Tamron SP 70-200mm f/2.8 VC G2 | Final Review

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Hi, I'm Dustin Abbott, and I'm here today to give you my final verdict on the new Tamron 70 to 200 millimeter F2.8, D-I-V-C, U.S.D, and this is the G2, or second generation of this new lens
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And so I already have a pretty well-established playlist on this particular lens
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I've spent a lot of time with it in part because I think that 70 to 200-millimeter lenses, along with 24 to 70-millimeter lenses, are probably some of the most important lenses that exist
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They are the most indispensable tools for those that shoot weddings and events and portraits and are just very versatile tools that do a lot of things well
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And so this is a very important lens for Tamron, and so I've done my best to try to cover it in all the ways that you have requested
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I'm sure I can get every single thing on the list, but I've done my best with that
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And so at first I just want to recap a few quick things in terms of the overall build quality
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I've been using it side by side with the Canon 70-200L Mark 2, along with the previous generation lens and actually two copies of this lens over the
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last about three weeks and and so using them all side by side I would say in terms of the
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overall build quality now that there is really little to distinguish this new generation
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lens from the Canon lens the Canon lens is a hair longer and and just a hair heavier
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but overall they are very very similar both of them are very nicely made lenses have the
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new Tamron has has a metal body on it it's an aluminum alloy it's an aluminum alloy it's
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It's got great weather ceiling, it's got flooring coating on the front
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It's got all of the things that you would be looking for in terms of a well-built lens
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And so kudos to Tamron for kicking up its game and producing a lens that really is truly competitive with the first-party lenses
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And for that matter, in terms of the overall look of the lens, I actually prefer it to the Canon lens
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which I find a little bit, you know, loud, basically. And also another thing that visually I'm not crazy about is that
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that while Canon makes the lenses white or, you know, slightly off-white gray, whatever
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that all of the caps and the hood remain black. And so to me, it doesn't all kind of just blend together
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And so as terms of the overall look, I do like the look of the Tamron better
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However, in terms of the overall functionality when it comes to the placement of the rings
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the Canon has the zoom ring closer to the lens mount, which I prefer rather than further out on the barrel
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I also find that the focus ring here on the cannon is wider
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It's a little bit easier to find by touch, and I think maybe just a hair smoother overall than what the Tamrons is
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In terms of the overall stiffness of the rings, I would say that the zoom ring is pretty similar
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but I do prefer the manual focus ring a bit on the Canon lens
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Of course, they do zoom in two different directions, and so the new Tamron lens, it zooms in the Nikon direction, if that is a big deal to you
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I do definitely prefer in terms of the build, the tripod collar on the Tamron
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which, as you can see, it's Arka-Swiss compatible. You can just pop it on to a tripod, and I have been doing this so much as a part of this review process
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testing so many different things, different copies, so going on and off tripods
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And, of course, it's a pain that I have to add a quick release plate to the Canon. and so it's just that extra step that's along the way
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And so I do really like the fully removable tripod collar on the Tamron
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Now, when it comes to the overall image stabilization, I did a series of tests trying to establish a baseline for image stabilization
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And bottom line is that actually both of these lens, they are excellent for whatever you have to do
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And in terms of the image stabilization or the vibration compensation in the case of the Tamron
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they both operate seamlessly. I mean, there's no jumping when they come on and off. They're quiet in
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operation. They're smooth. They do a good job. And of course, as I detailed in the first look
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episode, there's a lot of new functionality that's built into the VC system on the Tamron. So it has more
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modes to choose from than what the Canon does. The Canon has two modes, but the Tamron actually has
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three with the option of configuring a you know then that third position through the tap concept you actually have two different options You can program into there in terms of the behavior And so the most effective image stabilization of the bunch comes in the Tamron third mode
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which is known as capture priority. And so it basically doesn't mess with stabilizing the viewfinder
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It just kicks in right when you're taking the photo. And they claim five full stops for that
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And in my test, when I got down to really low shutter speeds, like one eighth of a second
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It produced the most keepers among that. I will note that at a little bit faster
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that this lens was perfect at, say, 1.15th of a second, and the cannon wasn't
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but I found that the cannon basically held its own when I slowed the shutter speed down even further
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On a practical level, there really isn't any kind of good application
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for hand-holding telephoto lenses at that slow of shutter speeds anyway. You're going to find that the likelihood
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of just a bit of movement in your subject is not worth the risk
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And so it's better to keep your shutter speed up at reasonable levels to stop action anyway
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One thing that you may find, I would recommend that you basically kind of tailor
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if you're going to buy the Tamron, tailor the different modes are when you use them
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according to your situation. And so in situations where you need the viewfinder, stabilize, go to that first mode
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But if you're kind of moving quickly and you just want nice crisp shots while you're shooting
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action or moving things. Actually, using the mode three is a mode that I'm going to quite often
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It's not such a long focal length that I'm shaking all over the place, and so I'm able to just get
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great results and not have any interference from image stabilization while moving around
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There's also a panning mode on both of these lenses if you're shooting that type of thing
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When it comes to the overall focus speed, there is still a slight edge to the cannon
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Now, in terms of the overall focus acquisition speed, in terms of getting to where they need to, they're basically equal
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But the Tamron will give kind of a split-second hesitation before focus lock and confirmation kicks in that the cannon doesn't
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And so in terms of raw focus speed, they're roughly equal, but in actual acquisition, not just getting to the target, but locking, the cannon still has the slight edge there
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both of these lenses prefer their native extenders and so part of what I've done is that I did an episode on
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extenders and so you might want to watch that but I tested both of these lenses with Canon extenders and Tamron extenders
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and so bottom line is is that if you're going to invest in the Tamron lens and you want to use an
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extender invest in one of the Tamron extenders it focuses fantastic with with either of them and only in
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very low light where you start to get a slight bit of pulsing sometimes with the two times
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With the 1.4 times, it basically focuses pretty much like the bare lens. And in good light
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the same is true with the two times. And likewise with the cannon, it focuses best with the
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Canon extender attached to it. So just pair them appropriately. And so that's just something
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to bear in mind for the future. Overall, really great news in terms of focus accuracy. Now, I did
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used the Tamron console, tapping console, on one of the lenses that I tested. It's a fairly
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extensive process, and so I didn't do it on both of them. The other, I mostly just used it in
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you know, live view type mode where I was just, you know, making sure that focus was accurate
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But in terms of the lens that I used kind of to test, you know, day-to-day focus accuracy
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after I dial it in with the tap-in console, and that allows you to adjust at four different
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focal links at three different focus distances. And so it gives you a huge amount of control over that
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As I said, it's time-consuming, but I felt like it paid off in that I had exceptional focus accuracy
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in all kinds of light. And so, you know, great job on Tamron. They seem to have really
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figured that out with recent lens releases. And I feel like they're focusing pretty much as accurately
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as my first-party lenses do. So that's fantastic. One other thing to note is that through the tapping
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console. You can also plug in completely separate values with the extenders to make sure that you're
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maximizing your efficiency there. And so if you're going to invest in the extenders, you might
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want to run through that and just make sure that you're going to get the best bang for your buck
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Now, in terms of overall image quality, I shot an image quality episode where I went into this
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in detail that I'm not going to do today, but I will flesh out a few extra things here
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Both of these lenses are winners in a sense in that the Tamron it is actually the stronger performance considerably stronger at 70 millimeters and then through about 135 140 150 millimeters it is the stronger lens overall But they kind of have parity somewhere there at about
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you know, 140 to 150 millimeters and they're roughly the same. And then on the long end, the cannon at 200
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millimeters is the definite winner. And so one thing that I noted when comparing this to the previous
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generation 70 to 200 VC A.O.09 lens, this new one is the A.O.25. But with the AO9, I found that overall
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image quality has improved kind of across the board with the second generation, the AO25. But
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it's more concentrated towards the periphery of the frame, and that the center is a little bit better
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at all throughout the focal range with the new G2 lens. But it's definitely stronger on the
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outer periphery of the frame. And so if you're kind of making this judgment call about an upgrade
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and you're basing it purely on image quality and you have the previous generation Tamron
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lens, kind of consider where you're composing. And if you're shooting mostly just composing with
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things in the center of the frame, you probably won't see a huge, huge difference in that upgrade
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But if you tend to use kind of more of the whole frame for your composition or you're shooting
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this lens has a definite advantage across the board. It also has some other improvement in terms
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of a vignette and I think light transmission. When I compared the two lenses
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I definitely thought that the New Tamron has better light transmission than the older Canon lens does
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Now, all of that being said, if you're going to shoot a lot at 200 millimeters
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the cannon is definitely the stronger performer, which also means, of course
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if you're looking for more reach and you want to use it with extenders, the cannon is still definitely the better choice
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It actually holds up in terms of, sharpness, it holds up very, very well with extenders attached to it. And the Tamron does well
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but it's already weaker at 200 millimeters compared to the cannon. And so, of course, that's just heightened
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when you throw the extenders on there. And so I think that if that's an important thing to you
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if you're kind of wanting to go to one lens to, you know, and then throw extenders on there for
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when you're shooting wildlife or things like that, the cannon is going to be your better bet overall
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Now during this review period, because I've got it in for a different review that I'll be talking about to you in a week or two
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I actually have a Sony A7R2 body in right now, along with the Metabones 4 adapter, so I can throw EF lenses on there
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And so I actually did have done some back-to-back testing with the Sony body and its even higher resolution than my 5D Mark 4 with both of these lenses
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and I found that really the same things that I discovered in my 5D Mark 4 testing were true
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I shot them in different kinds of situations to try to expose more weaknesses out
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And so, for example, in this series at 135 millimeters, I was shooting a stone cathedral in our area
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And as we look across these images, while there is some give and take at spots
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overall the Tamron is definitely still looks the strongest at 135 millimeters
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and if you stop them down, the same remains true. It really delivers a very strong performance at 135 millimeters
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and I was glad to see with a higher resolution sensor that it continued to look great
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At 200 millimeters, my previous observations were also true, in that wide open, the cannon was an obvious winner
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and that was at infinity, and just, you know, for the fun of it, they do frame identically when shot out at infinity
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they both are roughly the same focal length, but there's that focus breathing thing that I covered in another episode
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And I'll come back to that in just a second. But in terms of overall
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I found that the Tamron really didn't catch up at 200 millimeters shooting at infinity
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till about 5.6. And then I found that the image quality was roughly similar across the frame
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Now, in terms of that image compression that I just referred to, obviously I had a whole episode dedicated to focus breathing
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And in response to that, some of you let me know and let me do a little bit further research
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that shows that the cannon actually, at short distances, it breathes in the opposite direction
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And that rather than being 200 millimeters, it's more like 223 or 4 millimeters
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And so that makes the Tamron by comparison look worse than what it actually is
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But, of course, these are primary competitors. And so I still think that it's a fair comparison
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And so note that you definitely lose some compression. If you look at this portrait shot here
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both at basically the same distance, both at 200 millimeters Obviously there is a lot more compression that available to you And in this case I was shooting with a background so it wasn a big deal But if that background had been busy
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the cannon would definitely blur it out more than what the Tamron does. And so that's something
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that is worth noting. And so at closer distances, you know, it's basically like comparing 220
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millimeters to roughly, you know, 168 to 170 millimeters. And so you lose some compression overall
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Now the only downside to the cannon, which would thus be an upside to the Tamron
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that if you're at closer distances and you're trying to get out on the wider end
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include more in the frame, the cannon, of course, breathes to where at close distances
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you don't really get an effective 70 millimeters, you probably get more like 80 or 85 millimeters
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which means that it's hard to get everything into the frame that you want
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And so that's the only kind of downsides. or if you're shooting sports and you're, you know, find that a lot of times along the baseline or
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court side, you're not getting enough in the frame with your cannon, then, you know, in that case
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the Tamron's breathing might actually be a plus, maybe. So in terms of the rest of those image quality metrics, there's things that favor the Tamron
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It vignettes a little bit less overall, and the vignette doesn't extend as far into the frame
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flare resistance is not perfect on either lens but the the Canon lens it basically completely
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loses contrast and the frame washes out much much more than what the Tamron and it's more
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modern coatings do. There's different color rendering in both of these lenses and the new
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G2 lens is different from the previous generation Tamron lens and it's color rendering. It's kind of
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a taste thing and so you'll just have to look at the images in the image gallery and
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you know, see what you think overall. One thing that is exceptionally well done is in terms of
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chromatic aberrations. They're essentially, for field use, they're almost perfectly controlled in this new Tamron lens. And so that's definitely a plus. So to give you a conclusion here
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I would have to say if cost was no object, I think for my actual day-to-day shooting
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I would probably go with the cannon overall. You know, the difference is slight at this point
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but that strong performance at 200 millimeters and then the ability to get more compression for
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for example, when I'm shooting weddings, I think that favors the cannon overall
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I'm going to continue to shoot with the Tamron for a while and continue to test it
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But long term, I think if I'm giving an opinion to you, if cost is no object
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I think that in some situations you probably choose the cannon. That being said, of course, there is a huge price difference
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between these lenses. In the U.S. market, it is $700. Here in Canada, it's over $1,000 difference
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And so that is a significant amount of money. Here in Canada, just to give you the example
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the Tamron lens comes in at 1849 in Canadian dollars, and then the Canon lens comes in
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at around $3,000 Canadian dollars. So obviously a huge difference there. In the U.S., it's $1299 for the new Tamron G2
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and about $2,000 for the Canon lens. And so overall, there is a huge cost savings there
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And so I say this to you that if you're on a budget and you're kind of considering these lenses
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just know that there's some give and take in both of them, but at the end of the day
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you're really not giving up much with the new Tamron G2 lens
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And so I think that Tamron has done a great job with this
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And I think that my two number one priorities for when the day comes that the G3 arrives, or whatever it's called would be
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to see a stronger performance at 200 millimeters, and then, of course, also to see a little less of that focus breathing
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to give you a little bit more compression. But overall, great job, Tamron
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This is a very solid alternative to the first-party Canon and Nikon lenses
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and I have no problem giving it. A recommendation at this point, and if you want more details
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go through the playlist. There's a lot more there to find out. In the description below, you can find linkage to my full written review, a lot more image samples there and some more detail on some different areas
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And of course, there's also a link to the image gallery that has images from all these different kinds of comparisons that are there as a part of that
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You can find buying links there also to support this channel and to my website to allow me to continue to do this for you
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Thanks for watching today. And if you haven't already, please click that subscribe button. Have a great day

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Tamron SP 70-200mm f/2.8 VC G2 | Final Review

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