrast and detail on the wide end. I don't love when lenses are
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oriented like this because it is harder to get really close at a wide angle, but you can see that you're definitely going
31:53
to get the preferred results. And it also shows that difference in contrast, uh, at least wide open between 16 mm and
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30 mm. Now, as far as the bokeh quality, again, you don't buy a lens like this for the bokeh necessarily. You can also
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see that again contrast isn't topnotch at f2.8 at 30 mm. However, you can see
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looking at the quality of the blur, even though this scene's fairly complex, it doesn't look too bad, this a more
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advantageous type situation, we can see that, you know, there's pretty decent detail and contrast in the leaf here.
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But as we look towards the background, it looks fairly soft really. And here at a very close distance, we can see detail
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looking actually pretty good. And then the quality of the blur, it's not strongly blurred out, but the quality of
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the blur itself is fine. Here's another shot. And this kind of helps us with the transition towards our actual uh flare
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resistance as well. But you can see again that even in a back lit situation like this quality of the bokeal looks
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pretty decent. So here is a look at a wider aperture here at flare resistance.
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You can see no ghosting, no loss of contrast. stopping on down. You can see as we work that towards the corner, a
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little bit of a ghosting pattern here, but quite minimal for an f11 type shot here with a more central composition at
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f11. You don't see any of that ghosting pattern there. So, flare resistance overall is really quite good. Now,
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again, it's not as easy with something like this to examine uh you know what
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I'm looking for when it comes to coma performance uh because everything is in a state of movement. But what I'm really
33:30
looking at is we're starting to grow kind of those wings at the side. What I see is a little bit of stretching, but
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what I don't see is growing any kind of wings. And so, while this isn't my favorite way to test for coma as
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compared to what I might normally do, it looks like overall that the Tamron is doing a pretty decent job here without
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growing any kind of wings. And so, not too much coma. Well, thanks for sticking around to the very end and I hope that
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this has given you the information that you need to make an informed decision. As always, thanks for watching. Have a
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great day and let the light in. [Music]
Science

