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.
Tamron’s first full frame lens for Sony mirrorless, the Tamron 28-75mm F2.8 RXD was an unqualified success. I lauded it in my review, as, although the lens was fairly plain in terms of build and features, it had excellent autofocus, very good optics, and a very reasonable price…not to mention a very reasonable size. The only real competitor back in June of 2018 was the very large and very expensive Sony FE 24-70mm F2.8 G Master, and, when I directly compared the two lenses, I found some give and take in their performance. The Tamron was very, very close in many ways, and that made it a huge critical and commercial success. It enjoyed a period for well over a year where it was the best selling lens in the world! That’s a huge success on every level. I’ve owned and used a copy of that lens (known internally as the A036), and it has held up very well and performed great for me over that time. But in late 2021 Tamron has decided to up their game even higher with the Tamron 28-75mm F2.8 Di III VXD G2, internally known as the A063, which we’ll refer to it as for brevity in this review. I got very excited when I looked up and down the announcement from Tamron, as they improved the lens in basically every way while essentially not changing the price. That makes for an unqualified success, and the new A063 along with the Tamron 35-150mm F2-2.8 Di III VXD (my review here), are some of the finest lenses Tamron has ever made. The A063 is going to be one of the nicest standard zooms ever…and at a price point of only $899 USD, it is a tremendous bargain relative to the performance.
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). G2 refers to this being a “Second Generation” lens, much like other companies refer to a MK II. VXD refers to the focus motor employed here (Voice-coil eXtreme-torque Drive), which is currently Tamron’s most premium autofocus system, and, in this case, Tamron claims that the focus speed is twice as fast as that on the A036 and its RXD focus motor. It is definitely essentially instantaneous in a wide variety of focus conditions.
Tamron has improved the build, the features, the optics, and the autofocus, all while not charging us any more to do this. They’ve even increased the magnification and shaved off a bit of weight. In essence, they’ve taken a winning formula that we loved because of its blend of performance and price in the A036 (and because of these things were willing to look over the shortcomings) and have polished and improved the formula into a truly awesome end result.
Prepare for this to be a little more glowing a review than usual, because Tamron has given us so much more while charging us nothing more (+$20 USD).
This lens is a winner, and in this review I’ll explore why that is along with providing a number of comparisons to the original lens. You can check out my thoughts as to whether or not the A063 should be on your radar in either the long format definitive or standard video review below…or just keep reading.
Thanks to Tamron USA for sending me a retail loaner copy of this lens. 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).
A063 Build, Handling, and Features
The A063 essentially looks and feels like an upscale version of the previous generation lens. The overall dimensions are very similar, and both Tamrons fall in between the two most comparable Sigma products (the 28-70mm F2.8 and 24-70mm F2.8). The first chart shows a direct comparison between the two Tamrons, while the second comparison shows the Sigma products as well.
Neither of the Sigma lenses are perfect comparisons, as neither has the exact same focal range. The most compact lens of the group is the Sigma 28-70mm, a lens that I liked but felt was lacking even compared to the A036, so unless small and light is your chief priority, the new Tamron 28-75 G2 is an easy winner to me. I would say the same in general for the 24-70mm Sigma, which is considerably larger and more expensive, but some might still want to consider that lens because it does go to 24mm (though with a whopping amount of barrel distortion there). If 28mm is wide enough for you, it is going to be hard to bet against the A063, as it is going to be the winner in terms of focus and optical performance.
The new A063 has a slightly different profile than the A036, with a more sculpted look to it along with a new finish that is both shinier and more resistant to fingerprints and scratching. It also gives at least the feel of being less plasticky in build. The new lens is a bit wider (75.8 vs 73mm) but is a fraction shorter and 10g lighter. You might also note from the first photo that Tamron has redesigned the rear lens cap to be to more low profile and a better fit for the Sony aesthetic (the older caps were similar to their DSLR mount designs).
As noted in Tamron’s little diagram of the differences between the two lenses, the redesigned rings are night and day better than the old ones. The manual focus ring, in particular, has a much better feel (thicker, more rubberized surface) and also much better damping in the actual focus action. I did manual focus for some of my tests, and there was a noticeable difference in the quality of focus using the new lens.
Likewise the feel and action of the zoom ring is also improved. The zoom ring is located near the front of the lens, and the zoom ring feels much better in the hand and the zoom action feels more precise. It’s worth noting that the new A063 extends about a 7mm less when zoomed to 75mm, which surprised me a bit.
Tamron has continued to improve its weather sealing in recent lenses, and that trend continues with the 28-75 G2. We’ve got a slightly thicker rear gasket, a few additional inner seals (up to about 8), and there is a fluorine coating on the front element.
One of those weather sealed bits is a new feature in the form of USB-C port that works in harmony with the new focus hold button. The USB-C port allows you to directly connect the lens to your computer and utilize a new free piece of software from Tamron called “Tamron Lens Utility” (click here to visit Tamron’s page for the software). This allows you to easily and directly load firmware updates, but, more importantly, you can program a variety of different functions to the focus hold/set button. One I like is the ability to use it like an AF/MF switch or to control the behavior of the focus ring (you can switch between it functioning like an aperture ring and focus ring).
Some other nice tweaks include the ability to change the direction of the focus ring, the distance of the focus throw, and whether you want it to function in a linear or nonlinear fashion. This will help for video, as does the ability to tweak the behavior of focus pulls (you can change speed or even program a preset focus pull). All of this really adds to the functionality of the lens.
Also improved is the MFD distance at both ends of the zoom range. You can get one centimeter closer on either the wide (18cm) or telephoto (38cm) ends, which improves the magnification on the wide end to 1:2.7, or 0.37x. The telephoto end (oddly) actually gets a fraction worse (0.24x vs 0.25x).
Here’s a series of comparisons that show 28mm magnification compared, then 75mm, then a pixel level comparison between the two at 75mm:
To my eye, I don’t see that the A063 has any lower magnification at 75mm. What I do see, however, is a huge improvement in clarity and contrast at MFD. It’s easy to get gorgeous close-up shots with the A063. Just look at the detail in the crop from this close up at 75mm:
Magnification is of course even higher when you shoot at 28mm, allowing for some very unique images.
We retain the 67mm front filter thread shared by so many of the Tamron lenses on Sony.
The aperture iris continues to have 9 rounded blades that work fine for retaining a circular shape through F5.6, after which you’ll see a bit of the blades.
The 28-75 G2 retains all the strengths of the first generation lens (reasonably compact and light, inexpensive), while adding a host of new features and improvements. This is now a more premium lens in build and handling along with performance.
Tamron 28-75mm VXD G2 Focus and Video Performance
As noted in the intro, Tamron has given the A063 their premium focus system, the Voice-coil eXtreme-torque Drive (VXD), which is a high end linear focus motor. They claim that this gives you roughly twice as much focus speed as the RXD focus motor found on the first generation lens.
Now, to be fair, I never had any real disappointments in the first generation lens’ focus. There was a bit of a YouTube flap over some focus issue that I was never able to recreate, and I’ve used the lens near daily for over three years with excellent results for both stills and video. I’ve filmed over one hundred videos with it, and it has always delivered stable, effective results. As a byproduct, I can’t say that I noticed some kind of night and day difference between the two lenses, but I can say that autofocus is excellent in the A063. VXD introduces higher torque into the focus motor, which gives it even more speed and reliablity. I got accurately focused results in a number of different environments, including very low light. This shot was taken at ISO 6400 and still only achieved a 1/50th shutter speed, and yet you can see that focus grabbed very accurately on Loki’s face:
I’ve used it some in a church environment (more like ISO 1600 range), and eye detect and general autofocus was impeccable.
Even when focusing extremely close (these mushrooms are tiny – maybe about the size of a quarter), I got accurately focused results.
Standard zooms will often be used as an event and portrait lens, and it certainly worked beautifully well when people were in the frame. I did a little portrait session with my youngest son, and eye detect just nailed focus again and again:
I didn’t have any misses during the portrait session despite shooting at a variety of distances and while introducing various foreground objects into the equation.
Autofocus also worked well even when I shot into very strongly backlit situations.
I did a video test where I moved towards at the camera, in and out, at various speeds, and the focus system did a good job of tracking my eye. I used the A063 to record a few of my video segments, and focus was solid and reliable. Likewise in my video focus pull tests, focus pulls were smooth and silent. I saw a roughly average amount of focus breathing; subjects change size to some degree but not in an exaggerated sense.
Real world focus results were excellent, and I have nothing negative to report on this front. Tamron’s VXD focus motor is excellent; it revivals the high end linear motors found in the Sony G-Master series, and focus reliability is just as good. The only focus limitation is a Sony restriction; third party lenses achieve only a limit of 15 FPS burst rate. That’s a non-issue with most Sony bodies, but slightly lower than the maximum on the a9 bodies (20 FPS possible) or the Alpha 1 (30 FPS possible). This is unlikely to be used seriously for sports, though, so it is probably not a real issue.
Tamron A063 Image Quality Breakdown
My eyes popped a bit when I saw the MTF charts for the A063. The first generation lens competed very well with the Sony 24-70mm F2.8 GM lens across their shared focal range in my real world tests, but the new optical formula of 17 elements in 15 groups on the G2 lens dramatically improves on the older lens, as seen in the comparison of MTF charts below. You can also see how well the MTF charts look in comparison to the Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 DN ART, which is probably the chief competitor to the A063.
The sharpness profile is unusually flat, with only a bit of drop-off in the extreme corner at 28mm, and almost no drop-off anywhere at 75mm, where the sharpness profile stays at almost 90% all across the frame. That’s impressive, and you can see the real world results reflect that stunningly good sharpness and contrast. Look at how much “pop” is in this image when viewed at 100% in the crop below.
So let’s dive into the technical side of things with a look at vignette and distortion at 28mm, F2.8:
One of the advantages of not going as wide as 24mm in a zoom is the ability to better control distortion on the wide end. I needed only a +6 to correct the barrel distortion; the Sigma 24-70 DN required a +21 under the same circumstance and delivered a much less clean correction. There is a moderate amount of vignette (+55 to correct). That’s about two stops in the corners, so fairly easy to correct for. Profile corrections in camera (JPEG or video) or in software (RAW files) will correct things painlessly.
At roughly 50mm the distortion flips to pincushion (-8 to correct) while the vignette diminishes (+41 to correct). The distortion and vignette are linear and clear up nicely.
Finally, at 75mm, distortion is about the same (-8) while vignette is slightly less (+37 to correct). I will point out that pincushion distortion is far preferable in a portrait oriented lens as it tends to make features slimmer.
No real issues here. Distortion and vignette are both fairly well controlled relative to other standard zooms. There’s nothing here that will cause any real damage to images.
I also give good marks for the control of chromatic aberrations. In most real world images I saw no fringing, though I saw a slight bit of green fringing in this image of a shiny old Pentax with bright lights shined on it.
I looked for lateral chromatic aberrations on my charts, and just didn’t see them. The edges have clean transitions from dark to light…and those blacks are inky dark!
I did spot some purple fringing on some bare branches at the top of this image, however (the most common scenario for me to actually see real world LaCA).
A quick correction with the chromatic aberration sampling tool took care of that, but there is obviously a few situations where you might see a bit of fringing. Nothing extreme, but they aren’t perfectly banished, either.
Overall these are good results in sum, however, and this points towards a promising optical performance in terms of sharpness and contrast. Here’s my test chart.
Crops and comparisons are shown at 200% and are from the 50 MP sensor of my Sony Alpha 1. Here’s a look at 28mm, F2.8, with crops from the center, mid-frame, and bottom right corner:
F2.8 results are essentially perfect across the frame. There is only the tiniest drop-off in the corners, and textures are crisp across the frame even at 200%. It is entirely possible to shoot real world landscapes at F2.8, as you can see that both the center and edge of the frame are nice and crisp.
A wide open portrait at F2.8 and 28mm looks extremely crisp at 100%:
There is only a little bit more to be gained when stopping down, mostly a bit more contrast that is mostly realized in the corners:
So how much better is this than the older lens? Well, about this much:
It’s not this extreme everywhere in the frame, but the excellent sharpness profile right into the corners is the main advantage here.
At 35mm the center is fabulous and the corners are good but not quite as good as at 35mm.
Corners sharpen up more as you stop down, so choose somewhere around F5.6 for peak landscape sharpness.
50mm results are roughly the same:
Real world portrait results at 50mm are fantastic even at F2.8:
At 75mm the crops across the frame look excellent once again.
If we compare back to the A036 we can see just how much better contrast is even in the center of the frame. Textures look cleaner and brighter.
It is the improved contrast in general that stands out to me in my tests. Look at how excellent the contrast is on these chain links at 75mm, F2.8:
More challenging is that bright bark in the sun, and yet textures look great (again at 75mm, F2.8):
This lens is impressively good, and, like the excellent 35-150mm F2-2.8 released at the same time from Tamron, I’m very impressed by the overall “pop” of images:
Another area of improvement is that I feel that skintones are more neutral. The A036 tended slightly towards warmer, slightly more yellow skintones, but you can see more refinement between the two in this comparison (along with at extra contrast around the eyes and lips).
Some real improvements, obviously.
I also think that bokeh is somewhat improved. There is less of tendency toward outlining of bokeh circles that showed up at 75mm on the old lens. I found the quality of the bokeh rendering to be quite good from the A063:
You can see that the bokeh is less “jittery” on the G2 vs the G1 lens. It’s smoother and more pleasing:
I found flare resistance to be good in general on the A063, and the sunburst effect looks quite nice at smaller apertures, too:
This shot was the most egregious example of flaring I could get, and it was a very challenging scene (extremely bright sun):
A bit of ghosting there, though contrast remained excellent.
Coma performance was fairly good, too, with just a bit of elongating of stars near the edges but little to no “wings” on them:
The Tamron 28-75mm F2.8 Di III VXD G2 is essentially fan service. Consumers made the original A036 a huge commercial success, and Tamron has rewarded us by giving us a huge upgrade to this lens while essentially retaining the same price ($899 USD). Basically everything is improved, from the build to the features to the autofocus to the optics. The A063 is now a professional grade lens in basically every detail. No, it doesn’t quite have the same set of features as the G Master lens, but now it isn’t far behind.
The fact that the lens doesn’t go to 24mm will still be a sticking point for some potential buyers, but if you think you can handle only going as wide as 28mm, there really isn’t a comparable lens out there. This is a far better lens than, say, the Sigma 28-70mm F2.8 DN, and the two lenses have the same retail price. There’s a “magic” to the rendering from the new lens that makes it just feel a lot more special.
The new lens feels great in the hands. It feels more upscale while managing to be even lighter, more substantial while actually being less so. That has a lot to do with the new physical sculpting, superior rings, and nicer finish. Add to this optics that have great saturation, sharpness, and contrast, and you have a true winner. Right now both the A036 and A063 are both available side by side for only $20 difference in price, but I suspect that Tamron will probably faze the A036 out, though they might move it down to a lower price point. That doesn’t seem to have been the trend in the past with Tamron lenses, though, so I suspect that in six months we’ll only see the G2 on the shelves. Now comes a hard question for the many, many people that bought the A036: sell it and upgrade, or just be content with what they have. The sheer excellence of the A063 is going to make the latter choice a very hard one to make…
Pros:
Vastly improved build and handling
New USB-C port and Focus Set button improvements are great
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!
Keywords: Tamron 28-75, Tamron 28-75mm G2, Tamron 28-75mm 2.8 G2, Tamron 28-75 G2 Review, Review, G2, VXD, withmytamron, A063, 2.8, 28-75mm, Di-III, Sony, E-mount, Tamron 28-75mm G2 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, Autumn, Canada
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’s first full frame lens for Sony mirrorless, the Tamron 28-75mm F2.8 RXD was an unqualified success. I lauded it in my review, as, although the lens was fairly plain in terms of build and features, it had excellent autofocus, very good optics, and a very reasonable price…not to mention a very reasonable size. The only real competitor back in June of 2018 was the very large and very expensive Sony FE 24-70mm F2.8 G Master, and, when I directly compared the two lenses, I found some give and take in their performance. The Tamron was very, very close in many ways, and that made it a huge critical and commercial success. It enjoyed a period for well over a year where it was the best selling lens in the world! That’s a huge success on every level. I’ve owned and used a copy of that lens (known internally as the A036), and it has held up very well and performed great for me over that time. But in late 2021 Tamron has decided to up their game even higher with the Tamron 28-75mm F2.8 Di III VXD G2, internally known as the A063. I got very excited when I looked up and down the announcement from Tamron, as they improved the lens in basically every way while essentially not changing the price. That makes for an unqualified success, and the new A063 along with the Tamron 35-150mm F2-2.8 Di III VXD (my review here), are some of the finest lenses Tamron has ever made. The 28-75mm VXD is going to be one of the nicest standard zooms ever…and at a price point of only $899 USD, it is a tremendous bargain relative to the performance.
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). G2 refers to this being a “Second Generation” lens, much like other companies refer to a MK II. VXD refers to the focus motor employed here (Voice-coil eXtreme-torque Drive), which is currently Tamron’s most premium autofocus system, and, in this case, Tamron claims that the focus speed is twice as fast as that on the A036 and its RXD focus motor. It is definitely essentially instantaneous in a wide variety of focus conditions.
Tamron has improved the build, the features, the optics, and the autofocus, all while not charging us any more to do this. They’ve even increased the magnification and shaved off a bit of weight. In essence, they’ve taken a winning formula that we loved because of its blend of performance and price in the A036 (and because of these things were willing to look over the shortcomings) and have polished and improved the formula into a truly awesome end result.
I’m very, very positive about the 28-75mm VXD because Tamron has given us so much more while charging us essentially nothing more (+$20 USD).
This lens is a winner. You can check out my thoughts as to whether or not the 28-75 VXD should be on your radar in my text or video reviews…or just enjoy the photos below.
Thanks to Tamron USA for sending me a retail loaner copy of this lens. 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).
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!
Keywords: Tamron 28-75, Tamron 28-75mm G2, Tamron 28-75mm 2.8 G2, Tamron 28-75 G2 Review, Review, G2, VXD, withmytamron, A063, 2.8, 28-75mm, Di-III, Sony, E-mount, Tamron 28-75mm G2 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, Autumn, Canada
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.
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 (internally called A058, as we’ll refer to it for brevity in this review). 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:
There’s no question that this is an incredibly versatile range, and, while it doesn’t go quite as wide as a 24-70 or quite as long on the telephoto end of a 70-200, it does enough of both to be a majorly useful wedding, event, and portrait lens. Add to this that it is the first zoom lens beginning at a maximum aperture of F2 on Sony and you have a lens that has a lot of photographers licking their chops and thinking about how they could combine multiple lenses into one professional “do-it-all” lens. Tamron first developed this unique focal range in 2019 for Canon and Nikon DSLRs in the form of 35-150mm F2.8-4 VC OSD lens (my review here), and that lens really exceeded my expectations optically while being held back by a subpar autofocus system. It also had the misfortune of coming out about the time that interest in DSLRs was waning in favor of mirrorless systems, where almost all of Tamron’s more recent development has been. The A058 is a completely different animal, however, as it is professional grade to the hilt and, at $1899 USD, is (to my knowledge) easily Tamron’s most expensive lens on the market at the moment.
The Tamron 35-150mm F2-2,8 VXD isn’t a small or cheap lens, but after spending some time with it, I remain very interested in this lens. It does have a few flaws (as we’ll see), but I’m not convinced that it has any fatal flaws. You can check out my thoughts as to whether or not the A058 should be on your radar in either the long format definitive or standard video review below…or just keep reading.
Thanks to Tamron USA for sending me a retail loaner copy of this lens. 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).
A058 Build, Handling, and Features
The A058 is a larger lens than many expected. How could it not be when it has both a larger zoom ratio (4.3x) than either a 24-70mm (2.9x) or a 70-200mm (2.86x) while also having a larger maximum aperture over some of that zoom range? The truth of the matter is that this is actually a fairly moderately sized lens with that in mind, though in some ways the perception challenge that Tamron is going to face is actually due to their successful downsizing of the 70-200(ish) formula with their very successful 70-180mm F2.8 VXD. That lens was only 149mm long (about 50mm less than the typical 70-200mm) and weighed only 810g. The 35-150mm is a larger lens, to be sure, but not dramatically so. It is a little bit longer (158 vs 149mm) and more noticeably heavier (1165g vs 810g). In fact, it’s about 120g heavier than the newly downsized Sony FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM II, though it is still significantly shorter than that lens. Here’s a look at how the specs break down:
Clearly Tamron’s priority here was not compact size and weight but rather quality of performance. As I’ve noted about a few other recent lenses, I suspect that the basic physical realities of the A)58 will produce a natural sorting effect on potential buyers. It’s less of travel lens (unless you don’t mind some size and weight) and more of a very versatile event and portrait lens. As a wedding photographer, for example, I’m accustomed to carrying two cameras with more than double that amount of weight between them. What if I could carry just one camera with the A058 on it? I’ve often shot a wedding with a 70-200mm (roughly 1400g) and then a pro-grade 35mm like the Canon 35mm F1.4L II (760g), but because the 35-150mm goes as wide as 35mm, I wouldn’t need that second focal length. That’s where the potential weight savings might be.
Essentially the A058 has the girth of my 135mm F1.8 GM and the length of the 70-180mm F2.8 from Tamron, as you can see here:
Tamron’s design philosophy on Sony has been pretty spartan, but the A058 is a more expensive lens and has been given a little more premium treatment in terms of features. We have focus hold buttons in a couple of positions to allow easy access whether in landscape or portrait orientation. As with Sony lenses, this button can be programmed to different functions.
There’s also a bank with a couple of switches. These include the standard AF/MF switch (always welcome) along with a secondary switch that allows access to multiple custom modes. These custom modes can be programmed via another new feature, and that is the inclusion of a USB-C port on the side of the lens. Simply attach the lens to your computer and download Tamron’s free Lens Utility software, and this opens up a variety of ways to customize the performance of your lens. Some of the potential functions include a preset A-B focus pulls, presetting a specific focus distance (like for an event), switching between focus and aperture for the focus ring (like Samyang), changing the speed and/or tension of the manual focus ring, and more. You can also do direct firmware updates via the USB port. Essentially this is the functionality of the Tamron Tap-In Console now accessed through a weather sealed USB-C port, meaning that you don’t have to buy something in addition. Here’s a quick look at the functionality of the Lens Utility software, or you can visit this page to download the software and/or get more information:
We’ve also got a zoom lock switch to prevent zoom creep, though I didn’t actually encounter any real creep while out hiking with the lens.
Also present on the barrel is two rings. The closer (and slightly narrower, though both are wide) of the two is the zoom ring. I’ll make a minor complaint here, as this ring’s position is opposite of the other two Tamron lenses I have been testing at the same time (the 28-75mm F2.8 G2 and the 18-300mm VXD). While hiking and doing a portrait session with both lenses, I found myself continually reaching for the wrong ring because they were reversed. I recognize that this was almost certainly an engineering necessity, but it is an annoyance nonetheless. On a positive note, the zoom ring’s friction is very well damped. It has a smooth, substantial zoom action (not light, however) and there is a moderate inner barrel extension of about 4.5mm. The tolerances are tight, and there is not wobble or play in the barrel.
The second ring is the manual focus ring and it is near the front of the lens, and, surprisingly, it is even wider than the zoom ring. This is part of why I reached for it, as not only it’s position but its size is not conventional. Focus, (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 emulation is quite good, and the good, thick focus ring gives the impression of being a real manual focus experience. The addition of the USB-C port means that that you also have more control over the behavior of the focus ring. This includes being able to control the rotation of the ring and to choose whether the focus action is linear or non-linear (speed sensitive) in behavior. That just adds to the value of the ring.
Tamron has included a nicely made, fairly shallow lens hood that (in a rare move for Tamron) has a locking mechanism. It bayonets into place very cleanly and helps provide some shading along with some bump protection. You’ll also notice up front that Tamron has (necessarily) abandoned their 67mm front filter thread standard for this lens. We’ve got a larger but still standard 82mm front filter thread. It would have been physically impossible to design this lens with with such a small front element.
Tamron has worked to up their game in the physical appearance of their most recent lenses (I see similar changes to the Tamron 28-75mm G2). The finish is a little glossier and (according to Tamron) the finish has been upgraded to be more resistant to scratching and even fingerprints. The new finish makes the lens appear to be more like anodized metal, though I do think there’s still some engineered plastics in the construction. There’s a platinum-colored accept ring right near the lens mount. There is also some new sculpting to the lens design the gives it more shape. This does have some ergonomic value, as it makes the lens fit the hand a little better. It is worth noting that the lens does feel very good in the hands. Heavy, yes, but in a reassuringly substantial kind of way. Some will find the lens too heavy, but others will love the way it feels while using it. Anecdotally, I went to visit my son at university and walked all over the campus and the nearby waterfront with only the very thin Peak Design Leash strap I keep in my small camera bags. Despite the heft of the lens I walked with the lens for hours and never felt uncomfortable, though, to be fair, I am accustomed to heavier gear.
Tamron has really been nailing weather sealing, and that’s definitely the case here. There’s a rubber gasket at the lens mount that suggests at the weather sealing inside, and Tamron also shows a total of 10 other internal seal points along with a fluorine coating on the front element to give further protection. A fluorine coating not only helps protect the front element from scratches but also makes it water and fingerprint resistant and thus easier to clean. This is a professional grade lens ready for professional use.
Tamron’s recent trends regarding MFD (minimum focus distance) hold true here, as the lens sports two different MFDs for wide (0.33m/13″) and telephoto (0.85m/33.5″). You can get to about 0.18x magnification on the wide end (1:5.7) and 0.17x (1:5.9) on the telephoto end. Neither figure is exceptionally high, though useful enough to get some closer shots. Here’s what maximum magnification looks like first at 35mm and then 150mm along with a real- world close shot.
Both results are fairly good, with a little more contrast on the wide end but you can unlock creamier backgrounds on the long end and get a flatter plane of focus. Minimum focus distance will scale between these two extremes as you go throughout the zoom range.
Tamron has nine rounded blades in the aperture iris, and they claim that the aperture iris will stay circular for at least two stops down from maximum aperture. That seems accurate to me. Here’s a look at F2-F4:
There is some deformation near the edge of the frame, with one stop down (F2.8, here) being the best looking in terms of circular shapes while also being nice and big. F4 looks good as well, though by F5.6 you’ll start to see the edges of the blades a bit. This has an important function, though, as it allows for sunbursts at smaller aperture. The nine blades make for a slightly busy but fairly good looking sunburst effect, as you can see here.
Tamron elected to forego including their VC (Vibration Compensation – Tamron’s optical stabilization system) on the A058. Thus far only the big 150-500mm has included VC on their full frame lenses for mirrorless. They are clearly banking on the IBIS (In Body Stabilization) of Sony’s full frame cameras, and it does seem to do fine overall. The lens would have been larger and heavier had it included VC, so I’m willing to give them a pass here (as I did with the 70-180mm).
One area of internet consternation (whether real or imagined) is that the A058 has no tripod collar. Some people have concerns over the stress on the lens mount, though I think this is overwrought. This lens is far from being outside the realm of normal lens weight, and cameras are designed around the lens mount being strong. My only frustration with it was during the time I was trying to line up my test chart, and, the further you zoom out, the more the weight is towards the front of the camera and it puts a little more stress on the tripod head. So yes, a tripod collar would have provided better balance on a tripod, but again, it would have also added weight and expense. There will probably be a workable third party solution for those desperate for a tripod foot.
There’s no getting around that this is a fairly large and heavy lens, but it is clearly a well made lens that has very high functionality. I really like the new features that Tamron has elected to include, and the lens feels like it will be tough and durable. Even the much cheaper 28-75mm F2.8 RXD that I’ve owned for the last three years has held up well despite very frequent use. Tamron has moved more upscale with this lens, and time will tell if this move will pay off for them.
Tamron 35-150mm VXD Focus and Video Performance
Tamron has given the A058 their premium focus system, the Voice-coil eXtreme-torque Drive (VXD), which is a high end linear focus motor.
That makes five lenses that I’ve seen this focus system implemented on (also 70-180mm F2.8 VXD, 150-500mm VXD, 18-300mm VXD [APS-C}, and the 28-75mm F2.8 G2 VXD). The VXD motors are an improvement over the already good RXD focus motor by adding more torque into the mix. This is a big lens with big elements, so it needs a powerful focus motor to move them quickly. That’s what we have here, and, for the typical things this lens will be used for, the focus system is impressively good.
As noted, I view this lens primarily as an event and portrait lens, and it certainly worked beautifully well when people were in the frame. I did a little portrait session with my youngest son, and eye detect just nailed focus again and again:
Even if the eyes weren’t facing the camera, Eye AF locked and delivered well focused results.
Animal Eye AF worked equally well, with accurate locking on and focus even in low light situations (this shot is at ISO 3200):
I didn’t have a chance to test really high speed action, but I did watch a portion of a university rugby game and took some shots of the action. Focus was quick and accurate throughout, and I had no problems stopping action, which tells me that this should work fine for casual sports use at the least.
The A058 is quite flare prone (as you can see here), but I will note that autofocus successfully locked on even in strongly backlit settings.
I did a video test where I moved towards at the camera, in and out, at various speeds, and the focus system did a good job of tracking my eye. I used the A058 to record a few of my video segments, and focus was solid and reliable. Likewise in my video focus pull tests, focus pulls were smooth and silent. I saw a roughly average amount of focus breathing; subjects change size to some degree but not in an exaggerated sense.
Real world focus results were excellent, and I have nothing negative to report on this front. Tamron’s VXD focus motor is excellent.
Tamron A058 Image Quality Breakdown
The Tamron 35-150mm F2-2.8 VXD comes with high expectations for performance. It’s a premium lens with a premium price, so expectations are high for this lens to deliver stellar results. I would say those expectations are largely realized, as I got a lot of really fantastic images with the lens that delighted me on both an aesthetic and technical level.
To be fair, that scene was pretty fantastic, so it was likely to make any lens look good. We’ll dive a little more deeply into the technical side of things, though. This is quite a complex optical formula, with 21 elements in 15 groups. This includes three molded glass aspherical elements along with four LD (Low Dispersion) elements. A look at the MTF charts show that the center of the frame is impeccable throughout the zoom range; resolution even of the more demanding 30 lp/mm is between 93-98% resolution even wide open (that’s very high!). Corners are softer, with the weakest performance being at 35mm, F2, where the corners dip to as low as 55% in the extreme corner. Contrast looks strong according the MTFs, too, and that was certainly the case in the real world.
We’ll dive into the technical side of things first with a look at vignette and distortion at 35mm, F2:
Nothing objectionable there at all. A very mild amount of pincushion distortion (-2) and a moderate amount of vignette (+42 to correct). That’s a little under two stops in the corners, and I saw no real world situations where I felt correction was really necessary. Profile corrections in camera (JPEG or video) or in software (RAW files) will correct things painlessly.
At 70mm the distortion increases (-9 to correct) while the vignette diminishes (+30 to correct). The distortion and vignette are linear and clear up nicely.
Finally, at 150mm, distortion is about the same (-9) while vignette is more like 35mm (+44 to correct). I will point out that pincushion distortion is far preferable in a portrait oriented lens as it tends to make features slimmer.
No red flags here at all. Distortion and vignette are both well controlled for a zoom lens that goes from wide to telephoto.
I also give high marks for the control of chromatic aberrations. I saw little evidence of longitudinal chromatic aberrations in either shiny surfaces or in bokeh highlights.
I looked for lateral chromatic aberrations on both my charts and real world images, and just didn’t see them. The edges have clean transitions from dark to light.
That makes for clean and crisp real world textures near the edges of the frame:
All very good so far, and this points towards a promising optical performance in terms of sharpness and contrast. Here’s my test chart.
Crops and comparisons are shown at 200% and are from the 50 MP sensor of my Sony Alpha 1. Here’s a look at 35mm, F2, with crops from the center, mid-frame, and bottom right corner:
Center performance is (as advertised) excellent, and gets even sharper when stopped down to F2.8. F2.8 results are essentially perfect, as is the mid-frame. As the MTF suggests, acuity is lower in the corners (though they are still decent). They look excellent at F5.6, though, so choose smaller apertures if sharpness across the frame (like for landscapes) is a priority. Real world landscapes look gorgeous.
And, since portraits typically prioritize rule of thirds (center and mid-frame) over extreme corners, real world portraits even at F2 look great.
This is a variable aperture zoom, as noted, and while it does start at an exceptional F2, that doesn’t last long. By 50mm maximum aperture is F2.2. Center results look good at F2.2, while a mild stop down to F2.8 makes for exceptional results. This is true in the mid-frame as well, and corners are a little sharper (and sharpen up to excellent faster).
By 70mm the maximum aperture is F2.5, still faster than the average zoom, but by only one third stop. The center performance looked a little weaker to me wide open, but the opposite was true out towards the edges of the frame, where things look great. Even at F2.5, the detail on the £5 note looks great, and really exceptional by F2.8. This is fairly near the left bottom corner, too.
By 85mm the maximum aperture is the smallest of the zoom range at F2.8, though this is still the standard aperture for pro-grade zoom lenses. Image quality across the frame at F2.8 is exceptional, though. My typical mid-frame test of the Canadian $5 bill looks incredibly crisp, and contrast at F4 is pretty much off the charts.
I’ll also note here that centering was good on my tested copy, with equal results in all four corners. I’ve seen good manufacturing tolerances on Tamron lenses over the past five years or so.
At 100mm things continue to look very good. Corners are a little softer, but they are looking better by F4 and very strong by F5.6. I’m seeing little to complain about, thus far!
Let’s check back into a real world image for perspective.
Ummm, that looks pretty great even at a pixel level!
It’s going to sound a bit repetitive, but results continue to be excellent at 135mm. There seems to be a little less capacity for increased performance stopped down, but wide open results are already excellent. Here’s a look at different corner for a change of pace.
So finally we arrive at 150mm. Are we in for a drop-off? In my tested copy, the answer is definitely not. Chart results looked excellent (actually a little better than my copy of the Tamron 70-180mm F2.8 with it at 180mm). I thought it might be more meaningful to see real world results instead. Real world portraits still look very crisp even wide open:
If I move off-center with my subject, the results are still amazingly crisp and high-contrast even at F2.8:
And real-world landscapes look good even into the corners.
And check out the great subject isolation of this medium distance student at 150mm, F2.8:
It’s pretty amazing when you can have great image quality across a range like this:
I’ll also add that real world images had a lot of “pop” to them. That pro-grade contrast, color, and subject isolation that makes images special.
There is one glaring weakness, however, and that is flare resistance. Despite having Tamron’s excellent BBAR G2 coatings, the lens flounders when a certain amount of direction sun hits the lens elements (particularly on the telephoto end).
These are worst case scenarios, but you will have to be careful about backlighting your subjects too strongly in portrait sessions. This could be a deal-breaker for some portrait photographers (depending on your style). Wide angle flare seems to be better:
I generally found bokeh to be very pleasing from the lens. A lot of images showed really soft, artful bokeh rendering.
In some shots I saw the faintest amount of “swirl” to the bokeh at the edge of the frame, but that’s a look that I’m partial to:
I was able to test coma, as the maximum aperture of F2 on the wide end opens up another application for the lens. The results were generally positive, with nice, crisp detail to the night sky, though a pixel level look does show a bit of coma in the edges of the frame.
Still, there’s nothing wrong the look of the image in general, so I’d certainly use it for that purpose.
All told, there is a whole lot of good going on here, with only one real weakness. This is a professional grade lens that will give awesome results across the zoom range in a variety of conditions.
Conclusion
In general, I am a real fan of the Tamron 35-150mm F2-2.8 Di III VXD lens. Tamron has shot for the stars here and has generally landed it. Yes, the A058 is big, heavy, and expensive, but not unusually so in any category. What is unusual, however, is the genre-busting zoom and aperture range, which opens up a whole new realm of possibilities for wedding, event, and portrait shooters. I’ve been pretty pumped about the notion of covering the “bread and butter” of event shots with one lens, and maybe reserving my second camera for something more exotic (extreme wide angle, for example). Images from the A058 are just beautiful, with great “pop” and detail:
Autofocus is awesome, the feature set of the lens is awesome, and the build and weather sealing of the lens is awesome. It does have the weakness of poor flare resistance in certain situations, but I had a number of situations where I still shot into the sun and got very nice results, like this:
Ultimately I feel like this lens really delivers for those photographers that want both versatility and pro-grade results, and particularly those who would love to have the equivalent of a bag full of primes in one lens (which the A058 almost delivers on). The counter argument is that this lens costs $1899 USD, and Tamron also sells a fantastic new 28-75mm F2.8 VXD G2 ($899 USD and exceptionally good) and an also-excellent 70-180mm F2.8 VXD ($1199), which means for $200 more you could have two zooms that give you even more focal length coverage and even a bit more performance. A difficult choice, to be sure, and one that I’m personally wrestling with (as I own both these lenses), but I’m very, very tempted by the Tamron 35-150 VXD; it is just so much good in one lens…and sure to be a crowd pleaser.
Pros:
Innovative and useful focal range
Larger maximum aperture than competitors at points
Advanced weather sealing with 11 seal points
Fluorine coating
New finish and lens sculpting attractive
Powerful VXD focus motor
Useful new features like custom buttons and USB-C port
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!
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, Autumn, Canada
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.
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 (internally called A058, as we’ll refer to it for brevity in this review). 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:
There’s no question that this is an incredibly versatile range, and, while it doesn’t go quite as wide as a 24-70 or quite as long on the telephoto end of a 70-200, it does enough of both to be a majorly useful wedding, event, and portrait lens. Add to this that it is the first zoom lens beginning at a maximum aperture of F2 on Sony and you have a lens that has a lot of photographers licking their chops and thinking about how they could combine multiple lenses into one professional “do-it-all” lens. Tamron first developed this unique focal range in 2019 for Canon and Nikon DSLRs in the form of 35-150mm F2.8-4 VC OSD lens (my review here), and that lens really exceeded my expectations optically while being held back by a subpar autofocus system. It also had the misfortune of coming out about the time that interest in DSLRs was waning in favor of mirrorless systems, where almost all of Tamron’s more recent development has been. The A058 is a completely different animal, however, as it is professional grade to the hilt and, at $1899 USD, is (to my knowledge) easily Tamron’s most expensive lens on the market at the moment.
The Tamron 35-150mm F2-2,8 VXD isn’t a small or cheap lens, but after spending some time with it, I remain very interested in this lens. It does have a few flaws (as we’ll see), but I’m not convinced that it has any fatal flaws. You can check out my thoughts as to whether or not the A058 should be on your radar in either my text or video reviews…or just enjoy the photos below!
Thanks to Tamron USA for sending me a retail loaner copy of this lens. 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).
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!
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, Autumn, Canada
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.
Back in 2014 I reviewed the then new Canon EF 16-35mm F4L IS USM and found it a serious breakthrough for Canon wide angle zooms. Both the EF 17-40mm F4L and EF 16-35mm F2.8L II had serious shortcomings, and the EF 16-35mm F4L IS solved most of them. It was also the first time that Canon put a stabilizer in a wide angle zoom like. Fast forward to 2021 where Canon’s EOS R mirrorless system is about three years old, and many of us had been wondering when a successor to the 16-35L IS would arrive for the RF mount. The answer is “now”, and that successor (the Canon RF 14-35mm F4L IS USM) has a few extra tricks up its sleeve, mostly notably a much wider angle of view at 14mm vs 16mm (114° vs 108°) and a much higher potential magnification factor of 0.38x vs 0.23x, though the former advantage will have to be take with a grain of salt (as we’ll see in a moment). Going as wide as 14mm is a zoom is a very big deal, though when you dive into the details of how Canon got there, you realize that there were a few compromises to accomplish it. One thing that wasn’t compromised (surprisingly) is the ability to use traditional screw in filters in a standard 77mm filter size. That enabled me to easily get some nice long exposures.
The RF 14-35L (as we’ll call it for brevity) has the capacity to deliver a lot of beautiful images, but those extra bells and whistles come at a price. Literally. The EF 16-35mm F4L IS was lauded for coming in at a reasonable price point of $1199 USD, but I’ve heard a fair bit of grumbling about the fact that the new RF 14-35L comes in at a much steeper $1699 USD. The problem, of course, is that if you want the F2.8 version (the RF 15-35mm F2.8L IS, which I reviewed here) you’ll have to shell out an even more breathtaking $2399 USD! Unfortunately that makes the RF 14-35L is the “value play” (unless you consider the Samyang/Rokinon AF 14mm F2.8, which I reviewed here). I’ve come to accept the reality that, at least for now, Canon shooters are going to have to be prepared to pay a premium for RF lenses. Essentially every RF mount L-series lens has come at a significant premium over its EF counterpart. You’ll have to pay that premium to get the RF 14-35mm F4L IS USM, but there’s no question you will get a very sharp, versatile zoom that can give you some amazing photos.
We’ll break down both the strengths and weaknesses in this review, as my feelings on the RF 14-35L are a little more complicated and nuanced than my coverage of the EF predecessor years ago.
There’s a lot to love here, but also some serious remaining questions as well. You can watch my long format definitive or standard video review below…or just keep reading!
Thanks to Camera Canada for loaning me this lens for review. They are my personal source for my gear and have been great to work with. 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.
Canon RF 14-35L Build and Handling
I was surprised when I looked up comparisons and discovered that the RF 14-35L was actually smaller and lighter than the older EF lens. This is impressive when you consider that the new RF lens goes significantly wider. At 84mm in diameter and 99mm in length, this is a reasonably compact zoom lens. It’s weight (544g) is moderate as well, making this lens significantly smaller and lighter than the F2.8 version (840g). You can see how the two compare here:
The RF 14-35L is a professional grade lens, with a high quality build that features advanced weather sealing. It starts with a robust gasket at the lens mount, roughly 11 internal seals, and a fluorine coating on the front element to help resist moisture and fingerprints. Wide angle lenses are frequently used outdoors, which makes quality weather sealing very important.
This is a lens with a constant maximum aperture of F4, and, while that isn’t a particularly large maximum aperture, I am more tolerant of slow apertures in wide angle lenses than in other focal lengths (save long telephoto, where F4 becomes a “fast” aperture). Many applications for wider focal lengths involve using smaller apertures anyway (landscapes, architecture, etc…) and only wedding photographers and photojournalists are likely to actually need a faster F2.8 lens. There’s a reason that the EF lens was so popular; most landscape photographers were perfectly happy with an F4 lens that was lighter to take into the field and lighter on their wallets as well. I suspect that feeling will hold true here as well.
Like other RF mount zooms, the RF 14-35L has three distinct rings on it. Closest to the lens mount is the zoom ring. It is the widest of the three and has an ergonomic bevel to it that makes it easy to find by feel. The zoom action has nice weight and smoothness, though it has another design element that I don’t love. It isn’t an internally zooming lens, so the lens barrel extends slightly (about 1 cm). That in itself isn’t a big deal, but what I don’t love is that the zoom action is “rocker style”, where the fully retracted position is in the middle of the zoom range (about 22mm), with the lens roughly equally zoomed out at either the wide or telephoto ends. My instinct is to retract the lens to the 14mm position (the traditional spot), but that ends up with the lens slightly extended. A minor thing, perhaps, but not a design element I enjoy.
The middle ring is the focus ring, which moves smoothly and with decent damping for a “focus-by-wire” lens. All mirrorless autofocusing lenses employ this manual focus method, which routes input on the focus ring through the focus motor. I thought I could detect the slightest amount of lag when moving quickly, but it was so faint that I couldn’t quite be sure. The focus ring does end up getting squeezed between the two other rings, so it is the least easy to find by touch because there is very little distance between it and the other rings (the zoom ring in particular).
The final ring is the control ring, a feature unique to RF lenses. It utilizes a unique diamond texture pattern that allows you to easily find it by touch. You can choose what function to assign to that ring, and it does have faint detents (clicks) as you rotate it, which gives you tactile feedback so that you know the changes you are making. Canon says this, “For photographers and moviemakers who would prefer a silent control ring, the clicking mechanism can be removed at a Canon Factory Service Center location for a fee.”
Like other RF lenses, the RF 14-35L does employ the 12 pin communication that allows Canon to do more with the RF mount, which is part of what enables the existence of this lens.
This lens does have Canon’s IS (Image Stabilization), and it is a highly effective application. The lens IS is rated up to 5.5 stops (which is very high!), but in theory you can reach as high as 7 stops when paired with the In Body Image Stabilization (IBIS) of certain Canon cameras, like the EOS R5 I did this test on. I’ve never been able to realize those kind of figures myself, though I was able to get about a 40% keeper rate on this shot at 0.6 seconds and 35mm, which is between 4 and 5 stops of stabilization.
I don’t frankly see a lot applications for handholding slower shutter speeds than this, but what mattered more to me is that I was able to get very steady handheld video shots. That’s primarily static shots or shots with small, controlled movements. Walking with the bare lens doesn’t have the same smoothness as gimbal footage, though it is much better than without stabilization! The stabilization is otherwise very mannerly and quiet. It gets the job done very nicely and adds to the usefulness of the lens in lower lighting conditions, like this:
You can focus down as closely as 20cm (right under 8″) and can get a class leading 0.38x magnification at 35mm. This is mostly due to being about to get about 8cm closer than previous Canon wide angle zooms. That’s a very useful figure, though 35mm is the not the strong end of the focal range optically, so closeups lack a little contrast. Here’s a look at the degree of magnification at MFD:
That’s definitely close enough to allow you some extra creativity.
If you back up a little more, you can still get nice magnification along with improved contrast, like this shot:
Definitely a useful addition to the lens, and it easily surpasses the 0.21x of the RF 15-35mm F2.8L or the 0.23x of the older EF 16-35mm F4L IS.
Like most other equivalent Canon zooms, there are nine rounded aperture blades in the aperture iris. This seems to keep a fairly circular shape as you stop the lens down, though that maybe isn’t as important on a wide angle lens. Arguably more important is if you can produce nice sunbursts with the lens stopped down to smaller apertures, and fortunately I think the answer is yes. I quite like the look the sunbursts even if they are a bit busy:
The lens is made of a tough polycarbonate with a very fine flocking. It is not quite a matte finish, but close to it. My experience with these L series lenses is that they hold up very well over the long haul, and it’s not unusual for photographers to have used them for 10-20 years and they still look fairly good. The only other features on the lens is a small bank of two switches, an AF/MF switch and a ON/OFF for the IS.
There are no modes here, but Canon does say that the IS will automatically detect panning action and adjust accordingly.
All told, this is a nicely made lens that does a great job of mixing professional grade build quality with reasonable size and weight. This will undoubtedly continue to be a major selling feature for those who want to travel, hike, or go on safari with a wide angle lens.
Canon RF 14-35mm F4L IS Autofocus Performance
The RF 14-35L employs my favorite Canon focus system – Nano USM. This is a focus motor similar to what Sony calls a Linear Motor, which drives the focus group of elements back and forth rather than rotating them. This is a great application here, as focus is very fast, very quiet, and accurate. I screwed on a ten-stop ND1000 filter and focus was still essentially instantaneous for this shot.
I can definitely remember the days when autofocus simply wasn’t an option in this kind of situation, but those days are long gone.
I was able to easily get accurate focus results in my various adventures with the lens, including close focus situations.
As is sometimes the case with wide angle lenses, Eye AF is a bit of a mixed bag. Often the eye doesn’t occupy a large enough portion of the frame to get real time tracking, though often the depth of field is deep enough that it renders this a moot point. Still, I wasn’t always happy with the performance with humans in the frame. This shot of my sons and I turned out fine:
…but this shot of my daughter and I a few minutes later is clearly front focused despite having two sets of eyes clearly facing the camera:
This shot of our dog was very nicely focused as well.
My video results were also good. Focus pulls were quiet and smooth, with a well damped feeling that wasn’t too fast or twitchy. I saw minimal focus breathing and heard only the faintest of sounds in a perfectly quiet environment during major focus changes. The microphone didn’t really pick up anything, so this will be a non-issue in real world video work.
Overall my experience with autofocus was very positive, but I did have a few misses with humans in the frame (beyond what I’ve shown here). That surprised me, frankly, as eye detection seems to be pretty much the most reliable autofocus method these days. I suspect that autofocus will typically work very well for you, however, and often with wide angle lenses so much is in focus that it’s hard to miss!
RF 14-35L Optical Performance
As I noted in the introduction, my feelings about the optical performance here are a little nuanced. The optical formula is 16 elements in 12 groups, with three of those being UD-glass elements along with three Aspherical elements (Includes one UD Aspherical lens element). Ironically, my biggest complaint about the EF lens was that it was so good that it was almost boring. It was particularly exotic or exciting. Because the RF 14-35L goes as wide as 14mm, it does deliver a more exotic optical performance…but that comes with some risks. Canon has overcome some but not all of those obstacles as we will see. What’s not up for debate, however, is the sharpness of the lens. It is a very sharp lens and really delivers highly detailed images.
In fact, when I compared my results from the 15-35mm F2.8L IS that I reviewed last year, I found that the 14-35mm results were clearly better at equivalent apertures. That made me curious, so I looked up Canon’s MTF charts for the two lenses and found that yes, the RF 14-35L is the sharper lens of the two, and bests the EF 16-35mm F4L IS pretty handily, too.
That’s very impressive considering that Canon A) increased the zoom range and B) didn’t increase the lens size.
In many ways I’m impressed with the image quality, but there are a few obvious places where Canon’s engineers cut corners, too. The first and most obvious became very apparent to me because A) I’m a RAW shooter and B) there isn’t yet an automatic profile for RAW files in Lightroom. Profile or not, I always test lenses without profile corrections to determine what is optical performance and what is software corrections. In this case, at 14mm, there is a LOT of software assistance to get the final image. I was very surprised to see this in real world images:
Note those corners? That is actually mechanical vignetting, or a place where the lens actually doesn’t quite cover the full frame image circle. What you are are seeing is part of a lens’ circular opening iris that didn’t quite cover the rectangular sensor, so only the corners show dark. This isn’t lens vignetting in the traditional sense, as something physical is actually blocking light from reaching that portion of the sensor. Unlike typical vignette, this mechanical vignette will be there regardless of what aperture you choose; it is just as strong at F8 as it is at F4. I’ve seen this with superzoom or cheaper lenses, but I can’t recall seeing this on a professional grade zoom.
So let’s dive in a see what’s going on. Below is a sequence of three images, though this is actually all the same image. The first is the RAW file as it arrived in Lightroom (though with a white balance correction; the R5 is [for some reason] really terrible with the auto white balance on my test chart), the second is my attempt at manually correction the image, and the final is the JPEG image as it was corrected in camera.
Of the three, the JPEG is clearly the cleanest, though if you compare it to the previous images, you will see just how much of the frame is lost to achieve that final correction. What you see in the JPEG was how I framed the chart in camera, but the resulting RAW file was very loose in the frame because of how much space Canon is leaving for correction of both the heavy distortion and the various vignette issues. The distortion is extremely heavy; it required a +34 to achieve this manual correction, and it is also is not linear, so that results in a “mustache” pattern left behind. The standard correction profile obviously does a much cleaner job on the JPEG, and will on RAW images as well when that profile arrives.
I said “various vignette issues” as there are actually two separate issues here. The mechanical vignette issue can only be solved via cropping, as there is no picture information under that pure black in the corners. The traditional distortion is also very heavy, however, requiring me to max out the vignette slider at +100 and sliding the midpoint to zero. We are talking at least 3 stops of vignette, perhaps a bit more.
The heavy need for corrections also plays a bit of havoc with the focal length. On paper, the 14-35L is actually bit wider than the Samyang AF 14mm F2.8 prime lens which I used for comparison as it is the only other RF mount 14mm lens I had on hand. I put both lenses on a tripod and shot a brick wall scene to test width. Sure enough, the uncorrected image from the RF 14-35L is wider, though with some major problems, as you can see.
But I grabbed the corrected JPEGs from both lenses, and found, unsurprisingly, that now the Samyang’s image was actually wider. There are blocks showing on Samyang image (right) that are completely clipped off on the Canon’s image. I would say the corrected image from the Canon probably behaves more like a 15mm lens. I have to confess that all of this definitely bugged me on lens priced at $1700 in the US and $2250 here in Canada.
This will diminish the effectiveness of the 14-35L for things like real estate or architecture.
The good news is that things really improve as soon as you zoom in a bit. By 24mm there is next to no distortion, though the natural vignette remains extremely high (a feature of all Canon wide angle zooms since the EF 16-35L III). I needed a +91 to correct, so still near 4 stops in the corners.
Distortion remains mild at 35mm, with a bit of pincushion distortion. I corrected it with a -5. Vignette is milder, so a +49 corrected things fine. I still needed to pull the midpoint all the way to zero as the vignette increases very deep into the frame.
So a bit of rough start here, though things start looking much rosier after this. Incidentally, it was obvious in my Samyang/Canon comparison above that the Canon result was MUCH sharper. Sharpness in a landscape oriented lens is a big deal.
There is a bit of fringing at close distances on high contrast subjects, and the surface aberrations do come at the cost of a bit of sharpness.
This image in less extreme situations looks great, however.
Longitudinal CA in wide angle lenses is rarely a big deal, however, as you typically won’t have much out of focus anyway. Lateral chromatic aberrations are typically the weak point for wide angle lenses, but I didn’t see any issue with this in either my chart tests or real world shots.
You might have noticed in that crop that even on the very edge of the frame this lens is incredibly sharp. Love it! Let’s move on to testing that sharpness. Here’s a look at my test chart that the subsequent crops will from.
Here are 14mm crops from the center, mid-frame, and corner at F4 (all tests on the 45MP sensor of the EOS R5):
Obviously that’s an amazing result, and one that the more-expensive 15-35mm F2.8L can’t match.
There’s a bit more contrast on detail on tap at F5.6, but the RF 14-35L is sharp enough that you can use aperture for depth of field; there’s not really any need to stop down for increased sharpness.
I love the fabulous detail in my images.
Minimum aperture is F22, though diffraction will really soften images due to the high resolution of the EOS R5’s sensor. It will be a little less obvious on the EOS R6, but I would avoid F22 where possible.
The 20mm range on the RF 14-35L is great. The extreme distortion has disappeared but the stunning sharpness remains. Look at how sharp the lens even on the edge of the frame…and at 200% magnification:
Very impressive!
Real world images are stunning in this range:
24mm remains excellent, with arguably even more sharpness in the center but with a tiny bit less sharpness in the corners.
Stopping down will give you a bit more, and real world images are incredibly sharp.
28mm looks very similar to 24mm in terms of performance, which is to say very good.
The reign of excellence ends at 35mm, however, which (at least on the copy I tested) is considerably worse than the rest of the zoom range. You can see significantly reduced contrast when comparing to 28mm:
Stopping down doesn’t produce radically better results in the corner in terms of acuity, though contrast does improve a bit. Here’s a real world shot at F6.3, and you can see that while the center is pretty good (and the image overall is credibly sharp), the edge crop shows significant softness.
An F4 lens is never going to be a top pick for shooting astrophotography, but the RF 14-35L does a good job for what it has (though that vignette is a pain!). Coma is well controlled, and star points are nice and crisp across the frame.
A wide angle lens with a maximum aperture of F4 isn’t going to be a big “bokeh lens”, but you might be surprised. The close focus abilities allow you to get pretty nice bokeh results when you’re up close.
If you are backed up a bit from your subject, depth of field will get deep quickly, so bokeh simply won’t exist. Still, I felt like my up close shots looked nice.
Canon colors are generally pretty great, and I think that’s the case here. I generally liked the images I got with the lens.
I didn’t really see any issues with flare during the course of my review. I put the sun in the frame a number of times and never saw anything that turned me off.
Here’s another example:
As noted, this is a more complicated optical performance than the EF version. It is both better and worse. It’s sharper and more dynamic due to the wider focal range, but it also has more flaws (distortion and vignette). If you are shooting landscapes, you probably won’t have any problem, but I can’t really recommend the lens for architecture or interiors. Feel free to check out more images and draw your own conclusions by visiting the image gallery here.
Conclusion
My review of the Canon RF 14-35mm F4L IS USM has been more complicated that I expected. I fully expected this one to be extremely straightforward, much like my review of the EF 16-35mm F4L IS. What I found is a more flawed lens that remains very intriguing nonetheless. The first bit of controversy is the price tag, which at $1699 USD is a significant premium over the EF version’s $1199 USD. If you’ve been paying attention to Canon’s RF pricing, this probably isn’t all that shocking, however, as the premium lenses thus far have all been priced significantly higher than their EF equivalents. Not shocking, then, but still disappointing. I’ve heard some negative rumblings from my audience over this price point. Also controversial is the way that they handled the wide end, as it might have been safer to just produce a 15mm wide end without the mechanical vignette and extreme distortion. But I do commend Canon for taking risks, and for landscape photography these things aren’t necessarily deal breakers.
But there’s a lot on the positive end of the scale, too. This is an incredibly sharp wide angle lens essentially everywhere but at 35mm. It handles the 45Mp of resolution on my EOS R5 with aplomb and delivers wonderfully detailed images with great contrast and color. Flare resistance is excellent, and even coma is well handled. It is fairly compact and lightweight and the image stabilization is very effective as well.
I also really liked the images I got, and once the profile for RAW files arrives, the main defects of the lens will be nicely masked. I still think this is going to be a great option for those looking for a lightweight, versatile, and sharp wide angle zoom to take on hikes, trips, and into all kinds of shooting environments due to having great weather sealing. Canon took on a very ambitious zoom range here, and while they didn’t overcome every single obstacle, they have managed to give us a dynamic lens that is good at a lot of things. The Canon RF 14-35mm F4L IS USM is a welcome addition to the RF lineup…warts and all.
Pros:
High grade of build
Reasonably compact and light
Professional grade of weather sealing
Goes to 14mm!
Retains ability to use screw-in filters
Image Stabilizer works effectively
Canon’s sharpest wide angle zoom yet
Beautiful color and great contrast (save at 35mm)
Chromatic aberrations well controlled
Good flare resistance
Good coma control
High level of magnification
Cons:
Price hike from the EF version
Fully retracted position in the middle of the zoom range
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 Canon RF 14-35mm F4L IS @ B&H Photo https://bhpho.to/3aUl8Tl | Amazon https://amzn.to/2ZiaByS | Camera Canada https://shrsl.com/37o6x | Amazon Canada https://amzn.to/3G8oMXW | Amazon UK https://amzn.to/3Gh5pfF | Amazon Germany https://amzn.to/3vx7Oh3
Keywords: Canon RF 14-35mm F4L IS, Canon RF 14-35mm F4L IS Review, Canon RF 14-35 Review, Canon 14-35, 14-35mm, RF 14-35, 14-35L, 14-35mm, F4L, IS, USM, Review, RF 14-35L 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, RF 15-35mm F2.8L IS, Canon
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.
Back in 2014 I reviewed the then new Canon EF 16-35mm F4L IS USM and found it a serious breakthrough for Canon wide angle zooms. Both the EF 17-40mm F4L and EF 16-35mm F2.8L II had serious shortcomings, and the EF 16-35mm F4L IS solved most of them. It was also the first time that Canon put a stabilizer in a wide angle zoom like. Fast forward to 2021 where Canon’s EOS R mirrorless system is about three years old, and many of us had been wondering when a successor to the 16-35L IS would arrive for the RF mount. The answer is “now”, and that successor (the Canon RF 14-35mm F4L IS USM) has a few extra tricks up its sleeve, mostly notably a much wider angle of view at 14mm vs 16mm (114° vs 108°) and a much higher potential magnification factor of 0.38x vs 0.23x, though the former advantage will have to be take with a grain of salt (as we’ll see in a moment). Going as wide as 14mm is a zoom is a very big deal, though when you dive into the details of how Canon got there, you realize that there were a few compromises to accomplish it. One thing that wasn’t compromised (surprisingly) is the ability to use traditional screw in filters in a standard 77mm filter size. That enabled me to easily get some nice long exposures.
The RF 14-35L (as we’ll call it for brevity) has the capacity to deliver a lot of beautiful images, but those extra bells and whistles come at a price. Literally. The EF 16-35mm F4L IS was lauded for coming in at a reasonable price point of $1199 USD, but I’ve heard a fair bit of grumbling about the fact that the new RF 14-35L comes in at a much steeper $1699 USD. The problem, of course, is that if you want the F2.8 version (the RF 15-35mm F2.8L IS, which I reviewed here) you’ll have to shell out an even more breathtaking $2399 USD! Unfortunately that makes the RF 14-35L is the “value play” (unless you consider the Samyang/Rokinon AF 14mm F2.8, which I reviewed here). I’ve come to accept the reality that, at least for now, Canon shooters are going to have to be prepared to pay a premium for RF lenses. Essentially every RF mount L-series lens has come at a significant premium over its EF counterpart. You’ll have to pay that premium to get the RF 14-35mm F4L IS USM, but there’s no question you will get a very sharp, versatile zoom that can give you some amazing photos.
We’ll break down both the strengths and weaknesses in this review, as my feelings on the RF 14-35mm F4L are a little more complicated and nuanced than my coverage of the EF predecessor years ago.
There’s a lot to love here, but also some serious remaining questions as well. You can see my thoughts either in my video or text review…or just check out the photos in the gallery below.
Thanks to Camera Canada for loaning me this lens for review. They are my personal source for my gear and have been great to work with. 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!
Keywords: Canon RF 14-35mm F4L IS, Canon RF 14-35mm F4L IS Review, Canon RF 14-35 Review, Canon 14-35, 14-35mm, RF 14-35, 14-35L, 14-35mm, F4L, IS, USM, Review, RF 14-35L 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, RF 15-35mm F2.8L IS, Canon
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.
2021 has been the year that Tamron has adjusted their aim to include a very important (and oft-overlooked) space – Sony APS-C E-mount. There are a LOT of Sony APS-C mirrorless shooters out there, and despite the large audience, there are relatively few APS-C specific releases. Not from Sony or from third parties other than the multitude of cheap manual focus lenses that pop up every few months. That seems to be changing, though. At the beginning of 2021, Tamron released their 17-70mm F2.8 Di III-A VC RXD fast aperture standard zoom lens, which I noted in my review might now be the biggest advantage for Sony in the APS-C space. The B070 (as Tamron refers to the lens) is a well made, fast focusing, optically excellent zoom that pretty much has it all. But Tamron clearly wasn’t done, as we now see a new APS-C for the middle of the year, this time a wide angle zoom that continues the tradition of a constant fast aperture of F2.8. The Tamron 11-20mm F2.8 Di III-A RXD (which Tamron calls the B060) is another intriguing addition to the Sony APS-C mirrorless space.
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. I’m a fan of the RXD motors, as in every application I’ve tested, I’ve seen quiet, fast, and precise autofocus.
There are few legitimate alternatives to this lens, as there are few wide angle lenses on Sony APS-C E-mount, and only one comparable zoom. The Sony E 10-18mm F4 OSS has a similar though not identical zoom range, a smaller maximum aperture of F4, but compensates by having optical stabilization. The two lenses are priced similarly, though the Tamron is more of a premium lens due to having a “professional-grade” maximum aperture, a stronger optical performance, and having a weather sealed build. Outside of the Sony 10-18mm, there really aren’t many options. There’s some overlap in focal range in the E 16-55mm F2.8 G, which is Sony’s premium player in this group, though that lens is more of a standard zoom and doesn’t go particularly wide. It is also priced about $500 higher, so I see that lens more as a competitor to the 17-70mm F2.8 from Tamron. On the lower end of the price spectrum there is another new option – the Samyang AF 12mm F2 that I recently reviewed. That lens might be a legitimate alternative if you don’t need the zoom range and want to save some money. But Tamron knows its business, and I like that they are utilizing a lot of their skills honed on their very well received Sony full frame zooms for these new lenses in the APS-C space, as this is another premium option for Sony shooters. It is a lens worth its roughly $830 USD price tag? Read on to find out…
I used both my Sony a6400 and Sony Alpha 1 in APS-C mode to do this review. Watch my definitive (long format) or standard video review by clicking on the link below.
Thanks to Tamron USA for sending me an early loaner of the lens. As always, this is a completely independent review.
B060 Build, Handling, and Features
I found the 17-70mm F2.8 to be more like a full frame lens in terms of size and weight, but the B060 is more compact. It weighs nearly 200g less (335g) and is over 33mm shorter (86.2mm). This makes for a nicely compact lens when you consider the wide angle of view and large maximum aperture. It is larger and heavier than the 10-18mm F4 from Sony, but F4 lenses are always smaller and lighter relative to F2.8 lenses. The 10-18mm is only 225g and is only 63.5mm long, so if your priority is small size, that continues to be the winner. As noted above, however, the Tamron is a more professional grade lens in a number of ways. Here’s a look at how the specs for the various lenses break down:
The lens isn’t tiny, then, but for a wide aperture, wide angle zoom, it is still reasonably compact, and matches my a6400 just fine.
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 B060 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 switch for the VC, and definitely nothing like an aperture ring or focus hold button. Tamron has kept the prices on these lenses reasonable by focusing on excellent internals while adopting a fairly bare bones approach on the outside. It seems to be working, however, as Tamron’s sales on Sony have been brisk. The 28-75mm F2.8 RXD that started this revolution was the world’s best selling lens (period!) for several years following its release.
What you will find on the outside is two rings. Their position 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. I’ve owned the Tamron 28-75mm RXD for years and it is still clean inside. I also have the 17-28mm, 28-200mm, and 70-180mm and have had no problems with any 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 due to having no AF/MF switch (a pain!). 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. Focus emulation is reasonably good, with a smoother focus action than I saw on the 17-70mm. The focus ring moves smoothly, but isn’t linear.
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.
Tamron has continued to retain the 67mm filter threads that it has managed to put in just about every lens it has created for Sony mirrorless. That really helps in allowing you to share filters, and is one incentive for customers to keep buying additional Tamron lenses.
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. 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 Sony 10-18mm F4. 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 figure is a bit lower, but achieving the result will be much simpler in the field and probably much more satisfying in the process.
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 frankly, I’m not seeing it…particularly at smaller aperture. More on that later.
All told, though, the B060 is another very nicely made lens with some professional internals…even if the outer shell is fairly plain. This is a lens designed for performance rather than features.
Autofocus and Video Performance
The B060 has Tamron’s excellent RXD, and the Rapid eXtra-silent stepping Drive (RXD) is everything a mirrorless autofocus system should be. It is fast, quiet, and accurate. Tamron has a bit of an advantage on Sony as Sony is a stakeholder in Tamron and grants Tamron access to their focus algorithms. This means that Tamron doesn’t have to reverse engineer everything like they did on Canon and Nikon, and the difference shows. I’ve found no difference between Tamron lenses sporting the RXD and VXD focus systems and the best Sony lenses. I really see this in the stability of the focus, as these Tamron lenses focus rock solid without any pulsing or hunting. I was able to get good focus results on either my a6400 or the Alpha 1 in APS-C mode.
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. You can see that this 20mm F2.8 shot is perfectly focused:
I also found autofocus fairly intuitive for either grabbing the subject I wanted or quickly changing to my alternate subject if I moved the AF point there.
The B060 was a great performer for video focus pulls, giving smooth, confident pulls without any noise, pulsing, or settling. Focus is completely silent in my tests, with no audible focus noise recorded by the onboard mics. Focus breathing was only minimal, with a very tiny chance of subject size depending on focus.
Focus speed is extremely fast, with focus changes from close to distant happening near instantaneously and without any drama.
Bottom line is that you probably won’t find a better focusing lens among any competing lenses. Everything here is top notch, and I have zero complaints…as has been the case with all of Tamron’s lenses equipped with either RXD or VXD focus motors.
B060 Image Quality
The B060 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. I had no problems getting nicely detailed images with the lens:
Over the years I’ve always gotten a lot of questions from viewers or readers about how an APS-C lens works on a full frame camera. In this case Sony E-mount is identical, so E-mount lenses fit perfectly on FE (full frame E-mount) cameras. Just because the lens fits, however, doesn’t mean that it covers the image circle. Some APS-C lenses cover a considerably wider area of the frame than the APS-C crop, so they are worth considering using on full frame and cropping a bit. In this case, however, Tamron has cut things pretty close. This sequence of images shows the scene composed with the APS-C mode engaged on my Alpha 1, then shooting it full frame, and then the result after I cropped the mechanical vignette out (the completely black area with the lens image circle isn’t large enough to cover the sensor).
You can see that there really isn’t much of a difference, and if I finished cropping that last tiny bit of blackened area in the corners, then the difference would be essentially negligible. This is an APS-C lens, so it’s best to use it on an APS-C camera.
My formal tests are done on the 24MP APS-C sensor of the Sony a6400, which is a very common resolution point at the moment. Here’s a look at the vignette and distortion at 11mm:
We can see both moderate barrel distortion and vignette. Due to a quirk of Lightroom having just been updated, the B060 already has a correction profile available in Adobe, but I’ve done a manual correction here for demonstration purposes. I like to do manual correction for these tests as it allows me to examine the flaws without them being hidden by a clever profile. In this, however, there’s nothing particularly nasty. The distortion is fairly linear, so I could get a reasonable result even with a manual correction of the distortion (I used a +10), and vignette was also manageable. I used a +46 and moved the midpoint over to zero for a nicely clean result. Use the standard profile in camera for JPEGs and Video for a cleaner still result, or use the correct profile in your editing software for RAWs to get a nicely clean end result, though I did find the Adobe correction profile for vignette a little too aggressive for my night sky images, where the edges appeared lighter than the center. Fortunately I could scale that back for a more balanced result.
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. I used a -8, and the vignette was also lower, requiring only a +26 to correct for, which is pretty negligible.
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 so little evidence of them. Longitudinal chromatic aberrations (fringing before or after the plane of focus) were essentially impossible to spot in real world use, and, while I could see trace amounts of lateral chromatic aberrations on my chart (fringing in dark to light transitions near the edge of the frame), they were too insignificant to see in real world use, so no problems here.
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.
What they show is that this lens delivers a strong performance across the frame at F2.8, with contrast and acuity looking a little softer in the extreme corner. Stopping down to landscape apertures like F5.6 and F8 did improve contrast and resolution a bit, but not significantly.
This mirrors what I see in the real world, though at a more typical 100% magnification, real world results are even better. What you’ll find from the series below, however, is that this scene doesn’t really look much different whether shot at F2.8 or at F5.6. Contrast is ever-so-slightly improved at F5.6, but not by much, and that’s true whether looking at the center or edge of the frame comparison:
I found that the B060 really hit its stride in the center of the zoom range, though, with great clarity and detail across the frame at either 14mm or 16mm:
Where it is truly exceptional, though, is at 18mm, where it delivers a flawlessly sharp performance everywhere on the frame even at F2.8:
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.
The copy of the B060 bucks the trends of the MTFs by actually giving me a slightly better performance at 20mm than what it did at 11mm, with 18mm only being ever-so-slightly sharper. Even at F2.8, I got nice detailed images across the frame:
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. It’s better, frankly, than what we saw on the 17-70mm F2.8 despite that lens having much more potential for creating the blur. 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.
The weak spot for the B060 is in the flare resistance. The image above looks fine, and, frankly, the performance at wide apertures is much better than the performance at smaller apertures. I was surprised to find that the B060 has Tamron’s 2nd Generation BBAR coatings, as they are excellent in other lenses with them I’ve tested. I just wasn’t very impressed here, however. The first set shows the B060 wide open at 11mm, then stopped down to F11. The second set repeats that at 20mm, while the final set shows a few random images, including the final at a more moderate F5.6 aperture. In every shot there are ghosting artifacts, and in some cases they are quite pronounced.
I’m somewhat surprised that Tamron is bragging about this aspect of lens design, as it is to my eye the single greatest weakness for the 11-20mm RXD.
What is definitely stronger is the coma resistance, which, other than a bit of “star-stretching” in the corners, looks quite good.
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 B060 joins the B070 as worthy additions to any Sony APS-C shooters kit. You can go from very wide to medium telephoto with a constant wide aperture and great sharpness across the two lenses. I suspect that Tamron would love if you bought both of them to pair together. You can check out more photos by visiting the image gallery page here.
Conclusion
I concluded my review of the Tamron 17-70mm F2.8 VC RXD on a very positive note, calling it a system seller. It was simply better than any competing lens that I had used on any other platform, and there’s some similar truths to be had about the Tamron 11-20mm F2.8 RXD lens. In some ways the B060 is most similar to the very expensive (and very large) Fujinon XF 8-16mm F2.8 LM WR lens. The Fuji is obviously a wider, more extreme instrument, but, like the Tamron, it has a constant F2.8 aperture and weather sealing. Most competing zoom lenses are either variable aperture zooms or have an F4 aperture. 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 B060 has a nice (if plain) build with thorough weather sealing, great autofocus, and has really fantastic image quality across the zoom range. It is compact, lightweight, and handles great. Not a lot to complain about, really.
My list of complaints is brief. I would have preferred a little better flare resistance, and would like an AF/MF switch on the barrel, but outside of that, this lens was pretty much nailed by Tamron. Here’s hoping that they continue to fill in the gaps for Sony APS-C shooters who have had a long season without much attention. 2021 has been a good year thus far, however, with the two Tamron zooms along with the Samyang AF 12mm F2 all providing great options for APS-C shooters. More, please!
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
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!
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.
Sony FE 50-150mm F2 GM Gallery 
Sony FE 50-150mm F2 G Master Review 
Viltrox AF 35mm F1.2 LAB FE Gallery 
Viltrox AF 35mm F1.2 LAB FE Review 
