Tamron 35-100mm F2.8 VXD Review | Does the Oddball Zoom Excel?
Mar 8, 2026
Photographer Dustin Abbott shares a deep dive review of Tamron's interesting new 35-100mm F2.8 VXD zoom. An unconventional zoom range...does it work? | This episode is sponsored by Fantom Tracker. Visit store.fantomwallet.com and use code DUSTIN20 for 20% off. | Read the Text Review: | Purchase the Tamron 35-100mm F2.8 VXD @ B&H Photo https://bhpho.to/4r2jIdY | Adorama https://prf.hn/l/y8M8LGe/ | Amazon https://amzn.to/4rENsi4 | Camera Canada https://tidd.ly/4kXqqAo | Amazon Canada https://amzn.to/4qY6oHy | Amazon UK https://amzn.to/4r3kEyS | Amazon Germany https://amzn.to/4rXZUdf
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=============================
Table of Contents:
=============================
0:00 - Intro and Concept
1:44 - Disclosure
2:59 - Build and Design
10:04 - Autofocus
12:09 - Video AF
13:54 - Optical Performance
23:07 - Conclusion and Pricing
---------------------------------------------------------
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Keywords: Tamron 35-100mm, 35-100mm, F2.8, f/2.8, Di III, VXD, Tamron 35-100mm F2.8 Review, Travel, All-in-One, Tamron 35-150mm, Full Frame, Review, Sony A1 II, Sony a7RV, α1 II, Nikon Z8, 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, #withmytamron, #35-100VXD
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0:10
Hi, I'm Dustin Abbott and I'm here today
0:12
to give you my review of the new Tamron
0:14
35 to 100 millimeter f2.8 DI3 VXD lens.
0:20
A lot of you have been requesting that I
0:22
review this lens ever since it was
0:23
announced and so your wish is granted
0:26
today. This is an interesting lens in
0:29
that it is going after a focal length
0:31
that really we haven't seen before or I
0:34
should say a focal range. And while
0:36
Tamron has released the 35 to 150 mm
0:39
previously, this is obviously a more
0:42
constrained zoom range in a lens that is
0:44
roughly the size of a lens like Tamron's
0:46
own 28 to 75mm f2.8. And obviously that
0:51
while it's still a little bit
0:52
unconventional is much closer to the
0:53
conventional 24 to 70 millimeter focal
0:56
length. And this like the 35 to 150 is
0:59
kind of borrowing a bit from both the
1:01
standard zoom 24 to 70 and then a
1:04
telephoto zoom in the 70 to 200
1:06
millimeter though in this case a much
1:08
more constrained uh zoom range on both
1:11
ends. But while it's an unconventional
1:13
zoom range, you are getting a lens that
1:16
is lightweight, relatively inexpensive,
1:18
has a constant maximum aperture of
1:20
f/2.8, and as we're going to see, is an
1:23
extremely high-erforming lens. And so,
1:26
while the lens is unique on paper and
1:28
maybe doesn't make sense for everyone on
1:30
paper, as we're going to see, the actual
1:33
performance of the lens is really pretty
1:35
fantastic. Tamron, maybe more than any
1:38
other company, is dedicated to the idea
1:40
of making zoom lenses, and they tend to
1:42
do it really, really well, as we're
1:44
going to see today. Before we dive in, I
1:46
do want to say thanks to Tamron USA for
1:49
sending me a loaner of this lens. It
1:51
will be going back to them at the end of
1:52
this review period, and they have had no
1:54
input on this review, nor will they see
1:57
it before you do. All the caveats aside,
2:00
let's jump in and take a look at the
2:01
build and handling today. Today's
2:03
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2:58
right, let's take a closer look at the
3:00
build and the handling, the overall
3:02
design here. Price point at $899,
3:05
there isn't really hardly any comps for
3:08
this lens. Um, it obviously that feels
3:11
like a good value for the lens and it is
3:12
similar to their 28 to 75mm f/2.8 G2
3:16
lens. If we look at the 35 to 150
3:19
millimeter lens, which is at a whole
3:20
another level if we're being honest,
3:22
it's about $1,700. Sigma's 28 to 105
3:26
millimeter is $1,650.
3:29
I think that we can probably all agree
3:30
that that's a very fair value for this
3:32
particular lens as far as the price. It
3:35
also gets a win for being very nice and
3:38
lightweight for a lens in this class.
3:41
565 g that is light enough when you
3:44
compare to a lens like the 35 to 150.
3:47
That lens is 1,165
3:50
g. The Sigma 28 to 105 is 990 grams or
3:53
basically a kilo. And so this lens is
3:56
very lightweight. It's less than half
3:58
the weight of the 35 to 150. Overall
4:01
dimensions here, the lens is 80.6 mm in
4:05
diameter or 3.38 in. That makes it just
4:08
a a little bit wider in diameter than
4:09
the 28 to75. And at 119.2 millimeters or
4:14
4.7 in, that makes it about two
4:17
millimeters longer than the 28 to75. So
4:19
again, very moderate size. Now, it is
4:22
not internally zooming. You can see
4:24
there is a very mild barrel extension
4:26
here, but it's just about 19 mm. And I
4:30
would say that it is a small enough
4:32
extension that it probably isn't going
4:33
to change the balance when you're
4:35
working on a gimbal. While this is an
4:37
externally zooming lens, the zoom action
4:39
is actually nice and smooth. Uh it's
4:41
very, very nicely damp. I could do some
4:44
successful zooming while shooting video,
4:46
even handheld. And so that tells me that
4:49
there's a nice smooth zoom action going
4:51
on here. What we don't have is a zoom
4:54
lock. And I think that Tamara must have
4:56
assumed that the small amount of barrel
4:58
extension and the good damping of the
5:01
overall zoom mechanism made them feel
5:03
like it was unnecessary.
5:05
This is an interesting uh zoom range.
5:08
Obviously, we've never seen anything
5:10
quite like it before. So 35 mm on the
5:13
wide end and then zooming into 100
5:14
millimeters. a lot of very useful focal
5:16
lengths there, but I think that there
5:18
are some people they're going to look
5:19
and say that's not wide enough or it's
5:20
not long enough to actually meet their
5:23
needs. I think that's going to be the
5:24
area where Tamron is going to have to
5:26
sell people on an a non-conventional
5:29
zoom ratio here. Now, the feature set of
5:31
the lens is largely built around this
5:34
USBC port. It is weather sealed here,
5:37
but that is going to give you access
5:39
either through an OS app or Android or
5:43
Windows or Mac to their lens utility
5:45
software that really allows you to tweak
5:47
the behavior of the lens. You'll note
5:49
here that there is a custom switch on
5:50
the side and then we have a function
5:52
button. Basically, these c this custom
5:55
switch is going to determine what not
5:57
only the button does, but also what this
5:59
control ring does. And so it's typical
6:01
function is going to be manual focus,
6:03
but you can set it up to be an aperture
6:05
ring, for example. Um, and there's
6:07
different things that you can do with
6:08
that. And in this case, rather than just
6:10
having one custom function, whatever the
6:12
function from within the camera, which
6:14
would typically be for the function
6:15
button, you can set a total of three
6:17
different custom functions in that lens
6:19
utility software. Put a lot of different
6:21
options in there. You can uh set again,
6:24
as I've mentioned, set up for an
6:25
aperture ring. You can set up this as an
6:26
AFMF switch. You can set it up for
6:29
infinity control. If you're wanting to
6:32
uh shoot astro, for example, you can do
6:34
AB focus. There's a lot of variety
6:36
there. Also, in that lens utility, you
6:38
can not only control the behavior of the
6:40
manual focus, whether it's linear or
6:42
nonlinear, how far the throw is going to
6:44
be, what direction it goes in, but you
6:46
can also do the same now in the most
6:48
recent update to the app. You can now do
6:50
the same thing when it comes to the
6:53
control of the aperture. The nice thing
6:55
for this being both E-mount and Zmount
6:58
is that, you know, Nikon and Sony, they
7:01
actually zoom and focus in opposite
7:04
directions. You can set it up to where
7:06
it is going to match what you're
7:07
accustomed to doing in Nikon, for
7:09
example. And so, I find that to be
7:10
really, really useful. There's one other
7:13
option here that is now available
7:15
through the USBC port. There is a new um
7:18
utility uh kind of dongle that you can
7:20
add on there that's called the Tamron
7:22
Link. It costs about 50 bucks. I don't
7:24
have one unfortunately to demonstrate
7:25
here, but it what it does is it gives
7:27
you wireless control over the lens. And
7:29
so you can access it via the app via
7:32
Bluetooth and you can control lens
7:34
function. You can control certain camera
7:36
function through it and just gives you
7:38
some remote control of the lens.
7:39
Obviously, you can't it's not a power
7:41
zoom. You're not going to be able to do
7:42
something like zooming, but as far as
7:44
focusing and making some other tweaks,
7:46
you know, aperture uh value, for
7:48
example, taking photos or videos, you'll
7:50
be able to do all of that remotely. So
7:52
an interesting addition to the setup
7:54
here. This is a weather sealed lens and
7:57
that starts with a gasket here at the
7:59
rear. There are different seal points,
8:02
you know, at the switches, the button,
8:04
the rings, and then a flooring coating
8:06
on the front element. A nice thorough
8:08
degree of weather sealing there. Inside
8:11
we do have nine aperture blades. And by
8:14
the way, if you're setting this up to
8:15
where you have aperture control enabled
8:17
here, you can do aperture racking as you
8:20
can see here. And so that just gives
8:22
you, you know, an extra option of what
8:24
you can do as far as control. The hood
8:27
is included. And the hood itself, it
8:30
locks into place with really good
8:31
precision. It stays locked there. No
8:33
problems that there is no actual locking
8:35
switch if you're looking for something
8:37
like that. Minimum focus distance on the
8:40
wide end. It's a variable minimum focus.
8:42
So on the wide end, you can focus as
8:44
closely as 22 mm or right under 9 in.
8:48
And that will give you a very high 0.30
8:50
30 degree of magnification. However, it
8:54
leaves you with very little working
8:55
distance, about 8 centimeters or roughly
8:57
3 in. So, you're going to have to be
8:59
pretty close to your subject. You're
9:00
probably going to want to remove the
9:01
lens hood if you're right up close to
9:03
your subject like that. And also, as you
9:05
can see here, the plane of focus isn't
9:07
particularly flat. Now, that's worse
9:08
with the two-dimensional thing like my
9:10
test chart. If you move out to
9:11
three-dimensional objects, it works a
9:13
little bit better.
9:15
The telephoto wind, the minimum focus
9:18
distance is 65 millimeters. Obviously,
9:21
you don't get as high a magnification,
9:23
only 0.17 times, though the plane of
9:25
focus is much flatter. I would say that
9:28
sometimes with these variable minimum
9:30
focus distance lenses, you can find a
9:32
sweet spot. In this case, maybe around
9:34
50 millimeters or so, where you get a
9:36
little bit more working distance, maybe
9:38
slightly less magnification than on the
9:40
wide end, but maybe a little bit more
9:42
useful if you're willing to compromise a
9:44
bit of magnification. Overall, this is a
9:47
really nice package for the money, and
9:50
uh there's really not a lot to complain
9:52
about here. Tamron's kind of control
9:53
system is it's non-conventional, but it
9:57
also gives you a deeper degree of
9:59
customization than what most other lens
10:01
brands offer. And so that is
10:03
interesting. So let's talk autofocus.
10:06
Tamron has utilized their VXD which
10:09
stands for voice coil extreme drive
10:12
focus motor here. VXD is a voice coil
10:15
motor. And as such I'm I'm actually a
10:17
big fan of voice coil motors. They tend
10:20
to have good amounts of thrust. They're
10:22
very quiet. They're very smooth in
10:23
operation. And Tamron has now had a
10:26
number of years to basically perfect
10:28
their craft when it comes to their VXD
10:30
folks motors. And so in this case, what
10:32
we have got is a focus motor that is in
10:35
fact very very fast in operation. As you
10:37
can see here, you can zip from a close
10:39
to a distant subject, whether indoors or
10:41
outdoors with near instantaneous speed.
10:44
And what I did find is that focus speed
10:46
is good throughout the zoom range. Some
10:48
zoom lenses are great on the wide end
10:50
and then slow down on the telephoto, but
10:52
I didn't find that to be the case here.
10:54
And uh and so you could see there's good
10:56
focus speed. In fact, we could see that
10:58
here as Nala is approaching the camera.
11:00
Just, you know, sometimes I get poor
11:02
results in this kind of setting. No
11:04
problems here. Focus was keeping up with
11:05
her. I don't always look to third-party
11:07
lenses for sport lenses on Sony E-mount
11:11
or Nikon Zmount, uh, because of some
11:13
limitations, particularly on the Sony
11:15
side of things, but I think that this is
11:17
a lens that will work just fine for
11:19
sporting applications. It's a unique
11:21
zoom range that might just work for
11:22
certain, you know, short court type
11:25
sports. And so I think that the focus
11:26
motor is fast enough to keep up with
11:28
that action. Furthermore, it is very,
11:30
very quiet in operation. You're not
11:33
going to hear any kind of focus noise
11:34
basically ever. And so all of that is
11:36
great. Precision is good. I found good
11:38
precision during a portrait session with
11:42
all of our least favorite portrait
11:44
subject, but he tends to be available.
11:46
And you can see here that we got good
11:48
focus accuracy um without any kind of
11:50
issues u whether I was looking at the
11:52
camera looking away from the camera
11:54
didn't really matter shots of uh of Nala
11:57
for example great precision um and you
12:00
can see the results are just
12:01
fantastically sharp fantastically well
12:04
focused and so autofocus generally for
12:06
stills was pretty fantastic. Likewise,
12:09
on the video side of things, the big
12:11
kind of takeaway here on the video side
12:13
of things is that we do have quite low
12:15
focus breathing in this lens, which
12:17
makes it more useful for video
12:19
applications. You can see that focus
12:21
pulls likewise are smooth and confident,
12:24
no visible steps, no stuttering, but it
12:27
just moves back and forth with good
12:29
damping and good precision. Likewise,
12:31
when I did my hand test, the only thing
12:33
that I would say is that there was
12:35
several occasions where it didn't
12:37
transition to my uh to my hand when my
12:40
hand was out. And it's because it could
12:42
my, you know, Alpha 1 Mark II could see
12:44
a little too much of my face. And so, I
12:46
mean, I don't think that's really a lens
12:48
problem so much as just the test
12:49
problem. When I approached the camera
12:52
and I stepped in and out of frame, I
12:54
would say that uh acquisition was a
12:57
little bit slower than what I would
12:58
like. they've gone towards damping.
13:00
Obviously, I could turn up the
13:01
sensitivity if I wanted a little bit
13:03
quicker response there, but it tracked
13:05
me with good confidence. And as you can
13:07
see with these outdoor segments, all of
13:08
which I am filming with the lens on my
13:10
Alpha 1 Mark II, you can see that I am
13:13
getting good precise results. One final
13:15
thing that I will note is that unlike
13:17
many of the competing lenses, this lens
13:20
is small and light enough to go on a
13:21
gimbal. And while it is an externally
13:23
zooming lens, the actual zoom extension
13:26
is smaller than basically all of the
13:29
other externally zooming options. And I
13:31
don't feel like the the balance point
13:33
really changes much. So I think you
13:35
could zoom throughout and any kind of
13:37
very minor variance in the actual uh the
13:41
balance I think would be easily
13:42
compensated for with the motors on your
13:44
motorized gimbal. So all of that adds up
13:46
to a lens with low focus breathing that
13:48
I think is going to be a very
13:50
interesting and useful lens for video
13:53
work. All right, let's start by taking a
13:54
look at the optical design. Here we have
13:56
15 elements in 13 groups. As you can see
13:59
that included includes some molded glass
14:02
aspherical elements. We also have uh low
14:06
dispersion elements and then extra low
14:08
dispersion element in there as well.
14:10
Now, if we look at the MTF chart on the
14:12
wide 35mm end, you can see an extremely
14:15
sharp center of the frame that stays
14:18
relatively flat out to about here, then
14:20
begins to drop. Although, you know, that
14:23
is on the sagittal axis. The meridian
14:26
axis drops a little bit sooner. Um, but
14:28
overall a good strong consistent
14:30
performance there. On the 100 millimeter
14:33
end, we can see that the center is every
14:35
bit as sharp, but it just kind of falls
14:37
in a more linear way. and so it's weaker
14:40
in the corner and just kind of falls off
14:42
more consistently across the the frame.
14:45
You'll see in both cases if you're
14:46
cutting off at APS-C for this lens, it's
14:48
going to be really really sharp across
14:50
the APS-C um image circle. Now, one of
14:53
the advantages of not going super wide
14:56
at 35 mm is that we see very, very
14:58
little distortion. Now, obviously,
15:00
there's lots of 35 millimeter lenses
15:02
with massive amounts of distortion, so I
15:03
don't want to downplay what Tamron has
15:06
done here. We basically have a neutral
15:07
performance. I dialed in a plus one to
15:10
correct the tiniest amount of barrel
15:11
distortion here, but you could easily
15:13
leave that uncorrected. Vignette is more
15:15
obvious and I needed a plus 64 to
15:18
achieve the manual result. Again,
15:20
profile corrections will take care of
15:21
this in camera or in editing software.
15:23
Typically, after a bit here at the
15:25
middle of the range, 62 mm, you can see
15:27
that it inverts to a pin cushion style
15:29
distortion. By the way, it stays this
15:31
way almost exactly through 100 millm.
15:34
The vignette is a little less um obvious
15:36
here. I needed about a plus 50 to
15:38
correct here. At 90 millimeters or
15:41
excuse me 100 millimeters, the pin
15:42
cushion distort distortion still
15:44
required a minus 9 to correct for
15:46
consistent from what I saw in the mid
15:48
mid level. And then we see here that the
15:50
vignette is just a little bit heavier
15:52
again about equal to 35 mm around a plus
15:54
60 plus 62 to correct like this. Nothing
15:57
too extreme there. Now when it comes to
16:00
fringing we see that it's not perfectly
16:02
corrected here. There is a bit of a
16:04
green fringing after the plane of focus.
16:06
A tiny bit of magenta beforehand. If I
16:09
zoom in here at a very high level of
16:12
magnification, about 200% magnification,
16:14
you can see that there is some fringing
16:17
bits on the shiny areas here of the
16:20
image. Um, and so that is going to show
16:23
up. It's not particularly pronounced
16:24
enough to where you're going to see it
16:26
really strongly here, but you you will
16:28
see it there. You can also see a little
16:29
bit of fringing around the specular
16:31
highlights. On the note of the specular
16:33
highlights, you can see there's
16:34
definitely some pretty strongly squeezed
16:37
uh lemon shapes there in the corner at
16:38
f2.8. At f4, it's more circular, but
16:42
we're getting a bit of an odd shape
16:45
here. And then by f5.6, it's mostly
16:48
resolved, though there's a little bit of
16:49
clipping that we still see there. If we
16:52
pop back in here for a moment, we can
16:54
see that by F56, almost all of that
16:56
fringing is cleared up. Lateral style
16:59
chromatic aberrations are not a problem.
17:01
You can see no evidence of fringing as
17:03
you transition from black to white here
17:05
near the edge of the frame. Let's take a
17:07
look at resolution and contrast. I'm
17:09
testing on Sony, so I'm using a 61
17:11
megapixel A7R Mark 5 and showing you the
17:15
results here at 200% magnification.
17:17
Center of the frame looks fantastic.
17:19
high contrast, high detail, all thing
17:22
looks great. Likewise, the mid-frame. It
17:24
suggested that it would be really strong
17:26
in the mid-frame, and that is a
17:27
fantastic mid-frame result. And really,
17:30
I think that the corner performance is
17:32
actually impressively good as well. I'm
17:34
seeing that detail all the way down into
17:36
here. I've got no complaints about that.
17:39
Likewise, up in this corner, also
17:41
looking quite good. For real world
17:43
perspective here, this is f2.8 at 35
17:46
millimeters. We can see all throughout
17:48
the kind of plane of focus area that it
17:51
is really, really crisp. Nice detail,
17:54
nice contrast. Nothing to complain about
17:56
there. What I found throughout the zoom
17:58
range is stopping down to f4, it makes a
18:01
minor, but not a radical improvement. As
18:04
you can see, it's just a little bit
18:05
higher contrast, a little bit better
18:07
detail. But there's a bit more of a bump
18:10
at f5.6. And this is where you can
18:13
really start to see an improvement in
18:15
the corners where the corners are
18:17
looking really, really nice and crisp,
18:19
very high detail. So shooting at f5.6 is
18:22
going to give you great performance all
18:24
across the frame. Here's a real world
18:25
case in point. And so you can see
18:27
looking in the center of the frame,
18:29
there's great fine detail all throughout
18:32
the image. And as we pan off right off
18:34
here to the very edge, you can see that
18:35
that detail is pushing right out towards
18:38
the corners. Very, very sharp. That's
18:40
going to stay that sharp through f8. By
18:42
f11, defraction is starting to soften
18:44
the image a bit. And then by the minimum
18:45
aperture of f-22, you can see that it's
18:48
getting much much softer due to
18:50
defraction. Moving on to 50 mm, we see
18:53
again a fantastic result. The center and
18:56
mid-frame result, if anything, is a bit
18:59
sharper. And moving right off to the
19:00
corners, they're really quite strong
19:02
here. There's plenty of detail there,
19:04
even at f2.8. And as before, by f5.6,
19:07
six, it is to fantastic levels.
19:10
Likewise, at 70 mm, you can see very
19:13
sharp and detailed in the center of the
19:14
frame. F5.6, it's looking better, but
19:17
not radically so because it's already so
19:19
good. Mid-frame looks good and better
19:21
still at f5.6. And then once again, in
19:24
the corners, corners don't sharpen up as
19:26
much as we saw at 70 mm, but still in
19:29
real world sharpness, this is very good.
19:31
And finally at 100 millimeters as
19:34
suggested by the MTF center of the frame
19:36
looks fantastic even at f2.8
19:39
more even more contrast and detail by
19:41
f5.6.
19:42
We move towards the midframe also
19:44
looking very good and exceptionally good
19:46
by f5.6. The corner performance is a
19:51
little bit softer and you can see it
19:52
doesn't sharpen up to the same degree at
19:55
100 millm. However, for real world
19:57
context, once again, depth of field is
19:59
going to uh be more affected at 100
20:02
millm. And so, you can definitely see
20:03
where we're focused at. But you can see
20:06
that detail looks really crisp here even
20:08
at f2.8. And again, we've got a very
20:10
credible image even at f2.8. Then, if
20:13
you're looking, you know, at this shot
20:16
for example, that is amazingly sharp
20:19
even at f2.8 and at 100 millimeters.
20:21
Another one here. And you can just see
20:23
that, you know, that consistency of
20:26
great focus, great detail. All of the
20:29
textures just look fantastic. That's a
20:32
really, really sharp performance.
20:34
Returning to the minimum focus distance
20:36
for a moment at 100 millimeters, even
20:38
though the magnification isn't as high,
20:40
you can see it's delivering a nice
20:42
looking result at 100 millimeters. And
20:44
then at 35 mm, the result looks good in
20:48
the plane of focus obviously, but it's
20:50
not nearly as flat a plane of focus.
20:52
However, you know, here at about 40 mm
20:56
in a real world type shot, there's a
20:58
little bit of fringing there, but the
21:00
detail looks really, really crisp in
21:02
this area of focus here. And so I'm
21:04
quite happy with the uplose results I
21:07
can get. Even if sometimes, as I
21:09
mentioned, backing off a little bit just
21:10
to compromise to give you a little bit,
21:13
you know, maybe more working distance
21:15
and a little bit more control. As far as
21:17
the bouquet goes, this is probably the
21:20
busiest example I could find. You can
21:21
see there's a little bit of harder
21:23
edges, a little bit more than what I
21:25
would like, but I would still say that
21:26
the image looks good. This shot here,
21:29
you can see that um again, it's a little
21:31
bit more of a favorable favorable ratio.
21:33
So the background is defocused very
21:35
nicely. This shot I feel like falls off
21:38
really nice towards defocus. Maybe a
21:41
little bit more edging here than what I
21:42
would like. But for a zoom lens, that's
21:45
not bad at all. And here with a portrait
21:47
type shot, this is in the middle of the
21:49
range. I think about 68 mm. Number one,
21:52
the detail is fabulous as you can see.
21:55
But as we look towards defocused things
21:57
in the background, um, again, there's a
22:00
little bit more edging there than what I
22:01
would like, but that's really my own
22:03
only complaint. Outside of that, I feel
22:05
like the bokeh quality is really quite
22:07
decent. These shots, a couple of shots
22:10
here, either really, really close or
22:11
just a little bit further away at those
22:13
distances, the background is really
22:15
softly blurred. When it comes to the
22:17
coma performance, you can see shooting
22:19
the night sky, star points are really
22:21
crisp. No real fringing issues around
22:23
them. That's good. And really there's
22:26
minimal coma. It's actually quite well
22:28
controlled right out to the corners of
22:30
the frame. And so while f2.8 isn't the
22:33
brightest aperture for shooting the
22:34
night sky, it does a very credible
22:36
looking result of capturing celestial
22:39
bodies. Finally, when it comes to flare
22:41
resistance, we've got the barbar mark
22:43
coatings here. You can see wide open um
22:47
that we're getting minimal ghosting and
22:49
flare artifacts a little bit here.
22:51
Stopped down to f11. And then you can
22:53
see as we pan back and forth, you're
22:55
seeing a little bit of ghosting, but
22:58
overall the contrast is holding up. It's
23:00
really a pretty strong performance in
23:03
terms of flare resistance as well. A
23:05
good optical performance.
23:07
So in conclusion, the Tamron 35 to 100
23:10
millimeter f2.8 VXD is, I think, a very
23:14
interesting addition to both Sony
23:16
E-mount and Nikon Zmount platforms. It
23:20
gives you a different option. If you're
23:22
maybe looking at a 24 to 70 or 28 to 75
23:26
millimeter zoom range and you just say,
23:28
I I'd like a little bit more reach.
23:30
Well, basically the trade-off is is that
23:32
you get a little bit less on the wide
23:34
end and you pick up some very useful
23:36
reach on the telephoto end. Now, for
23:38
many people, that is not a compromise.
23:39
It's going to be worth it. And they're
23:41
going to prefer a wider uh zoom range
23:44
than what they want on the longer end.
23:46
looking at the ability to crop, for
23:48
example, as a way of compensating for
23:50
that. However, I think that there are
23:52
certain applications that will really
23:54
work with this particular zoom r range.
23:56
I think that one example might be street
23:59
photography where you don't necessarily
24:00
need as wide and that extra bit of
24:02
reach, particularly in a discrete
24:04
package like this could be very useful.
24:07
Likewise, for portrait photography, it's
24:09
going to be a rare situation, for
24:11
example, in a studio that you're going
24:12
to go want to go as wide as 24, maybe
24:15
even as 28 millimeters, whereas 35 mm is
24:18
going to be quite common. And the
24:20
ability to go in much tighter for head
24:22
and shoulders type shots, I think, is
24:24
going to be quite useful. So, I
24:25
definitely think that there are
24:26
applications for that. And then of
24:28
course, those of you that like the idea
24:30
of the 35 to 150, but don't want to
24:32
spend either the price or lug around
24:34
that weight may find this to be an
24:36
acceptable compromise that gives you at
24:38
least part of that zoom range and maybe
24:41
get the rest of the way through
24:42
cropping. And if that, you know, suits
24:44
the bill, you're also getting a
24:46
relatively inexpensive lens uh as a part
24:49
of the bargain. And so I do think that
24:51
there's going to be an audience for this
24:53
lens, but because it is an
24:55
unconventional zoom range, we're going
24:56
to have to just find out whether how big
24:58
that audience actually is. But if the
25:02
zoom range works for you, I think you're
25:04
going to be pretty delighted with the
25:05
overall performance of this lens. It has
25:08
great autofocus. It has an interesting
25:10
feature set to it. It has a really,
25:12
really strong uh optical performance
25:15
that delivers repeatedly impressive
25:18
results. In my test, I was just again
25:20
and again looking and saying, "Wow,
25:22
that's that's really sharp and impressed
25:25
in that." And I felt overall the the
25:26
rendering from the lens was also nice as
25:28
well. So, I think that this is a lens
25:30
that definitely has the optical chops to
25:32
deliver. I don't think that there's
25:33
anyone that's going to buy it that's
25:35
going to say, "Oh, I wish it was a
25:36
better performing optically." That's not
25:38
going to be the problem. The bigger
25:39
question is whether or not this zoom
25:41
range actually works for you. And if it
25:42
does, well, this is going to be a
25:45
really, really interesting addition to
25:46
your kit. it might end up being a lens
25:48
that you end up using a lot. I'm Dustin
25:51
Abbott and if you want more information,
25:53
please check out the full text review
25:55
that's linked in the description down
25:56
below. And if you haven't checked out
25:57
dustinbott.net, take a look around
26:00
there. At this stage is something like
26:02
13 or 14 years worth of accumulated uh
26:05
reviews there. A lot of information. So,
26:07
check that out. As always, thanks for
26:09
watching. Have a great day and let the
26:11
light in.
Science

