Sigma 18-50mm F2.8 vs Tamron 17-70mm F2.8 on Fuji X-Mount
Dustin Abbott
February 15th, 2024
A fast aperture, standard zoom can often be the most important lens in any person’s kit. These are the types of lenses that cover 80-90% of most photographer’s needs, but do so in a more compelling way than most kit lenses. The constant maximum aperture of F2.8 helps in low light and creates a more shallow depth of field, and the focal length covers from moderately wide to short telephoto. The two main third party competitors on the Fuji X-mount platform come from Sigma (the Sigma 18-50mm F2.8 DN) and Tamron (the Tamron 17-70mm F2.8 VC RXD). I’ve spent extensive time with both lenses (I currently own both of them) and have been comparing them for months. My findings are summarized in this video review.
Thanks to TTArtisan for sending me a review copy of this lens. As always, this is a completely independent review. All opinions and conclusions are my own. I’m doing this review on a 40MP Fujifilm X-H2 camera.
Both of these lenses are critical and commercial successes. The Sigma has a 5 out of 5 star rating at B&H Photo with 112 reviews, while the Tamron has a 4.5 star rating with 54 reviews. Both companies took radically different approaches to this formula, however, as the Sigma is the smallest, lightest, and cheapest option (including the Fuji 18-55m F2.8-4 OIS and 16-55mm F2.8 LM WR options) while the Tamron is the largest lens in class but also has the largest zoom ratio and has both a constant F2.8 aperture along with an optical stabilizer.
You can find my full reviews of all of these lenses by clicking the appropriate link below:
DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
In January 2021 I released my review of this lens for Sony E-mount cameras. At the time, no Tamron lenses were available on Fuji X-mount, and I spoke in my conclusion about how a lens like the Tamron 17-70mm F2.8 Di III-a VC RXD actually gave Sony an advantage – it’s the kind of lens I call a “system seller”. On paper it has pretty much everything: a great focal range (25.5-105mm full frame equivalent), a large maximum aperture through the zoom range (F2.8), optical stabilization (Vibration Compensation, or VC), and a fast focus system (RXD). But that advantage is no longer on Sony alone, as this was one of the first lenses to come to Fuji X-mount from Tamron once Fuji began opening up their platform to third party lenses. That’s an amazing focal range to have a constant aperture of F2.8 over, covering from this at 17mm:
…to this at 70mm:
It also is a great value. The current price at B&H Photo is $699 USD, which is a full $500 cheaper than the Fujinon XF 16-55mm F2.8 LM WR (my review here) or $200 less than the Fujinon XF 18-120mm F4 PZD (my review coming soon). The Tamron doesn’t perfectly align with either of those lenses, but they are the closest competitors I can point to on the platform. Sigma has also made their 18-50mm F2.8 DC available on Fuji X-mount (my review here), but the main reasons to consider the Sigma would be price ($549 USD) and compact size as the Tamron 17-70mm VC has the advantage in focal range, weather sealing, and also includes an optical stabilizer. I’ve been interested in revisiting some of these third party lenses on X-mount for two primary reasons: 1) to see how autofocus performs on a new platform and 2) to see how the lens’ optics survive the very pixel dense 40MP Fuji X-Trans sensor on some of their new cameras.
I found the 17-70mm VC a little big for the Sony a6400 body that I reviewed it on previously, but my Fujifilm X-H2 (my review here) is more like a full frame camera is size and the lens is a perfect fit on the X-H2.
Tamron loves its initials in their lens names, so let’s sort out that alphabet soup. Di III is their designation for a mirrorless lens design, and, in this case, the addition of -A at the (Di III-A) refers to their development for APS-C mirrorless. VC is Vibration Compensation, which is Tamron’s name for their proprietary OIS (image stabilization) system. It’s worth noting that neither of the Fuji alternatives (both of which cost more) come with built in stabilization. RXD refers to the focus motor, which is similar to the linear motors employed on many of Fuji’s better lenses. In short, this lens is pretty loaded with quality features under its skin even if there aren’t a lot of external features on the barrel.
So does the Tamron 17-70mm F2.8 VC RXD impress me as much on Fuji as it did on Sony? You can watch my conclusions in my video review, or just read on to find out…
Thanks to Tamron USA for sending me an loaner of the lens. As always, this is a completely independent review. I have used both my personal Fujifilm X-H2 (my review here) and a loaner of the X-S20 (my review here) for this review.
Tamron 17-70mm VC Build, Handling, and Features
As noted, the Tamron 17-70mm VC is more like a full frame sized lens. You can’t make this large of a zoom range (4.11x zoom ratio) with this large of a constant maximum aperture (F2.8) without making a larger lens even when designing for the smaller APS-C sensor. The lens is 74.6mm (2.9″) in diameter (about average), but is fairly long at 119.3mm (4.7″). Like most of Tamron’s mirrorless lenses the 17-70mm VC has a 67mm front filter thread. That makes the Tamron longer than the XF 16-55mm F2.8 (106mm), though that lens is considerably wider (83.3mm) and weighs more at 655mm. The 17-70mm F2.8 is 525 grams (1.2 lb). Here’s a look at how the specs break down:
The lens extends an additional 27mm when zoomed to 70mm, so when zoomed out and and the hood attached, this is not a small lens:
So not small, but it’s worth noting that the weight is light enough that the lens balances fine on most Fuji bodies, though it will obviously be a better match for the larger X-T or X-H bodies.
That bright maximum aperture of F2.8 helps the versatility of this lens, as it makes it more useful in lower light conditions or as an event/wedding zoom. While the depth of field is more equivalent to a full frame F4 lens, the F2.8 aperture will always have the light gathering capability of an F2.8 lens (regardless of whether attached to APS-C or Full Frame), meaning that the shutter speed of an F2.8 lens on APS-C would be the same as the shutter speed under identical conditions of an F2.8 lens on a full frame camera.
As has been Tamron’s design philosophy thus far, the design language is clean, modern, and without distractions. That’s the nice way of putting it. The glass half empty approach is to note that there are no features on the outside of the lens. No AF/MF switch, no aperture ring – just the zoom and focus rings. Aperture rings were rare on Sony in the past, but the aperture ring has been a very common design element on Fuji. It is also rare, in my experience, for a lens equipped with an optical stabilizer to not have an ON/OFF switch for it mounted on the barrel.
All we have on the barrel is the two rings. The position of the two rings on the 17-70mm is reversed relative to the 11-20mm, which is unfortunate for those who will buy both lenses to use as a kit. The closer (and narrower) of the two is the manual focus ring. You will have to select manual focus from within the camera, though this is common on Fuji cameras and is fairly simple if you have a body that has the Focus Mode lever or button on the front. This (like all mirrorless lenses) is focus-by-wire, meaning that focus input on the focus ring is routed through the focus motor to move the elements. Manual focus feel is fairly light and without a lot of tactile feedback. Typical manual focus aids are all available, as Tamron lenses on Fuji function largely like native lenses.
The zoom ring is close to the front of the camera. It is fairly wide and has a rubberized, ribbed texture. It moves smoothly through the zoom range without any sticking points. The inner barrel will extend about 27cm at the 70mm position, and is fully retracted at the 17mm position. The inner barrel extends smoothly and without any wobble.
Tamron has included a shallow, petal-shaped lens hood with deep ribs inside that disrupt stray light bouncing around. It’s plastic and lightweight, but the quality of the plastics is apparent by feel. It doesn’t feel as cheap as some hoods that I see. It feels like it could take a few bumps without cracking (in fact my test copy and X-H2 came off my tripod while shooting some tests. It fell a couple of feet to the carpeted floor, landing on the lens hood. No harm, no foul, though to be safe I’ll be having Tamron check out the lens to make sure that it remained properly centered). All of the product shots were taken post-fall, so you can see that the lens weathered that bump well.
The lens’ housing is a nice grade of engineered plastics with a satin finish. There’s a platinum-colored accept ring right near the lens mount. Nothing fancy on the outside, but the lens “look” is clean and it looks nice mounted on the camera.
As noted, however, the good stuff is inside. There’s a rubber gasket at the lens mount that is the outer evidence of the weather sealing inside, and this is diagram from Tamron shows that there are a total of seven seal points in the lens. This is capped off by a nice fluorine coating on the front element, which not only helps protect it from scratches but also makes it water and fingerprint resistant and thus easier to clean.
Tamron’s recent trends regarding MFD (minimum focus distance) hold true here, as the lens sports two different MFDs for wide (0.19m/7.5″) and telephoto (0.39m/15.5″). You can get to nearly 0.21x magnification on the wide end and right over 0.19x on the telephoto end. I find the figure on the wide end less useful, however, as you have to get to within only 6-7cm of your subject to achieve that magnification, meaning that there is a STRONG chance of shading your subject with the lens. Distortion and field curvature is also exaggerated that close, leaving only a small “sweet spot” where focus is achieved. Here’s a look at the MFD at 17mm, then 70mm, and then the result at 17mm:
You can see that the field curvature is exaggerated up close. The magnification is a little lower at 70mm, but it’s a little easier to get:
Unfortunately image quality isn’t quite as strong up close at 70mm, but I still found close up images looked quite nice:
We’ve got a nine bladed aperture that prioritizes keeping things circular. Here’s a look at the bokeh geometry from F2.8 – F5.6:
The geometry looks pretty good, with fairly consistently circular shapes across the frame. Despite the rounded aperture iris the lens manages to produce a nice sunstar effect at 17mm when stopped down:
The inclusion of IBIS (In-Body-Image-Stabilization) has become much more common in Fuji cameras in the past three years, but that doesn’t change the fact that there are still a lot of Fuji cameras without IBIS. That makes the inclusion of Tamron’s VC (Vibration Compensation) important for stills, yes, but even more so for getting stable handheld video footage. Because I tested the lens on two cameras with IBIS (X-H2 and X-S20), I can’t turn either of the stabilization systems off independently, so I can’t really tell what the VC is doing and what IBIS is doing. I was able to handhold 70mm at shutter speeds of 1/4th of a second and get stable results:
I also had a nicely stable platform for video. Walking with the camera still doesn’t have anything like the smoothness of a gimbal, but it was better than what I’ve seen in many other such situations. If you don’t have a camera with IBIS, however, the stabilization of the 17-70mm VC could be a game changer for you.
The Tamron 17-70mm RXD lacks an aperture ring, and the exterior finish doesn’t come across as premium as Fuji’s own nicer lenses, but there are a lot of positives here as well. Stabilization, weather sealing, close focus performance – these are all very important in real world situations.
Autofocus and Video Performance
The Tamron 17-70mm F2.8 has Tamron’s excellent Rapid eXtra-silent stepping Drive (RXD).
In design, it looks like the linear motors designed by Fuji or Sony. I’ve been interested to see how the RXD works on Fuji (I’ve previously tested on Sony). Like the 11-20mm F2.8 that I tested first, I found that the RXD motor is pretty much flawless for stills, with fast, quiet focus on either the X-H2 or X-S20 bodies that I used for the review.
This is a far cry from some of the older Fuji lenses I’ve used, with noisy focus motors that were slow and rough. Quality of focus is more akin to the newest Linear Motor equipped lenses. I never really heard the focus motor, and focus accuracy was excellent even in less than ideal light (this is a 1/35th of a second shot, ISO 1600, F2.8):
Eye AF detection for people shots were generally excellent. I attended the wedding of a friend (not in a official capacity), but supplemented their photos with my own. I used the X-H2 and 17-70mm F2.8 for the “people photos”, and I got well focused results across the many images I took:
This certainly would work as a great lens to have mounted on at least one body for shooting weddings, giving you the ability to cover from wide to telephoto with an F2.8 aperture and accurate autofocus.
I also got accurately focused results of Nala as she stalked through the tall grasses.
I also used the “Insect Detection” mode and tracked some bee action at my hive.
I also had zero problems with smaller apertures and shooting landscapes. I got a lot of beautiful landscape shots with the lens and didn’t have any issue with pulsing or hunting at smaller apertures.
Here’s another:
I have no complaints for stills. Focus was fast, quiet, and accurate.
Video focus pulls were less stellar, however, which follows a trend that I’ve seen with Tamron lenses on Fuji thus far. There is some visible stepping in the actual pulls; the initial focus move, a split second pause, and then the final adjustment. I didn’t see any of this on the Sony version of the lens, so it is probably more of a Fuji problem in general, as I do tend to see more stepping on Fuji than other platforms.
There is a moderate amount of focus breathing. The results from my “hand test” were a little better, as the focus changes are smaller, but I still saw a bit of stepping. More subtle focus transitions during video capture were relatively smooth, but did show some steps. I’m hoping this is something that can improved either through firmware updates to the camera or lens in the future.
So, for stills I can give an unreserved “thumbs up”, but would encourage a little caution if your video style includes big autofocus pulls.
Tamron 17-70mm VC Image Quality
The 17-70mm F2.8 VC sports an optical formula of 16 elements in 12 groups, with 5 of those being exotic elements (molded glass aspherical, hybrid aspherical, and Low Dispersion). Here’s a look at the optical design and MTFs:
If you understand MTF diagrams, you will note that these are very good looking MTFs for a standard zoom…particularly one with an extra-large zoom range. 17mm shows a very consistent performance across the frame, with 70mm presenting as sharper in the center but a little weaker in the corner. The transition to the 40MP sensor of Fujifilm X-H2 is a brutal one, however, as that is more pixels packed onto a sensor this size than ever before. All of the flaws will be apparent here.
Here’s a look at the vignette and distortion at 17mm:
When I reviewed the Tamron 11-20mm, I was surprised to see considerably more vignetting on the Fuji version than I had on the Sony version. I thought it was some kind of testing fluke at the time, but I’m seeing the same here, so this is an obvious trend. The optical design is the same as the Sony version, so I must surmise that the additional vignette has to do with Fuji. X-mount is several millimeters smaller in diameter than the Sony E-mount, so it is possible that there is some additional vignetting for the simple reason that the original design is for a larger mount and the transition to a smaller mount is introducing more vignette.
Or I’m completely wrong.
What I do know is that I saw about two stops of vignette at 17mm on the Sony version, and I see closer to 4 stops here (I had to max out the correction slider and you can still see a little darkness in the extreme corners). I had a similar jump on the Tamron 11-20mm. There is also some barrel distortion that isn’t quite linear in correcting (a slight wave pattern). The amount of distortion isn’t huge, however, and I used a +6 to correct it. Tamron seems to enjoy full in-camera correction support on Fuji, so use the standard profile in camera for JPEGs and Video for a cleaner still result. As always, RAW images will require using the correction profile, which does in fact do a cleaner job in correcting the distortion than my manual correction.
As is typical for a lens like this, the distortion pattern flips to a pincushion style distortion on the telephoto, though this distortion is even more linear and easier still to correct for. Vignette was also lower.
I used a -9 to correct the distortion and a +70 to correct the vignette. There’s nothing that is a dealbreaker here due to good corrections.
The 17-70mm VC does suffer from some longitudinal chromatic aberrations that show up as fringing before and after the plane of focus. This will rob the lens of some contrast. Fringing is more obvious on very high resolution bodies because the fringing occupies more pixels thus becomes more obvious when viewed at 100%. If you aren’t zooming into the image it won’t be more obvious, however.
You can see it in the out of focus region, though its not obvious or ruining the image.
I could see trace amounts of lateral chromatic aberrations on my chart (fringing in dark to light transitions near the edge of the frame) if I magnified to 200%, they were too insignificant to see in real world use, and a one click correction either in camera in (for RAWs) in software will clean those up nicely:
Let’s move on to resolution and contrast. I do my examinations at 200% magnification, as this clearly shows lens strengths and flaws for you to see. This is an extreme torture test, exaggerating strengths and weaknesses. The good news is that real world results always look a little better (mostly because you don’t view them at 200%!)
A note on sharpening: Adobe Lightroom (my home base for cataloging, testing, and displaying images) doesn’t always play well with Fuji X-Trans sensors. They are fairly notorious for looking “wormy” when applying sharpness, and thus require a deft touch to produce good results. Using Adobe’s “Enhance” option helps, though at the cost of tripling the stored file size (files are typically north of 150MB). I have worked hard to develop a sharpness preset for my X-H2 images that sharpens using a different technique than I typically use for my other cameras. By utilizing both techniques I can produce a demonstrably better result, though at the cost of additional work and storage size. I don’t do this for all images, but I will for the main test subjects below.
First, here’s my test chart:
We will start with F2.8 crops (near 200%) at 17mm from the center, mid-frame, and extreme lower right corner. Stopping down to F5.6 further improves contrast a bit as aberrations clear up.
We can see a fairly consistent performance across the frame (as suggested by the MTF), with good sharpness in the center of the frame, mid-frame, and only a mild drop in the corners. Contrast isn’t off the charts, and that is in part because of the challenge of performing on a much higher resolution sensor than the last time I tested the lens. That’s the challenge of such a high resolution sensor on APS-C, though it’s not quite so dire in the real world. I compare results at 200% here. Out in the real world at a more typical 100% magnification things look better…even when shooting a landscape at F2.8:
Stopping down to F4 produces little difference in the center or mid-frame, but I did see some improvement in the outer third of the image frame. Stopping on down to F5.6 increases contrast a bit more, and image quality is quite strong across the frame even on this high resolution beast:
Real world results at F5.6 are very nice with nice contrast and detail across the frame.
At 24mm I found resolution and contrast just a little bit higher all across the frame. Contrast in particular is noticeably better.
Contrast and detail edge up very slightly at 35mm, and real world results look nice:
I really love this image of an unscripted moment with the bride and groom.
There is a tiny regression at 50mm with contrast dropping a bit, though the difference would be hard to spot without having the images side by side. Contrast improves again by F4 and F5.6. Here’s an F2.8 shot:
That trend continues at 70mm, where the results are noticeably softer on the copy I tested. That leaves more room for improved image quality when stopping the lens down, and there’s a much bigger difference between F2.8 and F5.6 than at other focal lengths.
That slightly reduced contrast look can have a flattering effect for portraits, however.
Stopped down to smaller apertures and the lens produces detailed images at 70mm:
In my Sony review I was very impressed by the sharpness of the lens and less impressed by the bokeh, but on this high resolution body my opinion is slightly different. I’m less blown away by the sharpness but find the bokeh quality better than I remembered. This image shows a very soft profile on the bokeh.
I shot this high ISO image on the lower resolution X-S20 at 24mm, and while the background isn’t strongly blurred out, the transition to defocus looks fairly good.
Here’s one more that looks fairly nice.
The one negative that remains true is that if there are bright specular highlights in the image (like Christmas lights), you will see some concentric circles in the “bokeh balls”. That’s obviously not a desirable trait.
Flare resistance is quite good. Tamron utilized their premium BBAR lens coatings here, which tend to be extremely effective in resisting flare artifacts. In this sequence of photos you can see flare resistance at 17mm (at F11), then at 70mm F11 (the worst result I could find), followed by a real world shot with the sun right at the edge of the frame.
Even doing video pans across the sun produced very little negative effects.
While I didn’t have a chance to test coma on Fuji due to forest fires negatively impacting our air this summer, I did test it on Sony. “Coma performance is quite good, with night sky images looking clean other than a bit of “star-stretching” in the corners.”
For the money you certainly aren’t going to beat this image quality in a standard zoom on Fuji. It’s a full $500 cheaper than the closest competitor – the Fuji XF 16-55mm F2.8. I think the Fuji delivers slightly richer colors, but outside of that, the Tamron is very competitive, and I would definitely take it over a lens like the XF 16-80mm F4 in terms of sharpness. At the least, the Tamron brings intriguing new option to the Fuji X platform with a bigger zoom range than some and a larger aperture than others. There’s a lot of good optically, and little major issues. You can check out more photos by visiting the image gallery page here.
Conclusion
The Tamron 17-70mm F2.8 Di III-A VC RXD is a welcome addition to the Fuji X-mount standard zoom options. In most other cases you have to choose between maximum aperture (16-80mm F4 or 18-120mm F4) or lack of stabilization (16-55mm F2.8), but with the Tamron you get both the larger maximum aperture along with the optical stabilization. It has a very compelling zoom range that covers a lot of subjects, and the close focus abilities and good magnification are also useful.
This is the kind of lens that you can pretty much glue onto your camera and use it for everyday photography, travel, and more. It can handle most subjects, and that constant maximum aperture of F2.8 is obviously going to be useful when going into lower light situations.
The price point in the US is $699 USD, currently, and it is a lot of lens for the money. The Tamron 17-70mm VC should definitely be on your list if you’re looking for a fast standard zoom and can’t afford the premium 16-55mm F2.8. Fuji opening up its platform to lenses like this is a huge plus for consumers like us…and expect Fuji’s next standard zoom to be all the better for the competition!
Pros:
Great zoom range
Maintains F2.8 aperture
Good build with weather sealing
Fast, quiet, and accurate autofocus
Good image stabilization (VC)
Consistently good optics
Good flare resistance
Excellent price
Cons:
Concentric rings in bokeh highlights (onion bokeh)
DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Tamron 17-70mm F2.8 Di III-A VC RXD X-Mount Gallery
Dustin Abbott
July 11th, 2023
In January 2021 I released my review of this lens for Sony E-mount cameras. At the time, no Tamron lenses were available on Fuji X-mount, and I spoke in my conclusion about how a lens like the Tamron 17-70mm F2.8 Di III-a VC RXD actually gave Sony an advantage – it’s the kind of lens I call a “system seller”. On paper it has pretty much everything: a great focal range (25.5-105mm full frame equivalent), a large maximum aperture through the zoom range (F2.8), optical stabilization (Vibration Compensation, or VC), and a fast focus system (RXD). But that advantage is no longer on Sony alone, as this was one of the first lenses to come to Fuji X-mount from Tamron once Fuji began opening up their platform to third party lenses. That’s an amazing focal range to have a constant aperture of F2.8 over, covering from this at 17mm:
…to this at 70mm:
It also is a great value. The current price at B&H Photo is $699 USD, which is a full $500 cheaper than the Fujinon XF 16-55mm F2.8 LM WR (my review here) or $200 less than the Fujinon XF 18-120mm F4 PZD (my review coming soon). The Tamron doesn’t perfectly align with either of those lenses, but they are the closest competitors I can point to on the platform. Sigma has also made their 18-50mm F2.8 DC available on Fuji X-mount (my review here), but the main reasons to consider the Sigma would be price ($549 USD) and compact size as the Tamron 17-70mm VC has the advantage in focal range, weather sealing, and also includes an optical stabilizer. I’ve been interested in revisiting some of these third party lenses on X-mount for two primary reasons: 1) to see how autofocus performs on a new platform and 2) to see how the lens’ optics survive the very pixel dense 40MP Fuji X-Trans sensor on some of their new cameras.
I found the 17-70mm VC a little big for the Sony a6400 body that I reviewed it on previously, but my Fujifilm X-H2 (my review here) is more like a full frame camera is size and the lens is a perfect fit on the X-H2.
Tamron loves its initials in their lens names, so let’s sort out that alphabet soup. Di III is their designation for a mirrorless lens design, and, in this case, the addition of -A at the (Di III-A) refers to their development for APS-C mirrorless. VC is Vibration Compensation, which is Tamron’s name for their proprietary OIS (image stabilization) system. It’s worth noting that neither of the Fuji alternatives (both of which cost more) come with built in stabilization. RXD refers to the focus motor, which is similar to the linear motors employed on many of Fuji’s better lenses. In short, this lens is pretty loaded with quality features under its skin even if there aren’t a lot of external features on the barrel.
So does the Tamron 17-70mm F2.8 VC RXD impress me as much on Fuji as it did on Sony? You can watch my conclusions in my video review below, read my text review here, or just enjoy the photos.
Thanks to Tamron USA for sending me an loaner of the lens. As always, this is a completely independent review. I have used both my personal Fujifilm X-H2 (my review here) and a loaner of the X-S20 (my review here) for this review.
DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
In 2022 Fuji began to really open up their platform to third party development, and that has opened a floodgate of both new and “ported” lenses from Tamron, Sigma, Samyang, Viltrox, and more. It was that move along with the excellent camera design of the Fujifilm X-H2 (my review here) that triggered my first Fujifilm camera purchase (I had always borrowed Fuji cameras for previous reviews). I had previously reviewed the Tamron 11-20mm F2.8 Di III-A RXD on Sony E-mount in 2021 but I’ve been interested in revisiting the lenses on X-mount for two primary reasons: 1) to see how autofocus performs on a new platform and 2) to see how the lens’ optics survive the very pixel dense 40MP Fuji X-Trans sensor on some of their new cameras. This really pushes the envelope of lens performance, as that high resolution exposes any optical shortcomings in a big way! I won’t be doing an entirely new review, so there will be some redundant parts in this article, but I am going through and updating the content in key areas that are specific to the performance on Fuji X-mount. The Fuji platform is different from the Sony E-mount “lens” that I viewed the Tamron 11-20mm RXD from before, as there are more premium options on Fuji and a higher standard for what features are expected there. Can the Tamron 11-20mm F2.8 Di III-A RXD compete in the Fuji X-mount arena?
Tamron loves its initials in their lens names, so let’s sort out that alphabet soup. Di III is their designation for a mirrorless lens design, and, in this case, the addition of -A at the (Di III-A) refers to their development for APS-C mirrorless. RXD refers to the focus motor, which is similar to the linear motors employed on many of Fuji’s better lenses.
There are few legitimate alternatives to this lens on the Fuji platform, as while there are a number of quality wide angle primes, there are only a couple of wide angle zooms. The first is the premium XF 8-16mm F2.8 (my review here). That lens is large (15mm wider and 35mm longer), heavy (2 1/2 times as heavy as the Tamron), and expensive ($670 more). The focal range does have some overlap, obviously, and the maximum aperture is the same, but there are few similarities outside of that. A more direct competitor is the Fujinon XF 10-24mm F4 OIS, though unfortunately I have not reviewed that lens. The XF 10-24mm is more similar in focal range, size, and price ($999 vs $829 for the Tamron), though it has a maximum aperture of F4 rather than F2.8. That lens does have OIS (optical stabilizer) and an aperture ring along with a larger zoom range, while the Tamron offers the larger maximum aperture, lower price, superior focus system, and (on paper) a superior optical performance, particularly on the telephoto end. Here’s a look at how the raw specs of these three lenses compare:
So is the Tamron 11-20mm RXD a worthy addition to the Fuji platform? You can watch my conclusions in my video review, or just read on to find out…
Thanks to Tamron USA for sending me an loaner of the lens. As always, this is a completely independent review. I have used both my personal Fujifilm X-H2 (my review here) and a loaner of the X-S20 for this review.
Tamron 11-20mm RXD Build, Handling, and Features
The Tamron 11-20mm RXD certainly hits a sweet spot for size and weight for a wide angle zoom. It feels reasonably compact on my larger X-H2, but also fits just fine on the much smaller X-S20 without feeling front heavy. It is 2.9″ (D) x 3.4″ (L), or 73 x 86.2 mm. Like most of Tamron’s mirrorless lenses it has a 67mm front filter thread which allows filters to be shared across almost all of Tamron’s other options for the platform (excluding the much larger 150-500mm, obviously!) The weight is only 11.8 oz (335 g), making it the lightest of the wide angle zoom options despite having the large maximum aperture.
There’s no question this is an extremely useful focal range, giving you framing options from very wide (16.5mm full frame equivalent):
to somewhat tighter framing (30mm full frame equivalent):
This will enable you versatility in composing your wide angle scene and covers most of the classic wide angle options. While the depth of field is more equivalent to a full frame F4 lens, the F2.8 aperture will always have the light gathering capability of an F2.8 lens (regardless of whether attached to APS-C or Full Frame), meaning that the 11-20mm RXD has the advantage of being able to have more in focus at larger apertures but all the light gathering potential of an F2.8 lens – which can be a big help in low light conditions.
As has been Tamron’s design philosophy thus far, the design language is clean, modern, and without distractions. That’s the nice way of putting it. The glass half empty approach is to note that there are no features on the outside of the lens. No AF/MF switch, no aperture ring – just the zoom and focus rings. That wasn’t unusual on Sony in the past, but the aperture ring has been a very common design element on Fuji.
The position of the two rings on the 11-20mm is reversed relative to the 17-70mm, which is unfortunate for those who will buy both lenses to use as a kit. The closer (and wider) of the two is the zoom ring. The zoom ring has a rubberized, ribbed texture, is easy to find by touch, and moves smoothly through the zoom range without any sticking points. The inner barrel will extend about 2cm at the 11mm position, and is fully retracted at the 20mm position.
While many would prefer an internally zooming lens, thus far all of these Tamron zooms have been externally zooming, though they must be doing a fairly good job of sealing the lenses, and I’ve heard little anecdotal reports from buyers about getting dust inside of them. The inner barrel extends smoothly and without any wobble.
The second ring (nearer the front of the lens) is the manual focus ring. You will have to select manual focus from within the camera, though this is common on Fuji cameras and is fairly simple if you have a body that has the Focus Mode lever or button on the front. This (like all mirrorless lenses) is focus-by-wire, meaning that focus input on the focus ring is routed through the focus motor to move the elements. Manual focus feel is fairly light and without a lot of tactile feedback. Typical manual focus aids are all available, as Tamron lenses on Fuji function largely like native lenses.
Tamron has included a shallow, petal-shaped lens hood with deep ribs inside that disrupt stray light bouncing around. It’s plastic and lightweight, but the quality of the plastics is apparent by feel. It doesn’t feel as cheap as some hoods that I see. It feels like it could take a few bumps without cracking. Due to the wide-angle nature of the lens, the lens hood is fairly wide, so it doesn’t reverse completely flush along the sides of the lens for storage.
The lens’ housing is a nice grade of engineered plastics with a satin finish. There’s a platinum-colored accept ring right near the lens mount. Nothing fancy on the outside, but the lens “look” is clean and it looks nice mounted on the camera.
As noted, however, the good stuff is inside. There’s a rubber gasket at the lens mount that is the outer evidence of the weather sealing inside, and this is diagram from Tamron shows that there are a total of seven seal points in the lens. This is capped off by a nice fluorine coating on the front element, which not only helps protect it from scratches but also makes it water and fingerprint resistant and thus easier to clean.
Tamron’s recent trends regarding MFD (minimum focus distance) hold true here, as the lens sports two different MFDs for wide (0.15m/5.9″) and telephoto (0.24m/9.4″). Both are pretty close, frankly, with the 11mm position requiring you to be nearly on top of your subject (the length from the sensor to the end of the lens WITHOUT the hood is 12cm, leaving you only 3cm of working room to your subject. If you leave the hood on, that length grows to 14.5cmm, leaving you a few mm of working room. It will be almost impossible to avoid shading your subject with the lens attached, so remove the hood to give you a bit more working room. Even so, I found it almost impossible to properly light my test chart even moving my lights right in, as this is what MFD looks like:
Should you be able to get that close, you get as high as a 0.25x (1:4) magnification figure, which looks like this.
Being able to pull off shots that close in the real world are rarely going to happen, so I consider that 0.25x figure to mostly be marketing. You can still get a reasonable magnification by backing up a bit, though. My preference is just to use the 20mm position or somewhere in between. The telephoto end gives you a better working distance and better results in terms of sharpness, but unfortunately the magnification figure drops to a much more pedestrian 0.13x, though even that figure is better than the Fuji 8-16mm (0.10x) and only slightly lower than the Fuji 10-24mm (0.16x). The magnification at 20mm looks like this:
You’ll note that the 20mm position gives a nicely flat plane of focus, meaning that real world results are nice and crisp:
The telephoto magnification figure is a bit lower, but achieving the result will be much simpler in the field and probably much more satisfying in the process. I find a nice compromise is to shoot somewhere around 16mm, as you can get closer than 20mm, achieve a higher magnification level, but without being right on top of the subject like at 11mm. This shot shows that you can really fill the frame fairly well by using this technique:
As is common with wide angle lenses, Tamron has reduced the number of blades from nine to 7 rounded blades. A lens like this is less about bokeh and more about being able to produce nice sunstars, and the seven bladed aperture produces a cleaner looking sunstar.
Tamron touts the flare resistance of this lens, but I don’t necessarily find that a great strength for the lens, and the shot above shows why.
The Tamron 11-20mm RXD is a simple lens in terms of design and features, but at the same time I’ve had no long term issues with Tamron lenses just like this one. They’ve held up fine and get the job done, though I do miss some of missing features.
Autofocus and Video Performance
The Tamron 11-20mm F2.8 has Tamron’s excellent Rapid eXtra-silent stepping Drive (RXD), and this is the first time I’ve used it on Fuji rather than Tamron. For stills, it is pretty much flawless, with fast, quiet focus on either the X-H2 or X-S20 bodies that I used for the review.
This is a far cry from some of the older Fuji lenses I’ve used, with noisy focus motors that were slow and rough. Quality of focus is more akin to the newest Linear Motor equipped lenses. I had no reservations in focus when taking photos.
Eye Detect works fine (as it does almost universally now), though with a wide angle lens like this you have to be pretty close for the eye to occupy a large enough part of the frame to show active tracking. If you are close enough, however, the “stickiness” of the box on the eye is fairly good and will follow the subject around. I tested with both humans and also a sequence with Nala at a variety of focus distances and angles.
Video focus pulls were less stellar, however. While focus breathing was minimal, there is some visible stepping in the actual pulls; the initial focus move, a split second pause, and then the final adjustment. The results from my “hand test” were a little better, as the focus adjustment was more confident when moving back to the eye.
More subtle focus transitions during video capture were smooth, and I felt the lens did a nice job transitioning from subject to subject. I got a lot of nice clips with the lens.
What I did find was that sometimes shooting with a smaller aperture and a backlit scene resulting in some pulsing in and out of focus. In once sequence I was capturing flares through the leaves and focus went completely out several times due to a lot of light hitting the sensor. Another clip with some pulsing came when I was up on a cliff while hiking and shooting a big landscape scene over a river. Stills focus was fine, but my video clip pulsed in and out some (all points active) as if the camera/lens wasn’t quite sure what to focus on.
In general, however, I felt my focus experience was great (particularly for stills). And, to be fair, the video performance is better than just about everything I’ve seen until this most recent generation of Fujinon lenses, so Tamron’s RXD focus system and the transition to Fuji focus algorithms seems to have largely been successful here.
Tamron 11-20mm F2.8 RXD Image Quality
The 11-20mm RXD sports an optical formula of 12 elements in 10 groups, with 5 of those being exotic elements (molded glass aspherical, hybrid aspherical, and Low Dispersion). Here’s a look at the optical design and MTFs:
If you understand MTF diagrams, you will note that these are very good looking MTFs for a wide angle zoom lens. Tamron does its MTFs wide open, and the surprising thing about the 11mm result is that there is actually a bit of dip in resolution near the mid-frame position with the corner resolving better than the mid-frame area (though contrast is must lower in the corner relative to the mid-frame). The 20mm result shows a more typical slide towards the edge of the frame. On a 24mm Sony sensor I found resolution to be fantastic, but Fuji’s 40MP sensor in my X-H2 is the most demanding sensor I’m currently testing on for any platform. It is is possible to get very nicely detailed images even on the X-H2’s sensor, however…even at F2.8:
Here’s a look at the vignette and distortion at 11mm:
We can see both moderate barrel distortion and vignette. The distortion is fairly linear, so I could get a reasonable result even with a manual correction of the distortion (I used a +9), and vignette was also manageable. I used a +79 and moved the midpoint over to zero for a nicely clean result. It did seem that I saw a bit more vignette on Fuji than I did on Sony, but that could be just a quirk of testing. Tamron seems to enjoy full in-camera correction support on Fuji, so use the standard profile in camera for JPEGs and Video for a cleaner still result. As always, RAW images will require using the correction profile in your editing software to get a nicely clean end result. Here’s a look at the in-camera corrected JPEG image.
As is typical for a lens like this, the distortion pattern flips to a pincushion style distortion at 20mm, though this distortion is even more linear and easier still to correct for. Vignette was also quite a bit lower. I’ve seen a lot of otherwise good lenses derailed by distortion or heavy vignette, but that’s not the case here; this is a very good result. Everything is easily correctable and none of the flaws extreme.
I watched for chromatic aberrations but saw little evidence of them. Longitudinal chromatic aberrations (fringing before or after the plane of focus) are minimal in this difficult shot of white blossoms transitioning out of focus, and the specular highlights (bokeh balls) are clean in the background.
I could see trace amounts of lateral chromatic aberrations on my chart (fringing in dark to light transitions near the edge of the frame) if I magnified to 200%, they were too insignificant to see in real world use, and a one click correction either in camera in (for RAWs) in software will clean those up nicely:
Let’s move on to resolution and contrast. I do my examinations at 200% magnification, as this clearly shows lens strengths and flaws for you to see. First, here’s my test chart:
We will start with F2.8 crops (near 200%) at 11mm from the center, mid-frame, and extreme lower right corner.
The center looks great, the mid-frame good, but the corners aren’t nearly as sharp. That’s the challenge of such a high resolution sensor on APS-C, though it’s not quite so dire in the real world. I compare results at 200% here. Out in the real world at a more typical 100% magnification things look much more reasonable (11mm, F2.8):
The corners improve a little when stopping down, but never to “wow” levels. This real world shot looks good, however, with good detail in the both the center of the frame and the bottom corner.
The lower resolution sensor point of the X-S20 is a little gentler. Here’s a shot that I felt really popped for color, contrast, and clarity at 11mm, F2.8:
I found that the 11-20mm RXD really hit its stride in the center of the zoom range, with more capacity for really crisp detail even in the corners when stopped down…even on the X-H2.
This is where I would shoot for optimal sharpness, which is truly excellent anywhere in the frame in a real world shot, whether in the foreground or background.
I’m also impressed with the performance at 20mm, which is nicely even across the frame by F4, though still very good across most of the frame even at F2.8. Midframe performance in particular stands out as excellent.
Close results at 20mm, F2.8 hold up well even on the X-H2:
At landscape apertures the lens delivers beautiful, highly detailed results.
While you don’t turn to wide angle lenses for bokeh, the quality of the blur is reasonably good here. This image at 20mm, F2.8 has a fairly nice transition to defocus.
I also think this image looks fairly good, as did others where the background was defocused.
Flare resistance is a bit of a mixed bag. The lens does well with the sun right out of frame, and sometimes directly in frame, but I found flare resistance better at large apertures than smaller apertures, where some ghosting artifacts can come into frame (see the vertical shot of the crimson maple leaves).
Coma performance is quite, with night sky images looking clean other than a bit of “star-stretching” in the corners.
Overall, however, we’ve got a very good lens optically. It’s a good wide angle zoom range, and can produce a lot of great looking images. If you compare the MTF charts to the older Tamron 10-24mm VC lens, the newer zoom is far superior optically
The Tamron 11-20mm F2.8 RXD will definitely bring an intriguing new option to the Fuji X platform. There’s a lot of good optically, and little major issues. You can check out more photos by visiting the image gallery page here.
Conclusion
The Tamron 11-20mm F2.8 Di III-A RXD is a welcome addition to the Fuji X-mount stable of lenses. It gives shooters a wide aperture, wide angle zoom option without resorting to the much more extreme Fujinon XF 8-16mm F2.8 LM WR lens. The Tamron is a far more practical lens, however, weighing a little over a third as much and costing less than half as much.
The 11-20mm F2.8 RXD has a nice (if plain) build with thorough weather sealing, good autofocus, and strong enough image quality to survive the demanding 40MP sensor of the X-H2. It is compact, lightweight, and handles great. Not a lot to complain about, really.
If you are looking for a reasonably priced, relatively compact wide angle zoom for your Fuji camera, the Tamron 11-20mm F2.8 RXD is a very nice option. It’s not as feature rich as some Fuji lenses, but delivers very strong value relative to competing lenses. A lot of Sony shooters have loved the 11-20mm RXD, and now Fuji X-mount photographers can get in on the action. Great times for the Fuji platform!
Pros:
Great wide angle zoom range
Maintains F2.8 aperture
Relatively compact and lightweight
Good build with weather sealing
Fast, quiet, and accurate autofocus
Shares a 67mm filter thread with other Tamron lenses on Sony
Exceptional optical performance
Good coma control
Strong aberration control
Cons:
No aperture ring
Corners at 11mm never got incredibly sharp
Focus hunted a bit during certain video situations
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In 2022 Fuji began to really open up their platform to third party development, and that has opened a floodgate of both new and “ported” lenses from Tamron, Sigma, Samyang, Viltrox, and more. It was that move along with the excellent camera design of the Fujifilm X-H2 (my review here) that triggered my first Fujifilm camera purchase (I had always borrowed Fuji cameras for previous reviews). I had previously reviewed the Tamron 11-20mm F2.8 Di III-A RXD on Sony E-mount in 2021 but I’ve been interested in revisiting the lenses on X-mount for two primary reasons: 1) to see how autofocus performs on a new platform and 2) to see how the lens’ optics survive the very pixel dense 40MP Fuji X-Trans sensor on some of their new cameras. This really pushes the envelope of lens performance, as that high resolution exposes any optical shortcomings in a big way! I won’t be doing an entirely new review, so there will be some redundant parts in this article, but I am going through and updating the content in key areas that are specific to the performance on Fuji X-mount. The Fuji platform is different from the Sony E-mount “lens” that I viewed the Tamron 11-20mm RXD from before, as there are more premium options on Fuji and a higher standard for what features are expected there. Can the Tamron 11-20mm F2.8 Di III-A RXD compete in the Fuji X-mount arena?
Tamron loves its initials in their lens names, so let’s sort out that alphabet soup. Di III is their designation for a mirrorless lens design, and, in this case, the addition of -A at the (Di III-A) refers to their development for APS-C mirrorless. RXD refers to the focus motor, which is similar to the linear motors employed on many of Fuji’s better lenses.
There are few legitimate alternatives to this lens on the Fuji platform, as while there are a number of quality wide angle primes, there are only a couple of wide angle zooms. The first is the premium XF 8-16mm F2.8 (my review here). That lens is large (15mm wider and 35mm longer), heavy (2 1/2 times as heavy as the Tamron), and expensive ($670 more). The focal range does have some overlap, obviously, and the maximum aperture is the same, but there are few similarities outside of that. A more direct competitor is the Fujinon XF 10-24mm F4 OIS, though unfortunately I have not reviewed that lens. The XF 10-24mm is more similar in focal range, size, and price ($999 vs $829 for the Tamron), though it has a maximum aperture of F4 rather than F2.8. That lens does have OIS (optical stabilizer) and an aperture ring along with a larger zoom range, while the Tamron offers the larger maximum aperture, lower price, superior focus system, and (on paper) a superior optical performance, particularly on the telephoto end. Here’s a look at how the raw specs of these three lenses compare:
Thanks to Tamron USA for sending me an loaner of the lens. As always, this is a completely independent review. I have used both my personal Fujifilm X-H2 (my review here) and a loaner of the X-S20 for this review.
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The excitement was palpable from the moment that Tamron first introduced the idea of their newest lens, a lens that busts genres and gives Tamron another “world’s first”. That lens is the Tamron 35-150mm F2-2.8 Di III VXD. Let’s give you a little help with what all of those letter mean in the name in case you don’t speak “Tamron”. Di III is the designation that Tamron uses for mirrorless mounts (in this case Sony FE). VXD refers to the focus motor employed here (Voice-coil eXtreme-torque Drive), which is currently Tamron’s most premium autofocus system. Traditionally the two major professional full frame zooms are the 24-70mm and 70-200mm F2.8 lenses, a pairing that Tamron has long had on other platforms. I’ve shot plenty of weddings and events with a 24-70 on one camera and a 70-200 on the other. The new 35-150mm is a genre-buster first in that it combines the heart of both of those zooms into one, going from 35mm:
…to 150mm:
I was extremely positive about the Tamron 35-150mm in my initial review, though I concluded that I viewed it more as a supremely versatile event and portrait lens rather than a travel lens. I continued to get a lot of questions about the 35-150 as a travel lens, though, so I thought I would put it to the test as my primary lens for a recent trip to Arizona (Scottsdale/Phoenix area). I supplemented it with the compact Samyang/Rokinon 24mm F1.8 for wider angle shots, and I chronicled my findings in this video:
This gallery allows you to see the different types of photos that I was able to take with the lens while traveling. The lens is heavier and larger than optimal for a travel lens, but the versatility of the focal range and the aperture range allowed me to shoot a variety of different genres with great results.
The photos shown here are from a retail copy of the lens that I purchased from Tamron. As always, this is a completely independent review. The opinions here are completely my own. *The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the new Sony Alpha 1 which will serve as my benchmark camera for the foreseeable future (my review here).
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Keywords: Tamron 35-150, Tamron 35-150mm, Tamron 35-150mm F2-2.8, Tamron 35-150mm Review, Review, VXD, withmytamron, A058, F2-2.8, 18-300mm, Di-III, Sony, E-mount, Tamron 35-150 Review, Sony Alpha 1, Sony a7RIV, Sony a6600, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, Travel, Astrophotography, Let the Light In, Travel, Arizona, USA, Southwest, Sonoran Desert
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Over the past few years, it has become increasingly common for what I call “Boutique Third Party” brands (small lens startups) to deliver some really interesting budget lenses. Many of the early lenses were designed for the smaller APS-C sensor, but recently I’ve seen more of them tackle the more challenging full frame image circle. That’s the case here, where lens company Brightin Star has released the Brightin Star 50mm F0.95 lens for Canon RF (reviewed here), Fuji X-mount, Nikon Z mount, Sony FE mount, and Sigma L mount. The Brightin Star 50mm F0.95 has a massive maximum aperture (a lot of glass in there!) and costs under $400. It is (like similar lenses) a manual everything lens, with a manual focus and aperture ring and no electronic contacts. This makes it easy for the company to sell for a variety of lens mounts, and the features of modern cameras help make up for the limitations and deficiencies of lenses like these. The lens metered well on my Canon EOS R5 which I used for this test, I was able to program the IBIS (In Body Image Stabilization) for the proper focal length so that I received stabilization for my shots, and the ability to use focus overlays and magnify the image in the viewfinder allowed me to get accurate focus results even the extremely shallow depth of field that a lens with a maximum aperture of F0.95 produces.
There are always huge challenges when engineering extreme lenses (and any lens with a maximum aperture of F0.95 qualifies as extreme). The lens is often fairly large and heavy due to the large and heavy glass elements inside. Contrast near that maximum aperture is typically somewhat poor, and such a lens is often flare prone due to so much glass. The Brightin Star 50mm F0.95 suffers from some of those shortcomings, to be sure, though there are also some huge redeeming qualities. There is something very special about the rendering from large aperture glass which makes images more than the sum of their technical parts. Being able to produce incredibly shallow depth of field shots like this is that draws people in!
Anytime you use a “manual everything” lens, you do for one of two primary reasons. One is if you can’t afford the equivalent autofocus lens, which typically will cost a LOT more. But the second reason that some of us will use manual focus lenses is for the love of the organic process of shooting slowly, more deliberately, and with a lot of thought into the art of making images.
The last lens with a massive maximum aperture like this that I tested was the Laowa 35mm F0.95 Argus lens; another extreme instrument. There are definitely some similarities, though the Laowa is the more expensive lens and has a few more premium features. That lens was clearly not for everyone, and neither is this 50mm F0.95, though the price point of about $390 USD makes this a far more accessible choice. But is the right choice for you? You can watch my definitive review here to find out…or just keep reading!
Thanks to Brightin Star for sending me this lens for review. As always, this is a completely independent review. *The tests and the photos shown in this review have been taken on my 45 MP Canon EOS R5.
Brightin Star 50mm F0.95 Build, Handling, and Features
It really isn’t possible to build a full frame lens with an aperture this large and also get a small lens, though the 50mm F0.95 isn’t particularly large. It is only 70mm in diameter (leaving a 62mm front filter thread) and 90mm in length. That’s what makes the heft so surprising; this relatively compact lens weighs a whopping 750g!
In many ways this Brightin Star lens resembles a classic Zeiss lenses in construction, and that’s never been more apt than on this more premium Argus lens. Everything is all metal and glass, and that contributes to that uniquely dense sense of heft that reminds me of a Zeiss lens.
The focus ring is made of ribbed metal and is nicely damped (though a bit on the heavy side), but it moves smoothly and precisely along its roughly 170° of rotation. I wouldn’t have minded just a bit more focus throw, and you can quickly move out of focus when shooting at F0.95.
This is an all manual lens without any electronics, which does mean that both focus and aperture must be controlled manually. The aperture ring moves reasonably well, but the “clicks” feel a little too aggressive, which does make the ring feel a little less smooth in operation. There is no option to declick the aperture. There are only full aperture markings on the lens, and unfortunately the detents are only at the full stops. Worse still is that the aperture ring goes right from F0.95 to F1.4, which is more than a full stop. I would have liked to at least be able to select F1.2 as an option.
The aperture iris itself features ten aperture blades, but unfortunately those blades aren’t rounded at all, so as soon as the blades show (F1.4), you can see the aperture shape, and that becomes more obvious still at F2.
In some situations you will get a bit of a “swirl” effect to the bokeh due to the geometric deformation on the edges of the frame, but this is actually a fairly popular effect, and it looks very cool on certain images:
With the aperture blades retracted, however, you can see a LOT of glass in the Brightin Star 50mm F0.95:
As a fully manual lens, there are no switches or controls other than the rings and the aperture click control. The lens does have nicely etched distance markings along with a hyperfocal guide.
The lens has a built in lens hood, one that slides into place by just pulling it forward, or pushing it back when not in use. It’s a good idea in theory, but I often find with these lens hoods that they rarely stay put in either position. I would prefer it locked into place in some way. As we will see, however, the hood is definitely needed!
There isn’t anything like weather sealing, image stabilization, or any kind of electronics built into the lens. If you’re not familiar with how lenses like this work, they do function largely as normal save you have to control focus and aperture. The camera will still meter properly and takes photos as normal, though you will have to turn ON a setting in the camera to release the shutter without a lens attached. This seems counterintuitive, since a lens IS attached, but since there are no electronics, the camera doesn’t know a lens is there. What isn’t as normal, however, is that no electronic information is submitted to the camera, so the camera won’t know the focal length or lens designation nor the selected aperture for the shot. There will be no automatic distortion or vignette correction; this will all have to be dealt with in post. The EXIF data only contains what the camera provides, like ISO and shutter speed. If you have a camera with IBIS (in body image stabilization) you will have to manually set the focal length on the lens, but then the image stabilization will work normally.
The 50mm F0.95 feels nice in the hands and operates fine, though obviously there are some drawbacks to the operation as detailed.
Brightin Star 50mm F0.95 Optical Performance
As I noted in the introduction, developing an F0.95 lens for full frame is a big achievement for any company. As you increase the maximum aperture size you all also increase the risk of many optical aberrations. The most typical are low contrast, high chromatic aberrations, heavy vignette, and being extremely flare prone. You can pretty much guarantee that all of these will happen to some degree; the question is how much these aberrations can be minimized. All of these were present in the supremely expensive Canon EF F1.0L lens that I tested. Some (but not all) of these aberrations can be part of the “look” or charm of the rendering from the lens, so I have to revise my filter for approaching a lens like this. It isn’t really about supreme sharpness; it’s about creating a unique, shallow depth of field look. I still need to run my tests to determine what we are dealing with, but I also want to balance this with some real world results. Lenses like this rarely chart well, but that doesn’t mean they can’t create compelling images.
The optical formula is 10 elements in 9 groups. A quick look at the MTF (the green lines represent the typical 30 LP/mm standard) shows fairly low sharpness and contrast in the center and mid-frame (abut 45% resolved) with even less sharpness in the corners of the frame (down to like 6%) at F0.95:
That’s really going to show up on a 45MP camera like my EOS R5, but more on that in a moment. First, let’s look at a few contributing causes to the unique look of images here.
Here’s a look at vignette and distortion.
There’s a moderate amount of barrel distortion that required a +9 to correct for, and at F0.95 there’s a LOT of heavy vignette. I used a +88 to correct for it, but that still leaves a bit of darkening in the corners. Correcting further ends up in an overcorrection elsewhere, so I elected to live with that result. My correction information is going to be a little more important than usual, as it is unlikely you’ll see an automatic correction profile for this lens in any software, nor will it receive any correction in camera.
In some settings that vignette will look terrible (a winter scene with snow, for example), but there are also a lot of scenes where the vignette is part of the look (charm) of an image, like this:
I once had a conversation with a Zeiss executive, and he told me that the heavy vignette on a certain Zeiss lens was a feature, not a bug. It was part of the unique look, and I did see his point. In some images the heavy vignette really draws your eye towards the center of the frame, though this obviously works best with a center composition. In other images, however, it just looks terrible.
Vignette improves at smaller apertures, and I didn’t see anything negative in a landscape image like this:
Heavy vignette is one of the expected optical weaknesses of a large aperture lens, and it is on full display here.
How about chromatic aberrations? There are some chromatic aberrations (you’ll see them most often if you miss focus), but I didn’t find them to be particularly pronounced, even in a potentially difficult image like this:
There’s a lot of shiny surfaces there, but the CA really isn’t too bad.
Lateral CA (LaCA) also isn’t bad. I saw a bit of fringing in these bare branches at the edge, but nothing serious.
What I did see, however, was a lot some surface or spherical aberrations that have the primary effect of reducing contrast at large apertures. You can see at a pixel level in this shot how there seems to be a bit of a “smear” on textures due to these aberrations.
This is very common for ultra-wide aperture lenses, and will be pretty obvious on our sharpness and contrast chart tests. Here’s a look at that chart for reference:
If we look at crops at F0.95 from across the frame, my results are a little random. You can definitely see the low contrast, but also that results do have some sharpness there behind the textures. I say the results are random mostly because it seemed like at this distance (roughly 1.7 meters/5.5 feet), I could get sharp focus in either the center or the corner, but not both at the same time. There’s definitely some field curvature.
A real world F0.95 shot shows the lower contrast but also that there is some usable resolution in the center of the frame.
What I found in general is that microcontrast for the lens is not great (textures don’t have great acuity at a pixel level), but the global contrast results from the lens look fairly good. That shot of Bella was a case in point; you can see the spherical aberrations at a pixel level, but the overall image looks fairly crisp and high contrast. If you’re someone who cares more about the latter than the former, you might just be a fan of this lens.
Close up is not really a strength for the Brightin Star 50mm F0.95 in general. It can only focus as close half a meter (50cm) and has a rather low 0.12x(ish) magnification, which is a little less than the standard of 0.15x for 50mm lenses. Here’s what that magnification looks like, and you can probably also see that contrast is lower still at this focus distance.
Interestingly, though, if you stop down to F2, contrast will skyrocket up close.
Stopping down to F1.4 increases contrast slightly, but acuity doesn’t take a big jump anywhere. Corners show the largest improvement.
Stopping down to F2 shows a big jump in contrast and thus apparent sharpness, much like we saw up close.
By F2.8 the sharpness extends mostly to the corners (the last 3-4% is still soft), but, as noted, the sharpness profile is a little uneven still. Centering is not exceptional for the lens.
Here’s a great case in point at F4. Note that the center is good and the extreme corner is good, but if you look at the left side of the corner crop, the area about 10% into the frame is softer than the extreme corner.
Weird.
At most landscape apertures the midframe is arguably better than the center, but at F5.6-F8 you’ve got very good sharpness across the frame.
I like F8 the best as a landscape aperture with this lens for consistency across the frame, but F5.6 is a close second. Here’s a real world landscape at F5.6, and it shows excellent detail across the frame in the crops:
Even at wider apertures like F1.4 to F2, you can get very useful sharpness while still retaining pleasant bokeh:
In some ways the lens reminds me a lot of the Voigtländer 40mm F1.2 that I tested on Sony. It follows a similar pattern of lower contrast results at wide apertures but becomes very crisp at smaller apertures. The Brightin Star 50mm F0.95 is capable of producing some lovely landscape images, like this:
But you can also use depth of field to creatively draw the eye even in a landscape type scene. I find this almost has a bit of a “tilt” effect.
In mid-November (when I’m working on this review), a lot of the colors have started to leach out of the world as a lot of foliage dies back. The glass in this lens doesn’t have Zeiss’ “special sauce” that makes colors so amazing (Voigtländer lenses are similar), but where I found a few pops of color out in the nature I thought that the images looked fairly good:
One of the best applications for the Brightin Star 50mm F0.95 is to allow the lens to produce that lovely subject isolation. Even if you stop down a bit (this image is F1.4, I believe), you keep a really shallow depth of field along with a nice three-dimensional pop to your subject:
Here’s another image that shows off that amazingly shallow depth of field.
This is obviously a lens capable of producing a great amount of bokeh, and so shots that use that to advantage are obviously going to really work with this lens:
I also think that this is a lens that has a lot of appeal for video work (particularly if you are on a budget). You can really go for some shallow depth of field looks, and so that is obviously really intriguing.
Don’t hesitate to shoot through foreground objects, too, as the very shallow depth of field allows you to create unique, visual interesting points in an image.
This is the kind of lens that opens up a lot of creative options for the right kind of photographer.
So let’s talk about portraiture… A lens like this has some unique portrait applications. One of my favorites is to use the shallow depth of field to create natural frames and depth to an image, like this:
You can see the two different looks created by playing with the aperture. On the left, at F0.95, you can see the softer, low contrast, “dreamy” look that has a bit of color fringing. Stopping down to F2 (on the right), really boosts contrast and clarity, though the background isn’t as soft. You have multiple options for how to approach a scene.
I found this an enjoyable lens to use in a portrait session because of images that were creatively fun. I could really do a lot of editing and enjoy up with something very vintage and unique.
There’s one final area of weakness to cover, however, and that is that (unsurprisingly), the lens is a quite flare-prone. The lens hood is very shallow, and that’s a LOT of glass for the sun to be hitting and bouncing around in. I found that the severity of the flare effects depended a lot on how I composed the shot, but, at its worst, I saw a lot of veiling (loss of contrast) and some ghosting artifacts (blobs of color):
Now some will find these unique flare patterns artful, but that won’t be true for everyone. It’s important for you as a consumer to decide what does and doesn’t work for you.
Overall, the Brightin Star 50mm F0.95 is about what I expect from this kind of lens. This is not a highly corrected lens without any optical flaws, but the byproduct is that it is also a lens with a lot of character…the kind of character that certain photographers will love because it feels vintage and analog rather than modern and clinical. Others will consider it soft and not particularly useful. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and I hope this section has helped you determine your own feelings about the optical performance of the lens. Feel free to check out more images by visiting the image gallery here.
Conclusion
The Brightin Star 50mm F0.95 is not a lens for everyone. We knew that from the outset, however, because it is a manual everything lens. The huge maximum aperture will be the headline getter, however, and I expect there will be some definitely interested in the lens due to that. It helps that this lens has a variety of lens mounts, so it can potentially intrigue some buyers whether they have a Canon RF, Nikon Z, Sony FE, Sigma/Leica L, or Fuji X-mount cameras. Platforms like Canon RF and Nikon Z have relatively few inexpensive options, so to get a lens like this in a native mount will be somewhat intriguing. This is a lens designed for a certain kind of photographer. That photographer tends to be creative and deliberate, one who treasures unique rendering over technical perfection and who isn’t afraid to move a little slower in the capture process in order to get the right shot.
I know that there are plenty of photographers who feel that a lens that gives dreamy images at very wide apertures and crisper, more modern results when stopped down a bit is almost like having two lenses. They give two different ways to approach a scene. I stopped down to F2 for this shot of Loki, and the detail shows a pretty modern looking amount of detail even on a demanding 45MP sensor:
But can also create the shallow depth of field, more artsy shots that some photographers love. Portrait photographers in particular will enjoy the ability to shoot unique images with foreground objects blurred out, like here:
If the Brightin Star 50mm F0.95 isn’t for you, that’s perfectly okay. No lens with a massive aperture like this is going to be mainstream because, frankly, it takes more skill to use, and that’s doubly true when you are talking about a fully manual lens. But I am convinced that there is an audience for this lens, one that’s intrigued with the idea of using the ultimate big aperture and seeing what they can create. That lens is here, and with a price tag of roughly $400, it is also a lens that is attainable for many photographers. If your creative style tends towards the artistic and dreamy, this might just the lens that gets your creative juices flowing again!
Pros:
Nicely built lens
Budget Price
Focus Ring and Aperture ring move nicely
Relatively compact
Nice, soft bokeh rendering
Creates really creamy foreground bokeh when layering images
Quite sharp when stopped down
Has good global contrast even though micro-contrast isn’t great
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Keywords: Brightin Star 50mm F0.95, F/0.95, Brightin Star, 50mm, Bright Star 50mm Review, Brightin Star 50mm F0.95 Review, F0.95, 0.95, Manual Focus, Bokeh, Review, Canon EOS R5, EOS, R5, EOS R5, mirrorless, full frame, EOS R5 Review, Canon R5 Review, Canon EOS R5 Review, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Handling, Astro, Astrophotography, Focus, Portraits, Resolution, High ISO, Image Quality, Sample Images, Photography, Astro, 45Mp, Sony, Fuji, Nikon
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Over the past few years, it has become increasingly common for what I call “Boutique Third Party” brands (small lens startups) to deliver some really interesting budget lenses. Many of the early lenses were designed for the smaller APS-C sensor, but recently I’ve seen more of them tackle the more challenging full frame image circle. That’s the case here, where lens company Brightin Star has released the Brightin Star 50mm F0.95 lens for Canon RF (reviewed here), Fuji X-mount, Nikon Z mount, Sony FE mount, and Sigma L mount. The Brightin Star 50mm F0.95 has a massive maximum aperture (a lot of glass in there!) and costs under $400. It is (like similar lenses) a manual everything lens, with a manual focus and aperture ring and no electronic contacts. This makes it easy for the company to sell for a variety of lens mounts, and the features of modern cameras help make up for the limitations and deficiencies of lenses like these. The lens metered well on my Canon EOS R5 which I used for this test, I was able to program the IBIS (In Body Image Stabilization) for the proper focal length so that I received stabilization for my shots, and the ability to use focus overlays and magnify the image in the viewfinder allowed me to get accurate focus results even the extremely shallow depth of field that a lens with a maximum aperture of F0.95 produces.
There are always huge challenges when engineering extreme lenses (and any lens with a maximum aperture of F0.95 qualifies as extreme). The lens is often fairly large and heavy due to the large and heavy glass elements inside. Contrast near that maximum aperture is typically somewhat poor, and such a lens is often flare prone due to so much glass. The Brightin Star 50mm F0.95 suffers from some of those shortcomings, to be sure, though there are also some huge redeeming qualities. There is something very special about the rendering from large aperture glass which makes images more than the sum of their technical parts. Being able to produce incredibly shallow depth of field shots like this is that draws people in!
Anytime you use a “manual everything” lens, you do for one of two primary reasons. One is if you can’t afford the equivalent autofocus lens, which typically will cost a LOT more. But the second reason that some of us will use manual focus lenses is for the love of the organic process of shooting slowly, more deliberately, and with a lot of thought into the art of making images.
The last lens with a massive maximum aperture like this that I tested was the Laowa 35mm F0.95 Argus lens; another extreme instrument. There are definitely some similarities, though the Laowa is the more expensive lens and has a few more premium features. That lens was clearly not for everyone, and neither is this 50mm F0.95, though the price point of about $390 USD makes this a far more accessible choice. But is the right choice for you? You can watch my definitive review or read the text review to get my conclusions…or just enjoy the photos below.
Thanks to Brightin Star for sending me this lens for review. As always, this is a completely independent review. *The tests and the photos shown in this review have been taken on my 45 MP Canon EOS R5.
Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like. Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.
Great News! I can now offer a 5% discount on all purchases at Amplis Foto, Canada’s Leading Photographic Supplier. Please enter discount code: AMPLIS52018DA in your cart. It is good for everything in your cart, and is stackable with other coupons, too! It will take 5% off your entire order! Proceeds go towards keeping this site going and providing you with new reviews!
Purchase the Brightin Star 50mm F0.95 @ Amazon https://amzn.to/3ccVI3O | Amazon Canada https://amzn.to/3cbDsIk | Amazon UK https://amzn.to/3cbJLvj
Keywords: Brightin Star 50mm F0.95, F/0.95, Brightin Star, 50mm, Bright Star 50mm Review, Brightin Star 50mm F0.95 Review, F0.95, 0.95, Manual Focus, Bokeh, Review, Canon EOS R5, EOS, R5, EOS R5, mirrorless, full frame, EOS R5 Review, Canon R5 Review, Canon EOS R5 Review, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Handling, Astro, Astrophotography, Focus, Portraits, Resolution, High ISO, Image Quality, Sample Images, Photography, Astro, 45Mp, Sony, Fuji, Nikon
DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
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