Tamron 70-180mm F2.8 G2 Z-mount Review | Smaller, Lighter, and Cheaper

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[Music]
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Hi, I'm Dustin Abbott and I'm here today
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to give you my review of the Nikon
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Zmount version of Tamron 70 to 180
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millimeter f2.8 VC G2 lens. Now, what's
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interesting is that this now completes
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the trinity of fast f2.8 zooms here on
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Nikon. All of these lenses have been
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available on Sony E-mount before, but
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they have been trickling over to Nikon
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Zmount, and the 70 to 180 mm is the last
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of them to arrive. I've been taking a
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look at all three of the lenses, I won't
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be giving them all an individual review.
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I will give them an overview, but since
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this is the latest to arrive, I will
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give you a review of this as kind of
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kind of a representative of how these
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lenses have translated onto Zmount. Now,
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of course, the first generation of
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Tamron zooms arrived at a time when uh
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Nikon Zmount was closed to thirdparty
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development. However, it's pretty
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obvious that there was some kind of
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agreement between Tamron and Nikon that
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resulted in all three of those lenses,
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the 17 to 28, 28 to 75, and 70 to 180
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millimeter f2.8 zooms being released as
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Nicor branded lenses. Now, of course,
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the platform has opened up and we have
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openly Tamron lenses being released. The
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question is, is are they worth buying?
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Well, one thing is obvious. The G2 lens
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has a lot of additional features. It has
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image stabilization, optical
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stabilization built into the lens,
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faster autofocus motor, and of course,
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it comes at a price point that still
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undercuts the Nicore branded 70 to 180
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mm lens and definitely undercuts the
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$2,900
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S-line 70 to 200 millimeter lens from
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Nicor. So, at the end of the day, this
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obviously is going to serve as an
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excellent value. And today we're going
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to dive in to see if it also is an
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excellent lens. So before we dive into
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it, I will give you a quick uh caveat
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disclaimer. This lens was loan to me by
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uh Tamron USA along with the 16 to 30mm
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and 28 to 75mm f2.8 G2 lenses and uh
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however they have had no input on this
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review process. My findings are my own
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as always. All right, let's talk about
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the build and handling of the 70 to 180
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G2. Uh quick breakdown on prices. 11.49
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is the MSRP for the 70 to 180 G2. The
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Nicor 70 to180 which is the Tamron G1.
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You know, essentially is 1,400 for the
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MSRP, though it's more likely to be on
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sale for less. But so far, I've never
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seen it as low a price as the 1149 that
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this lens is selling for. And then of
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course, if you're looking at the S-line
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lens, the 70 to 200 Sline, it is $2,900
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ouch US. And so obviously a huge
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difference in price there. Now in terms
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of the size here, this is another area
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where Tamron has had an advantage. It
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continues to have an advantage relative
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to the full 70 to 200 f/2.8 zooms. This
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lens is 83 mm in diameter or 3.26 in
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158.7
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mm in length. So just a couple of
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millimeters longer in Zmount version.
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And uh and then it or that's that's 6.2
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in. and it weighs in at 865 gram or 30.5
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oz. So to give you a little bit of
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perspective on size, the Sline 70 to 200
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is 61 mm longer and weighs in at 495
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g heavier. And so if you are someone
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that's wanting to shoot weddings and you
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can't imagine carrying around the bulk
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of the S-line all all day, this is a
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really really nice alternative because
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it's very moderate in terms of the size
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and weight. And it manages to retain the
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67mm front filter thread that is shared
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across all three of these uh lenses
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here, these zooms, plus pretty much all
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with just a couple of exceptions of
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Tamron's other releases on mirrorless
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space. And so really great job on that
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point, Tamron, keeping that commonality
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and so you can share filters across all
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of these lenses, which is great. Now,
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part of the G2 upgrades include
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essentially a function button and a USBC
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port. And then on the 70 to 180, we have
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a custom switch that gives you three
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different functions that you can uh
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employ using that button there. And so
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the way that you program this is you
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attach via the weather sealed USBC port
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to a computer or an app. And there you
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have the ability to go in and to
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customize the behavior of the lens uh
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through something called Tamron's lens
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utility software. And then the lens
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utility you can assign from a number of
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values to each one of these three custom
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positions. And so and then when you
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activate the button and you have even
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options on how you're going to do that.
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Is it going to be just a touch or is it
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going to be holding it down? So, you
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have some options on how that that is
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going to play out. Now, of course, here
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on Tamron, the manual focus ring is
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functions as a customizable control
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ring. So, one of the the functions I
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like to set up is I actually like to in
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camera set up the customizable control
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ring for aperture control or in video
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for power aperture and then to set up
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AFMF to one of these custom buttons. And
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so I can have aperture control here and
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then just click a button and go into
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manual focus if I want to manually
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focus. And so it gives me kind of an
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aperture ring even though there isn't
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technically an aperture ring. Gives me
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the option of doing that. You've got
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other things. You can do focus limiter.
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You can set AB focus. You can set a
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focus towards infinity for astro.
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There's a variety of different things
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that you can program into that. And then
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on top of that, you also can program the
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way that the the actual focus ring the
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ring is going to behave. whether it is
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linear or nonlinear, how far the throw
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is, even what direction you want it to
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move in. So, you can really tweak the
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lens to to your preferences. Now, at the
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end of the day, I prefer a more
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traditional control scheme. I would just
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like to have an AFMF switch. I'd like to
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have a focus limiter switch. I'd like to
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have an aperture ring. However, this is
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a serious upgrade from either Tamron G1
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70 to 180, but then also the more
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expensive Nicor 70 to 180, which had
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none of that functionality. So, all of
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that is good. And because I can set this
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as a power aperture ring, I can do
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aperture racks. They're not the absolute
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smoothest I've seen. It's not I I would
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say Nyore lens quality, but it's close.
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And then so I appreciate that to be able
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to do that. We've got nine aperture
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blades. And as you can see in the
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aperture rack, we'll look at it again.
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That does a good job of maintaining a
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circular shape as you stop it down.
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Build quality here is definitely nicer
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than the first generation lens. There's
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more sculpting to the design. Just the
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the textures and everything feels a
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little bit better. It's still engineered
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plastics in the body, but it does feel
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more upscale than what we have seen
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before. We do have a very thorough
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weather sealing here. There are 11
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different seal points as you can see in
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this diagram, plus a flooring coating up
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front. All of that very appreciated. And
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then we have a varied minimum focus
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distance. So, you're going to get your
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highest magnification on the 70 mm end.
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You can focus as closely as 30 cm. and
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get a 0.38 times level of magnification
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which is really really quite high
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obviously though you can see that it's
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not a very flat plane of focus if you're
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I'm shooting something like a test chart
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at that distance uh I can get better
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results here you can see me holding the
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leave at the minimum focus distance and
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you know it's filling the frame pretty
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well more useful there at the telephoto
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end I can focus as closely just as 85 cm
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with a 0.21 two one times level of
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magnification, but a little bit flatter
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plane of focus. The lens does not
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include a a tripod collar, and while you
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probably can get something third party,
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it's really not designed around that.
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And frankly, I haven't had any issues
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with that. I felt like the lens balanced
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nicely um when I was doing my test
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charts and so I didn't really have any
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issues with that. Another key
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improvement over the first generation
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lens is the inclusion of Tamron's VC or
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vibration compensation. And so that is
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going to work in conjunction with if you
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have VR in your camera body. And so I
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found nice good stability for my work. I
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didn't really notice any shots affected
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by, you know, motion blur from camera
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shake. Though obviously uh no amount of
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VR is going to stop action. And so if
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your subject is moving, you're still
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going to get some motion blur based on
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that. There's only one real negative
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that I can point to relative to the
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Nicor branded 70 to 180 and that is that
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that lens did support Nikon's
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teleconverters whereas here we have no
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teleconverter support and so that is one
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area of loss and that could be a
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probably the prevailing factor of why
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you might consider sticking with the
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original Nicor 70 to 180 millimeter in
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general. However, this is a really nice
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lens. It's smaller, it's lighter, and
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it's a whole lot cheaper. And it now has
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some decent functionality to it, though
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not in a necessarily conventional
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control type scheme. So, let's talk
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autofocus. These, all three of these G2
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zooms come with Tamron's VXD focus
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motor. That stands for voice coil
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extreme torque linear drive. And so it
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is their voice coil style linear motor
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which is obviously faster than the RXD
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stepping type motor that was in the
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first generation of lenses. That means
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that we do have more thrust available
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here and it's also a smoother, quieter
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focus motor. I'm still not entirely sure
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what the relationship between Tamron and
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Nikon is at this point. Obviously we're
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getting full-frame Tamron zooms and not
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primes but zooms but we're not getting
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any of Sigma's fullframe lenses. And so
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there's obviously some kind of
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arrangement that has allowed Tamron in
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and it does feel like these lenses get
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really really good support. It feels
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very much like using a native lens and
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so I was able to track birds in flight
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without any kind of real issue other
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than one set for where for some reason
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autofocus didn't pick up and never
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picked up throughout the burst for
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whatever reason. But in general
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autofocus was really quite good in that
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kind of setting tracking with good
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accuracy. What's more, you can see here
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there is really really good thrust in
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terms of and speed going from close to
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distant subjects. It's pretty close to
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instantaneous. And so I had no issues
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with anything like that. I found it fine
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to use for event type settings uh at
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church and things like that. And so in
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general, I found that autofocus is going
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to be fast enough to keep up with
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whatever really you want to do.
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Autofocus is also extremely quiet. It's
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smooth. there's uh none of that
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sometimes double clutch action or
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pulsing that I'll sometimes see on Nikon
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but and it just feels like it's
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confident and again feels like it is a
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nicor lens in terms of the performance
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and so all of that is good so in general
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I have no reservations when it comes to
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uh autofocus for stills other than I do
11:04
find that kind of just in general I will
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get a periodic miss not necessarily a
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major miss but just you know a little
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forward or back focus just not quite as
11:14
much precision as what I saw on Sony.
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That's probably an algorithm thing at
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this point. And I'm hoping that a
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firmware update in the future will help
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us to get all the way up to really top
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tier performance as I saw with the same
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lens on Sony Emount. All right, how
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about autofocus for video? Obviously,
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this is an absolutely cruddy day
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outside. It's been raining. It's cool.
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We're heading into the gray time of
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year, which I don't enjoy. However,
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autofocus for video in general has been
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fairly good on this lens with just at
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least one caveat that I will mention.
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When it comes to doing things like focus
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pulls, focus pulls, touch to focus on
11:50
Nikon, you don't have any control over
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it, how it works. And so, it's not as
11:54
smooth as what it should be. None of
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your settings that you input uh for
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controlling how video autofocus works in
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video, none of those apply to touch to
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focus. And so, I find that this this
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test to be a little bit of a mess on
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this platform. However, you can see that
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there's definitely some pulsing, a bit
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of focus breathing, but it's very, very
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minor. It's actually quite well
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controlled. And in fact, when I went to
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my hand test, that went much better
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because now my settings are showing up.
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And you can see that the transition from
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my hand to my eye is good. And also,
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focus breathing is so minimal. You don't
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see any of that jarring effect of going
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back and forth. It just transitions from
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one subject to the other. The one caveat
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that I did mention is that I found
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autofocus was a little bit slow to pick
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me up at times. And so I've had to be
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very careful while filming outdoors. I'm
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filming all of these outdoor segments
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with the lens on my Nikon Z8. I've had
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to be very careful to make sure that it
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gets focused on me. And of course, the
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fact that I can't monitor it from the
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front on the Z8 because it's just a tilt
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screen makes it a little bit harder. It
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doesn't always immediately pick me up.
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And so it's not always reactive. As I
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approached the camera and I ducked out
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of frame, you can see that basically it
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just kind of cheated. It never went to
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the background. And so when I came back
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in in frame, I was basically in focus,
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but because focus hadn't shifted at all.
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And I have found that I have to be
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careful to give it time to pick me up
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and to not do anything that's too
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reactive or requires too much reaction
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because it's just a little bit slow to
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react in that setting. At the same time,
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I shot this shot of a seagull swimming
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around and focus was nice and stable all
13:26
throughout the clip. So, really no major
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concerns there. Just that one caveat
13:31
that again, I feel like I a firmware
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update could probably help to tweak that
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to where it just reacts a little bit
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more um appropriately to more sudden
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movements or something entering or
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exiting the frame. All things
13:46
considered, however, I didn't really
13:48
have any issues with autofocus. And as
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you've been able to see in these outdoor
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segments, focus is really nice and
13:53
stable on myself without any kind of
13:55
hunting or pulsing or jumping around.
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All right. Well, let's talk about the
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optics here. We have 20 elements in 15
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groups and that includes molded glass
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aspherical, hybrid spherical, low
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dispersion, and extra low dispersion
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elements as a part of that design. You
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can see that the MTF chart on both the
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wide and telephoto ends looks really,
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really impressive. Extremely sharp in
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the center. I mean, basically almost at
14:21
100% in the center and then very strong
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in the mid-frame and really not all that
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big of a drop there into the corners.
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What I found in testing for various
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things here on Nikon using a 45
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megapixel Z8 is that I found no
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longitudinal style chromatic aberrations
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either on my test chart or when shooting
14:41
my dad's old SLR. Everything is really,
14:43
really clean there. So, that's great. No
14:45
lateral style chromatic aberrations in
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the corners. All of that is good. We do
14:50
see some pin cushion distortion
14:52
throughout the zoom range. And so, on
14:54
the 70 mm end, I needed a minus four to
14:57
correct. corrected in a nice linear
14:59
fashion. No big deal there. And is
15:01
typical on Zmount versus Sony E-mount, I
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found that it did have a little bit more
15:06
vignette. In this case, I needed a plus
15:08
74 to correct, whereas I was more around
15:10
a plus 50 on E-mount. On the telephoto
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end, there's a little bit more pin
15:15
cushion distortion. I needed a minus 7
15:17
to correct for it. Again, nice and
15:19
linear. No big deal. And vignette is
15:21
also a little bit heavier. It is now up
15:23
to a plus 85. In this case, however, I
15:26
saw a fairly similar result on Sony
15:28
E-mount. I needed a plus 75 to correct
15:31
for the vignette there. And so, not a
15:33
radical difference between the two. All
15:35
of these things are pretty easily
15:37
correctable. And fortunately, these
15:39
Tamron G2 lenses do get full profile
15:43
support in camera here on Nikon for
15:45
video and then also for JPEGs as well.
15:48
So, all of that is great. Starting on
15:51
the wide end at 70 millimeters, looking
15:54
at 200% levels of magnification, I found
15:56
that crops, even at f2.8, looked really
15:59
good all across the frame. They looked
16:01
good in the center. They looked strong
16:02
in the mid-frame and the corners were
16:05
really not all that degraded. The
16:07
biggest difference I found when stopping
16:08
down the lens is less in the center.
16:10
There's a little bit of there was some
16:12
contrast improvement in the center, but
16:13
you can see here in this comparison on
16:15
the edge of the frame for a real world
16:17
shot that there's just more contrast,
16:19
more detail there in the textures. Looks
16:22
really, really good. However, I mean,
16:24
even in the corners, if I'm looking on
16:25
back at the test chart at f5.6 and f8,
16:28
it looks fantastically sharp even in the
16:31
corners. So, really, really impressive
16:32
there. By f11, you're going to start to
16:35
see a little bit of effects of
16:36
defraction. And at the minimum aperture
16:38
of f-22, that becomes more pronounced.
16:41
So, not as bad as what you'll see on
16:42
Sony because of the higher resolution uh
16:45
point at 61 megapixels on my A7R5. So, I
16:48
saw a little bit less defraction on this
16:50
lower resolution point here on Nikon. As
16:52
we go throughout the zoom range, I found
16:54
that actually 100 millm is stronger
16:56
still than 70 mm. Basically, all across
16:59
frame, just a little bit more pop
17:01
contrast. It looks fantastic. Really,
17:04
really strong results at 100 millime. At
17:07
135 mm, there's a little bit of a dip,
17:09
though it's still good. It's just not as
17:11
exceptionally good as we have seen to
17:13
this point. But we see at 180 mm, we see
17:16
a rebound to where it is again
17:18
fantastically sharp really all across
17:20
the frame. And so really, really strong
17:23
and consistent optical performance
17:25
throughout as far as resolution,
17:27
contrast. You're not going to be
17:28
disappointed in what this lens is able
17:30
to produce. The bokeh quality is good,
17:33
but it's zoom good, not high-end prime
17:36
good. And so I found that in most
17:38
situations, it looks good. Obviously,
17:40
you have the ability to really defocus a
17:42
background if you're close to your
17:43
subject and shooting at 180 mm and f2.8.
17:47
It's more in the transition areas where
17:50
you're not so close to your subject
17:52
where the bokeh is can get a little bit
17:54
of a nervous quality to it, but in
17:57
general, I felt like the bokeh looks
17:58
looks good from the lens. And and I
18:00
would say that images generally, as you
18:02
can see here, look really nice. I also
18:04
found that the colors are nice from the
18:07
lens. I felt like flare resistance
18:09
overall is good. It's got Tamron's Bbar
18:12
um generation 2 coatings and those tend
18:15
to do a really good job with that. So,
18:17
in general, we have a very strong
18:18
optical performance here, particularly
18:20
when you consider the price point of
18:22
this zoom lens relative to the
18:24
competitors. So, my conclusion is that
18:27
all three of these lenses in my test
18:30
have really converted over to Nikon
18:32
Zmount really, really well. There are
18:35
definitely some there's some give and
18:36
take on the way that all of these lenses
18:38
perform on Nikon relative to Sony. I
18:42
find that autofocus is still a little
18:43
bit more sophisticated on Sony, which I
18:45
feel like it is in general, but I also
18:48
find that the inbody stabilization on a
18:51
camera like my Z8 is still better than
18:53
anything that I'm seeing on my Sony
18:55
cameras. And also, of course, here on
18:57
Nikon, you have none of the third-party
18:59
restrictions, things like burst rate. I
19:01
can shoot up to the full burst rate of
19:03
my Nikon Z8 without any kind of
19:05
limitation there. However, what we have
19:08
lost relative to the Nicor uh 70 to 180
19:11
was the ability to use Nikon's own
19:15
teleconverters. And so that obviously is
19:17
a loss that I miss and that some of you
19:20
are going to miss. And so that that
19:21
would be in my mind the only compelling
19:23
reason to stick with the Nicor branded
19:26
lens as opposed to this new G2 version
19:28
which is basically better in every other
19:31
category that I can think of. The final
19:33
major consideration here of course is
19:35
cost. And it even though this G2 version
19:38
is updated and improved in a number of
19:40
ways, it does undercut the Nicor branded
19:42
70 to 180 f2.8. And of course, if you're
19:45
comparing to the premium 70 to 200
19:48
millimeter uh S-line lens, you're
19:51
talking about a difference between
19:53
$2,900 and uh essentially under $1,200.
19:59
And so it's it's just a a it's a huge
20:01
difference. In fact, when I did the math
20:02
and I added up the cost of the 16-30, 28
20:06
to75, and 70 to 200 millimeter Tamron
20:08
zooms, G2 zooms, I found that their
20:11
total was only $30 more expensive than
20:14
the uh S-line 70 to 200 millimeter. And
20:18
so, if you're looking at filling out
20:19
your bag with zooms, this certainly is a
20:22
really, really great value way to
20:24
accomplish that. And so I'm certainly
20:26
very happy to have Tamron's own lenses
20:28
here on the market and particularly this
20:30
trinity of fast f2.8 zooms. They really
20:33
provide really really solid alternatives
20:35
for those of you on a tighter budget
20:37
that can't afford to go all the way up
20:38
to the premium Nikon equivalents. So at
20:41
the end of the day, that is a very
20:43
welcome addition here. Now, if you want
20:44
more information, I do have a full text
20:46
review on this particular lens that is
20:48
linked in the description down below on
20:50
the newly redesigned dustinbott.net. Go
20:52
check that out. Also, if you want a deep
20:55
dive into the optical performance, hey,
20:57
you're in the right place. Stay tuned.
20:58
We're going to jump into that together
21:00
right now. So, we'll start by taking a
21:02
look at the zoom range here. So,
21:03
obviously 70 to 180 mm isn't quite as
21:06
good as 70 to 200 millimeters, but you
21:08
can see as I zoom in and out, gives you
21:10
a lot of different framing options
21:12
there. As far as optical
21:14
characteristics, we'll start by taking a
21:16
look at vignette and distortion. You can
21:18
see at 70 mm, we have some pin cushion
21:22
distortion. You can see it corrects in a
21:23
nice linear fashion, even if I'm
21:25
manually correcting. Definitely some
21:27
pretty heavy vignette in the corners.
21:29
And that clears up with a plus 74
21:32
dialing in at 70 mm. That pin cushion
21:34
distortion persists and grows as you go
21:37
throughout the zoom range by 180 mm.
21:39
We're up to needing a minus 7 to
21:41
correct. You can see it remains nice and
21:43
linear. No problems there. Also,
21:45
vignette is a little bit heavier and go
21:47
comes a little bit further into the
21:48
frame, I will note as well. and I needed
21:51
a plus 85 to correct for it here. Again,
21:54
there is a correction profile support.
21:56
So, if you're not manually correcting,
21:57
like I'm turning profiles off and so I
22:00
can show you what's going on optically,
22:02
but this will correct in camera for you.
22:05
Longitudinal style chromatic aberrations
22:07
are really not a problem. You can see
22:08
it's nice and neutral before and after
22:10
the plane of focus. Likewise, if I go
22:12
into a more hardcore real world
22:16
situation with lots of shiny bits here,
22:18
you can see it's very good contrast in
22:20
the imprints here and then no frring
22:23
showing up here. Likewise around the
22:25
specular highlights, no frringing.
22:27
However, as we're looking at those
22:28
specular highlights, you'll notice that
22:30
there is some inner lining and a little
22:32
bit of busyiness inside. They're not
22:34
entirely smooth. There's a little bit of
22:36
clipping towards the edge. Stopping down
22:39
here to f4. You can see they're largely
22:41
circular by f5.6. You can see all
22:44
circular and the uh nine rounded
22:47
aperture blades are doing a pretty good
22:49
job of keeping a circular aperture
22:51
shape. Lal style chromatic aberrations
22:54
also very well controlled. No evidence
22:56
of any kind of fringing here at the edge
22:58
of the frame. So we'll take a look at
23:00
resolution and contrast. This again is
23:02
on a 45 meg megapixel Nikon Z8 and we're
23:06
looking at 200% magnification. Center of
23:09
the frame looks awesome. Great detail,
23:11
great contrast. Mid-frame is looking
23:14
really, really strong. If I pan down
23:16
here, we can see a little bit of a fade
23:18
there to the lower right corner. You can
23:20
just see it's a little bit uh kind the
23:23
texture is just a little bit more
23:24
smeared compared to the upper uh left
23:26
corner there. and down into the corner
23:28
itself. Really, we're holding off really
23:31
quite well right into the corners. No
23:32
major issues there. What I found in this
23:36
real world shot that if we have f2.8 and
23:38
then f5.6,
23:40
you can see looking in the center of the
23:42
frame, it is a little sharper and more
23:44
contrasty, but not radically different.
23:46
Just more contrast levels have deepened.
23:48
If we pan off to the side here, however,
23:51
we can see that textures are just a
23:53
slight bit muddier here on the at f2.8,
23:56
8. But at f5.6, they're staying really
23:59
consistent right off to the very edge
24:01
there. At f5.6 and f8, we can see if we
24:04
look right up here into the corner, it
24:05
looks fantastically sharp right up into
24:08
the very, very corner, right up near the
24:10
edge. No problems. They are very, very
24:12
sharp at smaller apertures. Now, if we
24:15
stop on down to f11, you'll see f11
24:17
still looking good. By f-22, however, it
24:20
is softened somewhat due to defraction.
24:22
You can just see that the contrast is
24:24
gone. You see all these wavy lines of
24:26
texture in here? Those are almost not
24:28
visible because of so much contrast that
24:30
has been lost there at smaller
24:32
apertures. If we move on in the zoom
24:34
range to 100 mm, you can see it looks
24:37
amazing in the center of the frame. And
24:38
if you stop it down to f4, it looks
24:41
better still. Mid-frame looks awesome,
24:43
particularly by uh f4 there. And up into
24:46
the corners, the corner looks really
24:48
strong. And by f4, it looks
24:50
fantastically strong. At 135 mm, there's
24:53
a little bit of a dip. You can see it's
24:55
just not quite as popping off the page.
24:58
Even at f4, still good, but not what I
25:01
would call exceptionally good. Mid-frame
25:03
in some ways looks almost better than
25:04
the center. And the corners, uh, it's a
25:07
pretty consistent performance. The
25:08
corners still feel very, very sharp
25:10
relative to the center. So, overall,
25:12
still a good performance even at its
25:14
weakest. Then at 180 millimeters, you
25:17
can see it rebounds to just incredible
25:20
sharpness and contrast in the center of
25:21
the frame. You can see it's just
25:23
popping. F4 looks great. Mid-frame
25:26
looking really, really strong,
25:28
particularly by f4. And right up into
25:31
the corners looking awesome. So really
25:33
strong performance at the end of the
25:35
telephoto range, which is arguably maybe
25:37
the most important point. So here's a
25:40
couple of real world examples here at
25:42
200 millimeters. You can see even at
25:43
f2.8, date. Lots of detail all around
25:46
the plane of focus and very accurate um
25:49
focus there. All of that is great. Here
25:52
is minimum focus distance at 180 mm. You
25:55
can see the plane of focus is still not
25:57
perfectly flat, but you know, good
25:59
contrast and detail there in the middle
26:01
of the frame. You can get a higher level
26:03
of magnification at 70 mm. It's that
26:05
same not really flat plane of focus.
26:08
However, detail and contrast looks, you
26:10
know, quite good here. And so a very
26:12
usable amount of magnification and
26:15
performance up close.
26:17
This gives you a look at some flare
26:20
resistance here. So you can see at 70 mm
26:22
we've got a little bit of ghosting
26:25
coming in, but overall contrast stays
26:27
good. Uh with the tighter framing here,
26:30
that sun is right out of frame. And you
26:32
can see just a little bit of a veiling
26:35
effect up here, but overall we've got
26:36
nothing penetrating down into the frame
26:38
to mess things up. So, not bad at all.
26:41
Also, a look here at, you know, the nice
26:43
amount of defocus you can get. At its
26:46
best, the, you know, when you're
26:47
completely defocusing the background,
26:49
it's gorgeous. Detail looks really good.
26:52
Backgrounds blurred out nicely. Uh, this
26:54
image on a frosty late autumn morning
26:58
looks amazing. And again, you know, the
27:00
frost kind of helps to soften edges a
27:03
bit and so it all just blends together
27:05
really beautifully. Likewise here at
27:07
very up close, good detail and contrast
27:09
as you can see. And then a nicely
27:11
blurred background. Now here at 70 mm,
27:14
I'm relatively close, but you can see
27:15
there's definitely some of that
27:16
outlining we saw on specular highlights.
27:19
Not completely smooth, but you know, you
27:21
can also zoom in here and then smooth
27:24
everything out just via compression. And
27:26
so it really is relative to where you're
27:28
set up. Overall, however, you can see
27:31
though, um, it's a really, really nice
27:32
optical performance.
27:35
All right, so thanks for watching until
27:36
the very end, and I hope that the deep
27:38
dive into the optics has helped you to
27:40
determine whether or not the 70 to 180
27:43
millimeter G2 is going to be your new
27:45
zoom lens. As always, thanks for
27:47
watching. Have a great day and let the
27:49
light in.
27:51
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Tamron 70-180mm F2.8 G2 Z-mount Review | Smaller, Lighter, and Cheaper

Dustin Abbott