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Tamron 90mm F2.8 Di III Macro VXD Review: The Macro Lens to Buy!
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Oct 4, 2024
Photographer Dustin Abbott shares a deep dive review of Tamron's new 90mm F2.8 Macro VXD lens. Is it any good? Find out in Dustin's review. | This video is sponsored by FlexiSpot! Use my exclusive code "YTE7P50” to get extra $50 off on E7 pro, E7 plus and E7L. FlexiSpot E7 pro standing desk: https://bit.ly/3N6Irw6 (US) https://bit.ly/4gLDypP (CA) | Read the Text Review: | Visit the Image Gallery: | Purchase the Tamron 90mm F2.8 VXD Macro @ B&H Photo https://bhpho.to/4dDFONq | Adorama https://howl.link/2l2qmjbziy6e1 | Amazon https://amzn.to/3Y8xy3s | Camera Canada https://shrsl.com/4p5wk | Amazon Canada https://amzn.to/4duifqe | Amazon UK https://amzn.to/3TS4mLu | Amazon Germany https://amzn.to/4gZNwnU Check out the DA Merch here: https://bit.ly/TWIMerch | Become a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/dustinabbott | On the Web: http://dustinabbott.net/ | Sign up for my Newsletter: http://bit.ly/1RHvUNp | Instagram: http://bit.ly/DLAinsta | Facebook: http://on.fb.me/1nuUUeH | Flickr: http://bit.ly/1UcnC0B | 500px: http://bit.ly/1Sy2Ngu Follow Craig @ https://www.instagram.com/craigstoffersen/ Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo: http://bhpho.to/1TA0Xge Adorama: https://howl.me/cjU0LKdp3LN Camera Canada: http://bit.ly/DLACameraCan Sony Canada: https://www.thesonyshop.ca/?ref=abbott Amazon: https://amzn.to/3HrY64d Amazon Canada: https://amzn.to/3qG1p18 Ebay: http://bit.ly/DustineBay Into the AM Clothing: https://bit.ly/intotheAMda and use code DUSTIN10 for 10% off Fioboc Cloting: https://tinyurl.com/FiobocDA20 and us code DUSTIN20 for 20% off Make a donation via Paypal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/dustinTWI ============================= Table of Contents:
View Video Transcript
0:00
Hi, I'm Dustin Abbott, and I'm here today to give you my review of the new Tamron 90-millimeter
0:15
F-2.8, D-I-3 macro VXD lens. Really, there's only one thing that has surprised me about this
0:22
lens, and that it has taken so long to arrive. Tamron has been making 90-millimeter macro lenses
0:28
since 1979. And I have been really noticing for all of the lenses
0:34
that release on Sony E-mount, and there are constantly lenses being released
0:39
But what I've noticed is how few autofocusing macro lenses they are
0:43
In fact, the last time I did a review of an auto-focusing macro lens on e-mount
0:47
was back in 2020, and that was the Sigma 105-millimeter D-N macro lens
0:53
So while we have just massive amounts of lenses available on email
0:57
we really have had relatively few good macro options and so it is great to see this arrive because this is a killer
1:05
combination here the tamron 90 millimeter f2.8 macro vxd lens it's optically fantastic that vxd auto focus
1:14
motor is fantastic it has a great formula to its build and it arrives at a price tag of just
1:20
699 US dollars also very interestingly for tamron this is the very first of their lenses to arrive
1:28
simultaneously on both Sony e-mount and Nikon Z-mount. Z-mount shooters have been accustomed to having to wait
1:37
with quite a delay between the e-mount release and then the Z-mount release
1:41
and so it's fantastic to see this lens arrive simultaneously for both platforms
1:47
So is this a lens worth buying for you? We're going to dive into that right after a word from our sponsor
1:52
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Visit flexiSpot.com for more information or to order. That's flexiSpot.com. So starting with the build design and handling here
3:00
this lens is a D.I.3, which is what Tamron uses as a designation as being designed for mirrorless
3:07
It is a one-to-one macro lens, and it has their VXD or voice coil extreme torque drive auto-focus motor system
3:16
The kind of chief competitors here on Sony, where I'm reviewing, tend to be the Sony 90-millimeter F2.8G macro
3:22
and then that aforementioned Sigma 105 millimeter F2.8 macro. This lens is just very slightly smaller than either of those lenses
3:31
It's 79.2 millimeters in diameter or 3.1 inches. It is 126.5 millimeters in length or 5 inches
3:39
One thing to note about the length of all three of these lenses is that all of them are internally focusing lenses
3:45
so they're a little bit longer because nothing is going to extend in and out during focus
3:50
The lens weighs in at 630,000. or 22 ounces, making it very slightly heavier than the Sony, but about 70 grams lighter than what the Sigma is
4:01
It has a 67 millimeter front filter thread, which Tamron has done an admirable job of sticking to that standard
4:09
And so the vast, vast majority of their lens releases over the last five years are all standardized around a 67 millimeter filter thread, wherever physically possible
4:20
And so that means that you can do a lot of filter sharing across Tamron lenses
4:25
Design language is pretty typical from what I'm seeing from Tamron right now. They've upgraded the overall outer shell
4:31
It's got more sculpts and shape to it. We've also got a few more features here as they have kind of expanded, even on these
4:39
I would say kind of their average tier of lenses. This is not their premium
4:43
But they've allowed some of those features to trickle down from some of the premium lenses here
4:48
So we've got a raised bank here that has a function button, and I'll detail a little bit more on that in just a second
4:55
Then we've also got a three-position focus limiter, and so you can either lock into just the macro range up to 70 centimeters
5:03
You can lock out of the macro range for faster autofocus for other things
5:07
So 70 centimeters or 0.7 meters to infinity, or you can just engage the full
5:12
I suspect for most of you, most of the time, you're going to be able to leave it in full because autofocus, as we'll see, is really
5:18
really snappy here. So as mentioned, this focus hold button or function button, you have the
5:23
typical option of being able to program that from within the camera itself. However, because this
5:29
lens also has a weather-sealed USBC drive on the side, that allows you to connect it to either
5:34
a PC or an Android device and use Tamron's lens utility software to customize a number of features
5:41
here. So that includes assigning a specific value to this lens in the lens utility software
5:48
which means that that will override whatever you have programmed from the camera itself
5:52
Now, you can set it to just use whatever the camera function is, but it may be that you want a specific function for this lens
5:59
and to be able to set that unique from the camera setting, I think, is quite appealing here
6:03
Even more importantly, however, in that lens utility software, you can thoroughly tweak the behavior of the focus ring
6:10
That's huge on a macro lens. If you have a preference about which direction you prefer focus to go you can choose that You can choose whether you want it to be linear or non You can choose how much focus throw you want on the manual focus frame So just a lot of various
6:26
options there that I think are going to really expand the functionality of the lens itself
6:31
Now, I noted that the USBC port is weather sealed, but so is everything else on the lens
6:36
We have a gasket at the lens mount. We have a flooring coating at the front element
6:40
and we have six other seal points throughout the lens itself. So a, you know
6:45
professional grade of weather ceiling that is there. Now, a first for Tamron is that inside we have
6:50
12 rounded aperture blades. They typically go with more like a nine aperture blade count. So it's nice to see
6:56
that increased aperture blade count. For one thing, it does help to maintain a really nice circular
7:01
aperture shape. Even when stop down, this is F5.6 for example, you can see those specular highlights are
7:06
still nice and round. Also, when you have an even aperture blade count, it means you also have that equal
7:12
even blades of your sun stars. So in this case, a 12-pointed sun star, you know, it's okay. It's not
7:20
amazing looking or anything, but I mean, it's an improvement over what we typically see from
7:24
Tamron's typical apertures here. Minimum focus distance is 23 centimeters, which gives you a
7:31
you know, a little bit of working distance at one-to-one, not a ton, but you can get nice and
7:35
close there. And of course, it is one-to-one or a 1.0 times magnification level. Now, one thing that I will
7:42
criticize is that there is no AFMF switch here. Now, to be fair, one of the things you can do with
7:48
that function button is you can program it to be an AFMF switch. And so if you click it, you'll
7:54
switch between autofocus or manual focus, but of course it just means that you can't use that
7:58
for a different function. I would prefer to just have a dedicated AFMF switch, but of course
8:04
that's not here. Again, as noted, the price is $699 US. That undercuts Sony by about $400 in
8:12
own 90mm macro lens making this a pretty fantastic value. Now as you've probably
8:19
already heard me hint at, auto focus I think is quite exceptional here. Tamron's VXD motor is a
8:24
very good focus motor and I've noted that on a number of other reviews, but it really stands out here
8:29
when it comes to an application on a macro lens. Macro lenses sometimes do focus a little bit slower and
8:36
it's understandable when you actually manual focus and realize that there are a tremendous amount of
8:41
focus possibilities in a macro lens that just don't exist in a lens without very close focus
8:46
abilities. So the fact that this has blazing auto focus is really quite impressive. And I would say
8:53
that this may be the fastest focusing macro lens that I have ever used before, which is pretty
8:58
impressive. I know it right out of the box that this lens was just really snappy out, just shooting
9:04
around with it before it even done any kind of dedicated test, just general purpose shooting
9:08
and it really stood out is that, wow, that autofocus is just nailing it very, very quick
9:13
And as you can see here, either indoors or outdoors, that focus speed is pretty close to instantaneous
9:19
It's able to make those focus transitions without any kind of hesitation or slowdown
9:24
And, of course, the fact that the focus is confident means that even when you have it in full and you don't have the focus limiter on
9:30
I didn't see one instance where it did that big rack throughout all of the macro focus possibilities
9:36
but rather it was confident and it was smart enough to where it didn't back into the macro range
9:42
if it didn't need to. So overall, autofocus performance was really excellent. Now, in this shot
9:47
you can see I was able to acquire a bird in flight. And while the shot itself is very unimpressive
9:52
90mmes isn't nearly long enough for birding, particularly bird on the wing. But what stood out to me
9:58
is that I was able to just snap up from my hip, you know, this being on a strap, because a bird was
10:03
flying overhead and just immediately acquire it with like no hesitation at all. So just again
10:10
it speaks to the overall confidence here. You can also see that the ability to track the eye is
10:15
very, very good, very stable on the eye. I did use it briefly as a part of another portrait
10:20
session and I got really nicely focused results. And again, focus just locked on and it delivered
10:25
the results that I wanted without any kind of hesitation. I also found that I was able to get really
10:30
good focus precision when using it for shooting macro. Now, obviously when shooting macro, you're going to
10:36
want to get as small a focus point as possible if you want to use AF to give you some precision
10:40
Frankly, a lot of times if I'm working in the macro range, I prefer to just shoot in manual focus
10:45
anyway because it allows you to have that little bit more pinpoint precision. And so, but your
10:51
mileage may vary. The fact the matter is that focus well at manual focus distances as well
10:57
Now, switching over to the video side of things, I found that video. Video autofocus was also excellent. You can see in these focus pools that they're confident
11:05
moving back and forth without any kind of hesitation there. Very smooth, no visible steps
11:10
no settling or pulsing, all positive there. Focus breathing exists, but it's not particularly
11:15
strong for this kind of focal length. I also found in my hand test that it was able to make those
11:21
crucial transitions back to my eye, very snappy, and then transition to the hand when I wanted
11:26
to do that. So no problems there. I would say that. the quality of the auto focus here for either video or stills is good enough that it really
11:35
expands the versatility of this lens. This is a lens that's not just good as a macro lens
11:40
It's a really great general purpose lens. And I will say this. If you're kind of stuck between
11:45
saying, well, I'd like a macro lens, but I also want maybe an 85 millimeter lens for shooting
11:50
portraits. Buy this lens because it will give you great results for shooting portrait work
11:56
but it also gives you that just extreme versatility. I've been able to get in really
12:00
close and shoot macro level details. It's a very nice wetting option as well for those same kinds
12:05
of reasons. And a lot of that comes down to having fantastic autofocus. So how about the image quality
12:11
I will give you a quick overview here and then if you want the optical deep dive, as always
12:16
it's at the end of the video. So you can stay tuned for that. This is an optical design of 15 elements
12:21
and 12 groups for those being low dispersion elements. As noted, Tamron has been making 90mmac macro lenses
12:29
for a long, long time at this point, about 45 years. And so as a byproduct they do know what they doing on this front and it really shows The MTF chart shows a results that are a little bit better than either the Sony or the Sigma lenses Very good center performance excellent mid performance
12:46
And there's a little bit of drop off towards the corners, but in a very typical kind of way for a lens like this
12:53
I found in real-world results that I probably felt like the corners were a little bit better
12:57
wide open than what the MTF charts suggest. And you can see here that all across the frame my crops, even at a 200% magnification
13:05
on a 61 megapixel body, they look really quite excellent. I found also in stopping the lens down a bit
13:12
a little bit of improvement by F4, a bit more by F5.6
13:16
and then that stays about consistent with a little bit of fade at F11
13:20
Diffraction becomes very obvious at the minimum aperture of F-16, delivering the softest image quality results
13:26
of the whole aperture range. Now, when I tested for Vignette and distortion
13:31
I found somewhat surprisingly to me that there was a bit of barrel distortion there
13:35
Not a lot. It only took a plus four to correct, but I was just surprised that it existed at all
13:39
and even more surprised that it was barrel rather than pincushion distortion. Now, Vignette, on the other hand, is really pretty much a non-issue
13:46
I use just a plus 27 to correct in the corners, which is just over a stop, not bad at all
13:52
I also found that fringing was basically not, if not completely banished, almost non-existent
13:58
which was really important at macro ranges. I find that sometimes macro lenses lose contrast if they have issues
14:05
with fringing. That was not the case here at all. When it comes to the loud chromatic aberrations
14:09
in the corners, they were non-existent and just the tiniest bit of longitudinal chromatic aberration
14:15
after the plane of focus. I also found that the bouquet quality is really quite nice from this
14:21
lens. For one thing, you can see from this shot with a coin at F2.8, there are specular highlights
14:28
all around. You can see just how even they are, even as it pops up towards the top of the frame
14:32
So that was a really, really pleasant end result because it just, again, adds more versatility
14:38
and so less of that geometric squeeze at the corners. But beyond that, I found that the bouquet quality in general was very, very nice
14:45
nothing ugly that I ever saw. I also found that colors looked very good
14:49
Again, expanding the versatility of this lens as a landscape lens, for example
14:54
I've got some really beautiful landscape shots shooting with it. I had the opportunity to shoot tonight sky, and I found that Coma was extremely well-controlled
15:02
So another potential application of this lens, it works really well for that kind of application for shooting stars or obviously shooting other bright lights at night
15:13
Also, flare resistance, if not perfect, was not bad. The lens would itself is quite deep
15:19
It's over 50% of the length of the lens itself. Another interesting thing about it is that it does have a window here
15:27
And so obviously because it's deep, sometimes you might want to use a circular polarizing filter
15:32
shooting some macro work. This gives you the ability to rotate it without having to reach deep into
15:36
that lens hood. And so another good application there. Overall, optically, this lens is a treat
15:43
which leads me to my conclusion that this is a fantastic total package. We've been waiting a while
15:49
for Tamron to bring us this lens, but it feels in many ways like it's worth the wait. It's a great
15:54
combo of build and features, then autofocus, and optical performance, all of that package at a very
16:00
great price, giving it a very good price to performance ratio. There aren't any real optical
16:06
flaws here, and it is a breath of fresh air to get such a great macro lens at this price and
16:11
to get it both on Sony eMount and on Nikon's email, where I think it's going to be equally
16:16
welcome on both platforms. If you want more information, you can check out my full text review
16:22
that is linked in the description down below. There's also linkage to an image gallery and
16:26
some buying links if you'd like to purchase one. Now, if you would like that deeper dive into the
16:30
performance. Stay tuned. We're going to jump into it together. All right, we'll kick things off with a
16:35
look at vignette and distortion. If you see here, you can see a little bit of barrel distortion
16:39
which again, as I noted earlier, is a little bit surprising to me. Typically with a longer
16:43
focal length, you tend to get more pincushion style distortion, but it's mild. It corrects pretty
16:48
easily, and there's only a minor amount of vignette there. I used a plus four to correct for the
16:53
distortion here, and a plus 37 to correct for the vignette. Obviously, Tamron does get very good
16:58
profile support on either Sony or on a Nikon, so that won't be an issue in reality
17:04
Now, the ability to control longitudinal-style chromatic aberrations is really huge on a
17:08
macro lens. For a lot of reasons, you're working with really tiny depth of field, number one
17:14
Number two, you're also dealing with a lot of shiny surfaces very often, depending on
17:19
what you're shooting. So here are 200% magnification to really show any kind of flaw
17:24
This is F2.8. This is going to be worst-case scenario. you can see very, very little fringing here
17:29
There's tiny amounts of purple fringing before the plane of focus, tiny amounts of green fringing after the plane of focus
17:35
But as you can see, even at a massive amount of magnification, you really don't see it all that much
17:40
And at a more typical viewing level, you're not going to see it at all. So this lens really passes that test with flying colors
17:46
I also noted just a really nice delineation at the edges of textures
17:51
And so here, once again, at this leaf, you can see shiny opportunities
17:56
where sun is coming right through. So these are all opportunities for there to be fringing
18:00
or even some kind of blooming along the edges. But you can see it's just really crisp
18:05
really, really well done there. Likewise, when it comes to lateral-style chromatic aberrations
18:11
near the edge of the frame, you can see here without any kind of correction, the transition from black to white is just flawless
18:17
So zero issues with any of that. Now, that typically all adds up to a very strong contrast
18:22
and resolution performance. So here at 61 megapixel, and looking at the results at 200% magnification
18:29
center of the frame looks fantastic. Great resolution, great contrast in detail
18:34
Midframe is also really excellent. Just really fine delineation of all those little details
18:40
We can see here that contrast looks really strong. We can see as we look at this bill
18:45
as I like to check as we move towards the edge. It looks strong on the upper left corner
18:49
It continues to look strong on the lower right corner. That's pointing towards a good edge performance
18:54
And as you can see The corners actually look better to me in reality than what the MTF suggests That looks like a really strong performance So that means at more typical 100 magnification levels on
19:06
real world images, you're going to get great resolution results. And so here, again, with 61
19:11
megapixels, you can see the detail is really, really crisp. And we can see as we pan over
19:16
towards the side, it is consistently good right off to the very edge of the frame. Here at macro levels
19:22
We can see that, you know, depth of field is so incredibly tiny here
19:26
But again, we can see really nice delineation of all of those kind of fine thread-like fibers there on the dandelion clock
19:34
And then depth of field is, or stopping down really is more about depth of field
19:39
And so obviously, in this case, I'll just kind of toggle back and forth. You can see got a more nicely blurred background
19:46
Here you've got a more usable depth of field. And the simple solution in many situations is just to do some focus stacking
19:52
that'll allow you to retain a really soft, creamy background, but also to have a little bit more depth of field there
19:58
But you can see here stop down a bit that, I mean, obviously it looked great before
20:03
It looks even better still and gives you a little bit more usable depth of field here
20:06
at F5.6. For portrait work here, you can see overall, this is right out of camera here
20:13
I mean, there's nothing to complain about there. It looks great. The resolution and detail on the skin textures look great
20:19
You can see that the overall color rendition and the background bouquet all looks really nice
20:26
At macro level, shooting on my chart, you can see here that it just looks really fantastic
20:32
You can see just the individual fibers of the paper. You can see the ink drops and ink dots that make up the pattern here
20:41
Really nice, a fairly flat plane of focus. It all looks really quite good
20:45
Here's another real-world shot here. And so you can see, by the way, the blue is from an RGB light
20:51
I had on it, but you can see in the plane of focus, even at F2.8, I mean, it all looks really, really good
20:58
And, you know, I saw details on this coin that I've never really noticed before
21:03
So if we pop back to a comparison on the test chart, you can see stopping down to F4
21:07
It does boost things a little bit, but the center of the frame is pretty much perfect
21:11
So you do see a little bit more improvement here in the midframe, which is nearing perfection
21:16
And then in the corners, you can see a little bit more pop there. At F5.6, I think the biggest thing that happens is the natural vignette that there lifts
21:26
So contrast improves a little bit more, particularly in the corners. But overall, the performance is really consistently good
21:33
Quick pop around the world. You can see the detail is good on the left side as well
21:37
Up here into the upper left corner, it looks really fantastic. These corners just look better than what I typically see corners looking
21:44
So overall, very, very impressive results. I quite like F5.6 at macro distances because it does, as you can see, depth of field is still really, really tiny, but it does give you a little bit more to work with
21:55
And here, even at 200% magnification, you can see just how much detail is just popping in this image
22:03
And again, you can see just how narrow that plane of focus is
22:07
You can see it's really not even the width of a letter on a coin. But anyway, it makes for it to be very, very useful
22:14
F8 pretty much looks like F5.6. At F11, you see just a mild bit of regression
22:20
You can see it just doesn't pop quite as much. And then by F-16, which is minimum aperture, diffraction is starting to soften the image a bit more
22:27
And so I would go up to F-11. I would probably avoid F-16 in many circumstances unless you're more concerned about increasing that depth of field than you are losing sharpness
22:36
Again, I think doing some focus stacking is probably a better idea. So once again, looking at the bouquet quality here, obviously at macro distances, everything is very, very depth field
22:46
just really, really shallow. But the 12 aperture blades and the old general aperture shape and
22:51
optical design allow for really nice, consistently circular, specular highlights throughout the frame
22:58
And so I really like that. As you stop down here to F5.6, you can, again, you can see the geometry
23:03
is really consistent all across the frame, which I really appreciate. Obviously, the specular
23:08
highlights are smaller at F5.6, but they do remain really, really circular. In this shot at very
23:15
close focus distance. This is a handheld macro by the way. You can see that the macro detail on the
23:20
subject is great, but the background is really, really creamy, nicely to focus. As noted earlier
23:26
I also feel like the colors that I was able to capture with the lens just look really, really nice
23:31
detail and contrast. This is quite a beautiful landscape lens and able to really capture gorgeous
23:37
results, as you can see here. Taking a closer look at the coma performance in the center of the
23:43
frame at 100% magnification, star points are really, really crisp. And of course, it's very
23:48
sharp. So that helps a lot. Very little fringing. So everything stays nice and clean. But as you
23:53
can see, even as we move right off to the edge, it's one of the best coma performances I've seen in
23:58
that I would say very literally the corners look basically about as good as what the center does
24:04
There's just a tiniest bit of some deformation of the star points. But overall, it is a really
24:12
consistently good performance. Finally, a quick look at Flair. So here where I've just allowed Flair to come through the window, you can see that
24:20
there really isn't anything to point to, a very, very minor loss of contrast, but
24:24
overall still looks really good. Here is pointing right at the sun wide open
24:29
You can see, you can see there's a little bit of that kind of prismatic haze, a little bit
24:33
of veiling there, but nothing too bad. And then if we stop down to here at F11, get a slightly more defined ghosting
24:41
artifacts there, but it's really not too bad. And of course, if you have something like this
24:46
an object coming through the frame, those sunbursts kind of, it's okay. It's not amazing looking
24:52
but overall, the flare resistance, I would say, is quite good. And so there you have it. This is
24:58
a great lens optically, and hopefully that deep dive has allowed you to be a little more informed
25:03
as to whether or not this should be the next lens for your own personal kit. As always
25:07
thanks for watching. Have a great day and let the light in. The