Tamron 70-180mm F2.8 VC VXD G2 Review

Dustin Abbott

September 14th, 2023

2020 was a weird year.

For everyone.

It was a weird year for lens reviewers as well, though one of the highlights of 2020 was the release of Tamron’s 70-180mm F2.8 VXD (which I reviewed here). It was a serious disruptor in the Sony E-mount space, as it brought an optically strong, good focusing alternative to the Sony 70-200mm GM at a price point of less than 50%. It also had some shortcomings, namely a complete lack of features and also no optical stabilization. But it has been a popular choice because it is an optically sound and, well, affordable. The Tamron’s success was aided by the fact that the Sony 70-200mm GM was good but not exceptional. Sony has addressed that with a fantastic Mark II version of the GM lens (my review here), though that lens does cost about $2800 USD. In the never ending one-upmanship of the camera industry, that means that it is time for Tamron to up their game as well…and they have.

The new Tamron 70-180mm F2.8 Di III VC VXD G2 is the second generation of Tamron’s fast telephoto zoom. The key upgrades include improved the inclusion of VC (Vibration Compensation, Tamron’s optical stabilizer), upgraded optics, some additional features, and an enhanced magnification on the wide end.

A number of the weaknesses are addressed with the Tamron, and they’ve kept the price at a very reasonable $1299 USD. And, most importantly, I feel like Tamron has maintained the core focus of this lens (which we’ll call the 70-180 G2 in this review), which is to provide a lightweight, high performing alternative to the larger, more expensive 70-200mm options.

And this is a very high performing lens. It is brilliantly sharp even on Sony’s highest resolution cameras.

A few of the shortcomings remain, including a smaller zoom range that has 20mm less than competing lenses, fewer features, and the inability to use teleconverters.

But there’s a lot that people are willing to accept for a $1500 difference in price. Those that simply can’t afford a $2800 lens but could potentially afford a $1300 lens remain the single largest audience for this lens, though this review will also try to address the interests of a second group: those who own the first generation 70-180mm and are curious as to whether an upgrade is warranted. You can judge for yourself by either watching my video review below or reading on to get the full picture.

Thanks to Tamron USA for sending me a review loaner of this lens. As always, this is a completely independent review. *The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the Sony a7RV along with the Sony Alpha 1 that serve as my benchmark cameras for Sony lenses.

Tamron 70-180mm G2 Build and Handling

Tamron’s design has the compromise of a more abbreviated zoom range in order to achieve a smaller, lighter lens. The previous generation lens weighed a very svelte 810g, and, while the new lens is a bit heavier, it is still quite light at 855g (30.15oz). The dimensions have slightly grown, growing from 81mm to 83mm (3.26″) in diameter and moving from 149mm to 156.5mm (6.2”). For context, the Sony 70-200mm GM II is 88 x 200mm and weighs 1045g. The Tamron remains the most compact and lightweight option covering this focal range and aperture on the market (assuming that the first generation lens gets phased out as the first generation 28-75mm was). Tamron has continued to work very hard to maintain a 67mm filter thread across as many of their E-mount lenses as possible, and that remains the case here. That means that you can share filters across most of their lenses.

The first generation lens had nothing other than the focus and zoom rings on the barrel, but the new 70-180mm G2 has three additional features. The first is a focus hold button that is now pretty ubiquitous on Sony, and beneath that there is a 3 position custom switch.

The function of that switch can be set by connecting the lens via the USB-C port and using Tamron’s free Lens Utility software to assign a function to each of the three positions.

Tamron’s Lens Utility software gives you a variety of options for customizing the lens.

Here’s a look at the drop-down options for each custom position (1-3):

Most of these work in conjunction with the focus hold/custom button on the lens.

In some cases (like in aperture control), you use the button to activate the aperture control, and then the focus ring will function as an aperture ring.

You can also set the behavior of the focus ring in the software. That includes setting it as linear/non-linear and also options for how long you want the focus throw/rotation to be (90 | 180 | 270 | 360°).

The final option through the USB-C port and the Lens Utility Software is the ability to do firmware updates, which helps assure the lens stays updated.

The build quality feels somewhat improved over the first generation lens, but it isn’t quite at the level of the Sony G-Master lens, either (it feels more plasticky). The overall shape of the lens is more interesting, however, with additional sculpting and style.

On the right side of the barrel is the zoom lock. That is present because, unlike most 70-200mm lenses, the 70-180mm G2 is not an internally zooming lens. The barrel extends about 25mm at 180mm, which still leaves it 25+mm short of the 70-200mm options. Here’s a look at that extension.

The zoom ring is located furthest away from the lens mount and is wide and ribbed with a rubberized finish. The zoom action is almost as smooth as an internally zooming lens, with no sticking points or roughness to the zoom action. There is no wobble in the barrel extension, either. The zoom action is light and quick.

Not everyone is a fan of externally zooming lens, though Tamron has helped to compensate for this by giving the 70-180mm G2 a thorough weather sealing. This starts with a gasket at the lens mount, has a variety of seal points (11) throughout the barrel, and terminates in a fluorine coating on the front element.

The manual focus ring is located near the lens mount and is narrower. The focus action is okay but nothing exceptional.

The 70-180mm G2 has two different minimum focus distances for the wide and telephoto ends of the zoom range. You can focus as closely as 30cm on the wide end and can get a very high 0.38x magnification there (this autofocus result is improved over the G1 lens).

On the telephoto end the minimum focus distances of 85cm and we have magnification of right over 0.21x.

You can get even higher magnification on the 70mm end by manually focusing.

Tamron’s design does not include a tripod collar, as they are clearly anticipating the weight of the lens doesn’t require one. I prefer having the option of using a tripod collar, but I will note that I didn’t have a hard time aligning my test chart without one; the weight was light enough that it was not pulling down the front of the lens.

Tamron has included the lens hood (which is fine but unexceptional). There is no included case.

One final weakness in the design remains…the lens is not compatible with teleconverters. A Sony TC will not physically mount, as the protruding front element of the TC did not physically fit into the back of the lens. It appears that teleconverter compatibility continues to be reserved for Sony branded lenses.

Tamron has included their VC (Vibration Compensation) on this G2 lens. While the vast majority of Sony’s full frame mirrorless cameras do have IBIS (In-Body-Image-Stabilization), the addition of lens stabilization does add some additional stability. While there is no CIPA rating given for the VC system (which tells me that it isn’t good enough to brag about), Tamron does say this, “Moreover, at focal lengths up to 100mm, artificial intelligence (AI) technology provides vibration compensation with videography in mind.” This isn’t Tamron’s best implementation of VC, as I don’t feel the viewfinder stabilizes particularly well and I do see a bit of sideways movement after VC releases. Still, it does help. I could get fairly stable handheld video, and I also was able to get some slow shutter speed shots like this one at 180mm, 1/5th of a second (about 5 stops of stabilization…on a 61MP camera).

All in all the Tamron 70-180mm F2.8 VC G2 is nicely upgraded in features and build, though the competition has gotten better, too. Still, I doubt too many people will mind a few less bells and whistles for this price, as the lens is fairly well equipped. The inability to use teleconverters remains perhaps the biggest miss here, but I also suspect that is something that Tamron has no control over.

Tamron 70-180mm F2.8 G2 Autofocus Performance

The first generation 70-180mm was their first lens to receive Tamron’s highest end focus system, called VXD. Tamron said this, “Tamron developed its first-ever linear motor AF drive focus mechanism, VXD (Voice-coil eXtreme-torque Drive), especially for the 70-180mm F/2.8. While operating faster than ever before, the drive also maintains positional accuracy down to 0.005mm (0.0002 in), less than one-tenth the width of a human hair! This provides unprecedented fast and precise AF performance. A floating system that uses two high-speed, high-precision VXD units with advanced electronic control is also used.” In short, we have the equivalent of two high torque linear motors used here, and Tamron notes updated algorithms that help to work with Sony’s addition of more AI-trackable subjects with their newest cameras. There is plenty of speed for tracking action here. Sony caps the burst rate on its sports cameras at 15FPS for non-Sony lenses, though that only really affects the a9 and a1 series cameras. I was able to track birds in flight without issue.

Focus is pretty much fantastic, with very quick focus speeds not only at 70mm but also on the telephoto end. You can see the speed of focus changes in my video review, but essentially focus is fast enough that you won’t think about it, which is probably the most important to me. On occasions I did see a focus cycle where focus went the wrong direction first and then quickly moved to the correct point, but because focus for stills is so fast, it wasn’t really an issue.

I did find that on occasion the camera/lens didn’t want to focus on a foreground subject, but that’s not unusual on modern cameras, and I was able to “fix” the problem by grabbing a higher contrast foreground subject first and then refocusing where I wanted it.

I took some shots of geese on a busy pond surface, and I got very well focused results.

Likewise shots of a mangy fox were perfectly focused as well.

Most important was the performance for portraits, which was pretty much flawless. I shot at different focus distances, with different layering (through leaves or foreground objects, etc…), and at different focal lengths. None of it mattered. Focus locked quickly and confidently on the eyes and produced one perfectly focused result after another.

This great AF performance makes the lens attractive for portrait or wedding work, as focus is fast, consistent, and reliable.

Video results are good in general. My test of video focus pulls was largely successful, with smooth, fast focus transitions. On one cycle focus initially went the wrong direction and then corrected, an issue I noted I saw a couple of times for stills, too. I am testing a pre-release copy of the lens, however, so that could yet improve.

My “hand test” where I block focus from the eye and then allow focus to transition back to the eye went well, with smooth and confident transitions from one source to the other. Focus was also good when I got close to the camera and allowed it to locate my eye. I shot some clips with a model as she moved from pose to pose, and focus stayed nicely locked onto her throughout the transitions.

Sony’s newest 70-200mm lenses (either the F4 or F2.8 versions) have amazing focus systems. I don’t think I would rank the Tamron’s focus quite as high as those lenses, but it isn’t far behind. Most users should be very happy with the autofocus performance here.

Tamron 70-180mm F2.8 VC VXD G2 Image Quality

Tamron’s previous 70-180mm lens was sharp, but this new lens is operating at an even higher level. The updated optical design adds an additional element and group, bring us up to 20 elements in 15 groups (including 7 exotic elements) and the MTF chart shows that an already sharp lens has been improved to extremely high levels all across the frame. I’ve included the old MTF chart here (image 3) for comparison.

It is incredibly crisp all across the zoom range even on a very high resolution camera like my Sony a7RV (61MP). Kind of hard to imagine asking for more sharpness than this:

Longitudinal chromatic aberrations (LoCA) typically show up as purple/magenta fringing before the plane of focus and blue/green fringing beyond the plane of focus due to colors not being perfectly focused together. They typically diminish as the lens is stopped down to smaller apertures. I didn’t see really see any kind of fringing at all here, whether on my test chart:

…or with real world objects.

I also didn’t see any lateral chromatic aberrations that typically show up near the edges of the frame:

Not having to worry about fringing is great!

So how about vignette and distortion? Here’s a look at both uncorrected and corrected results at the wide, middle, and telephotos ends of the zoom range.

We see variations on the same theme: some pincushion distortion and a moderate amount of vignette. At 70mm the correction required a -4 for the distortion and a +50 for the vignette. At 115mm the distortion correction increased to a -9 and the vignette a +68. At 180mm the distortion remained at -9 and the vignette slightly increases to a +74. That’s been 2 and 3 stops of vignette throughout the zoom range. The distortion is very linear and easy to correct.

Tamron receives fairly good profile support from Sony, so in-camera JPEGs and video will be corrected, while RAW images will require the use of a correction profile in editing software as usual. So far we see nothing too bothersome here.

So how about sharpness? I’ve used the very high resolution (61MP) Sony a7RV for this series of tests, which obviously sets an exacting standard for sharpness and contrast. Here’s a look at the test chart:

At 70mm the crops (near 200%) from the center, mid-frame, and corners at F2.8 are near perfect. We see very consistent sharpness and contrast all across the frame.

This is a lens that handles the 61MP resolution point over all of the frame from wide open on. A real world F2.8 shot shows exquisite sharpness at F2.8:

Stopping down is really for increasing depth of field, as sharpness is already near perfect. I shot this landscape image at F5.6, and you can see how much detail is evident everywhere in the frame.

Minimum aperture across the frame is F22, though as per usual I recommend against shooting at smaller apertures than F11 as diffraction starts to really limit contrast. Look at the radical difference between F2.8 and F22:

$41-Diffraction$

Moving on to 100mm shows even higher performance, with more contrast and detail all across the frame:

Here’s a real world shot that shows the great detail at 100mm:

Moving on to 135mm shows near equal center sharpness:

…though corner performance isn’t quite as good:

Stopping down makes some improvement in the corners, but they are never quite as good as what we’ve seen at wider focal lengths.

Real world results continue to be fantastic, though. Here’s a portrait shot and crop at 145mm, F2.8:

Things sharpen up a bit more at 180mm, with the corners looking noticeably sharper at 180mm (right) vs 135mm (left):

Real world results look great. Look at how exquisitely sharp this real world shot of a fox is at 180mm, F2.8:

This F2.8 portrait shows perfect sharpness:

This is an incredibly sharp lens all across the zoom range, and it can easily handle the high resolution a7R cameras.

Bokeh is also quite good overall, with creamy backgrounds that aren’t busy:

Getting close allows you to really blur out a background:

Even further distances show nice bokeh and also good 3D subject pop:

A high end prime is going to give you nicer bokeh still, but few zooms are going to give you much more than this.

Contrast and colors were excellent, with nice saturation levels and good “pop” to the images.

Here’s another crisp shot with great contrast and color.

This makes for a nice landscape lens as well, as the detail and contrast look good either in color or monochrome:

Flare resistance is also fairly good due to update and improved BBAR-G2 (Broad-Band Anti-Reflection Generation 2) coatings.

There really aren’t any optical flaws, which will allow this lens to stay competitive with the incredible Sony 70-200mm F2.8 GM II lens in the optics department. This is an amazing “bang-for-the-buck” fast telephoto zoom. If you would like to see more images, check out my image gallery here.

Conclusion

Sony’s newest 70-200mm F2.8 GM II zoom is absolutely incredible…but it is also incredibly expensive. The new Tamron 70-180mm F2.8 Di III VC VXD G2 lens may have a slightly reduced zoom range and a few less features, but it is also well under half the price of the GM lens. The fact that the Tamron is also a very competent lens helps, obviously. It can’t be used with teleconverters, but not everyone uses teleconverters anyway. If you typically use just the bare lens, then the Tamron could be a very appealing alternative, as it is capable of producing gorgeous images.

There is a lot of serious improvements here for just $100 more in price. The build and features are improved, autofocus is slightly improved, and even the image quality is improved. We’ve now got VC, which was perhaps the main criticism from many of the first generation lens.

So is it worth buying? From a value perspective, absolutely. It’s not quite at the GM II level on any level other than sharpness, but it’s not far behind in most categories. I would also say that it is worth upgrading if you can get decent value from your G1 lens. The Tamron 70-180mm G2 is a lot of lens for the $1299 USD price point, and the range of improvements is pretty much across the board. Sony shooters are once again the winner, as we are getting ever improving options from Sony and the various third parties who develop for E-mount.

Pros:

Improved build and features
Weather sealing
The inclusion of VC
USB-C port and Lens Utility software provides versality
Fast and highly accurate autofocus
High levels of sharpness across zoom range
Good color rendition
Good chromatic aberration control
Good bokeh
Competitively priced
Good close up performance
Shares a 67mm filter thread with most Tamron E-mount lenses

Cons:

20mm shorter focal length than competing lenses
Not designed for work with teleconverters
VC can be a little jumpy

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GEAR USED:

Purchase the Tamron 70-180mm F2.8 VC G2 @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

Purchase the Sony a7RV @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Camera Canada | Sony Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

Purchase the Sony a7IV @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Camera Canada | Sony Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

Purchase the Sony Alpha 1 @ Camera Canada | B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Sony Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

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Keywords: Tamron, 70-180mm, G2, VC, Tamron 70-180mm F2.8 VC, VXD, Full Frame, Review, Sony Alpha 1, Sony a7RV, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Portrait, Photography, let the light in, #letthelightin, DA, Weather Sealing

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 70-180mm F2.8 Di III VC VXD G2 Gallery

Dustin Abbott

September 14th, 2023

2020 was a weird year.

For everyone.

It was a weird year for lens reviewers as well, though one of the highlights of 2020 was the release of Tamron’s 70-180mm F2.8 VXD (which I reviewed here). It was a serious disruptor in the Sony E-mount space, as it brought an optically strong, good focusing alternative to the Sony 70-200mm GM at a price point of less than 50%. It also had some shortcomings, namely a complete lack of features and also no optical stabilization. But it has been a popular choice because it is an optically sound and, well, affordable. The Tamron’s success was aided by the fact that the Sony 70-200mm GM was good but not exceptional. Sony has addressed that with a fantastic Mark II version of the GM lens (my review here), though that lens does cost about $2800 USD. In the never ending one-upmanship of the camera industry, that means that it is time for Tamron to up their game as well…and they have.

The new Tamron 70-180mm F2.8 Di III VC VXD G2 is the second generation of Tamron’s fast telephoto zoom. The key upgrades include improved the inclusion of VC (Vibration Compensation, Tamron’s optical stabilizer), upgraded optics, some additional features, and an enhanced magnification on the wide end.

A number of the weaknesses are addressed with the Tamron, and they’ve kept the price at a very reasonable $1299 USD. And, most importantly, I feel like Tamron has maintained the core focus of this lens (which we’ll call the 70-180 G2 in this review), which is to provide a lightweight, high performing alternative to the larger, more expensive 70-200mm options.

And this is a very high performing lens. It is brilliantly sharp even on Sony’s highest resolution cameras.

A few of the shortcomings remain, including a smaller zoom range that has 20mm less than competing lenses, fewer features, and the inability to use teleconverters.

But there’s a lot that people are willing to accept for a $1500 difference in price. Those that simply can’t afford a $2800 lens but could potentially afford a $1300 lens remain the single largest audience for this lens, though this review will also try to address the interests of a second group: those who own the first generation 70-180mm and are curious as to whether an upgrade is warranted. You can judge for yourself by either watching my video review below or reading my text review…or just enjoy the photos below.

Thanks to Tamron USA for sending me a review loaner of this lens. As always, this is a completely independent review. *The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the Sony a7RV along with the Sony Alpha 1 that serve as my benchmark cameras for Sony lenses.

Photos of the Tamron 70-180mm G2 Build and Handling

Photos taken with the Tamron 70-180mm F2.8 VC VXD G2

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

GEAR USED:

Purchase the Tamron 70-180mm F2.8 VC G2 @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

Purchase the Sony a7RV @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Camera Canada | Sony Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

Purchase the Sony a7IV @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Camera Canada | Sony Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

Purchase the Sony Alpha 1 @ Camera Canada | B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Sony Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase a Sony a9M2 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo | Amazon | Adorama | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Ebay | Make a donation via Paypal

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Keywords: Tamron, 70-180mm, G2, VC, Tamron 70-180mm F2.8 VC, VXD, Full Frame, Review, Sony Alpha 1, Sony a7RV, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Portrait, Photography, let the light in, #letthelightin, DA, Weather Sealing

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 28-75mm F2.8 Di III VXD G2 (A063) Review

Dustin Abbott

November 8th, 2021

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:

All told, that’s a lot of awesome in the optics department. The previous generation lens was very good for its price; the A063 is just good, period. Check out the image gallery here if you’d like to see even more photos than I can fit in the review.

Conclusion

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
Advanced weather sealing with 8 seal points
Fluorine coating
New finish and lens sculpting attractive
Powerful VXD focus motor
Quick and quiet autofocus
Strong optical performance throughout zoom range
Exceptional contrast and “pop” to images
Excellent control of chromatic aberrations
Very high levels of magnification
Nice looking (improved) bokeh
No real price increase over first gen lens

Cons:

Some will find that 28mm isn’t wide enough
A bit of fringing in difficult situations

Gear Used:

Purchase the Tamron 28-75mm F2.8 VXD G2 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Amplis Foto (use code AMPLIS52018DA for 5% off) | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

Purchase the Tamron 35-150mm F2-2.8 VXD @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amplis Foto (Canada) (use code AMPLIS52018DA for 5% off) | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

Purchase the Sony Alpha 1 @ Camera Canada | B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase a Sony a9M2 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Sony a9 Camera: B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay
Sony a7RIV Camera: B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Buy DA Merchandise https://bit.ly/TWIMerch

Purchase a Sony a7C @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Peak Design Leash Strap: Peak Design Store | B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK

Adobe Photoshop Creative Cloud 1-Year Subscription
Exposure Software X6 (Use Code “dustinabbott” to get 10% anything and everything)
Visit Dustin’s Amazon Storefront and see his favorite gear

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 28-75mm F2.8 VXD G2 Image Gallery

Dustin Abbott

November 8th, 2021

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).

Photos of the Tamron 28-75mm VXD

Photos taken with the Tamron 28-75mm VXD

Gear Used:

Purchase the Tamron 28-75mm F2.8 VXD G2 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Amplis Foto (use code AMPLIS52018DA for 5% off) | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

Purchase the Tamron 35-150mm F2-2.8 VXD @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amplis Foto (Canada) (use code AMPLIS52018DA for 5% off) | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

Purchase the Sony Alpha 1 @ Camera Canada | B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase a Sony a9M2 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Sony a9 Camera: B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay
Sony a7RIV Camera: B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Buy DA Merchandise https://bit.ly/TWIMerch

Purchase a Sony a7C @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Peak Design Leash Strap: Peak Design Store | B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK

Adobe Photoshop Creative Cloud 1-Year Subscription
Exposure Software X6 (Use Code “dustinabbott” to get 10% anything and everything)
Visit Dustin’s Amazon Storefront and see his favorite gear

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 70-180mm F2.8 VXD (A056) Review

Dustin Abbott

April 27th, 2020

The Tamron 70-180mm F2.8 VXD is one of the most highly anticipated lenses of 2020…and that became clear from the moment that it was announced. Tamron has taken a different approach to its fast zooms on Sony. Sony’s own zooms are feature rich and high performing, but they are also at the top end of the class (across platforms) for price, size, and weight. So far Sigma’s fast zooms are similar, save that they are much more moderately priced. Tamron’s approach has been to reduce the complexity of the lenses (compressed focal lengths, i.e. 28-75mm rather than 24-70mm, 17-28mm vs 16-35mm, and, in this case, 70-180mm vs 70-200mm) and to deliver a stripped down feature set (no external switches or buttons, no aperture ring, etc…). By doing this, they have been able to deliver smaller, lighter, and cheaper lenses that still deliver extremely competitive image quality. And so far it has worked. The 28-75mm (my review here) became the best selling lens in the world for the year after it was introduced, and the 17-28mm (my review here) has also been extremely popular. The 70-180mm VXD (which we will refer to by its internal code A056 for brevity) looks to continue that approach.

In some ways, however, the A056 delivers on this premise in the most dramatic way. The Sony 70-200mm F2.8 G Master lens is 200mm long and weighs 1480g. It costs nearly $2600 USD. The Tamron, by comparison, is only 149mm long and weighs 810g…and costs only $1199! Sigma has not yet released their own 70-200mm F2.8 on Sony, but if it follows the trends thus far, I suspect it will be similar in size to the Sony lens but cost dramatically less (I would expect a price around $1399-1499 USD). Tamron is betting that a lens that weighs 58% less, is 30% shorter, and is 74% cheaper will be the kind of formula that will appeal to a LOT of photographers. I think they are probably right from what I can gauge of the early response of photographers in various communities. While I don’t have the Sony 70-200 GM on hand, I did happen to have the 100-400 GM on hand at the same time. That lens is 12mm wider in diameter and is 5mm longer than the 70-200GM (though it actually weighs less), but it is virtually the same size as the 70-200GM. Here’s how much larger it looks compared to the Tamron A056.

That’s obviously a pretty dramatic difference, and it makes a huge difference in how you handle and use the lens. A typical 70-200mm F2.8 requires a different mindset to using it. It is heavy and large, and for many people it brings fatigue sooner than later. I am personally quite fit, but after a day of shooting a wedding, I am physically (and mentally) exhausted. The vastly reduced weight and smaller size of the lens allow one to use the lens more like a typical lens while still getting the kinds of shots (and the look of shots) that we typically associate with a 70-200mm F2.8.

So on paper the A056 is at the least an intriguing option. But can it deliver the goods optically…and does that new VXD motor bring the speed? That’s what we are here to explore in detail. You can either read on, or choose to watch either the Definitive (long format) or Standard (quicker format) video review:

I want to thank Tamron USA for working to get me an early loaner copy of the lens for review. I’m doing the review on my Sony a7RIII and Sony a9 bodies.

Tamron 70-180mm F2.8 VXD Build and Handling

As noted, Tamron has chosen the compromise of a more abbreviated focal length in order to achieve a smaller, lighter lens. Here’s a more detailed look at how the A056 compares to other lenses in terms of is specifications.

As I noted in the introduction, Tamron has chosen a fairly stripped down approach to these fast zooms. There are no focus hold buttons, no AF/MF switches, no aperture ring. In many ways it is the AF/MF switch that I miss the most, as that remains the quickest, most logical way to switch between autofocus and manual focus. The focus hold button, while useful, has become less of a priority to me since Sony has introduced full time Eye AF. I do enjoy a manual aperture ring when a lens has one, but I also recognize that many (most) photographers control aperture from camera anyway.

The upside is that Tamron is able to deliver a clean, modern lens with few visual distractions.

I’ll be frank; I appreciate the Sony GM approach with a lot of rich features, but I’m not sure (personally) that I would be willing to pay a significant premium for any of them. Your mileage may vary, obviously, but I will say this: Sony shooters are very spoiled for choice right now. We have the Tamron approach, with great performance in smaller, less expensive packages. We have the Sigma approach, with also-great performance but in more traditional focal lengths and sizes, and at a medium price point (typically about $200-300 more than Tamron equivalent). We have the Sony GM approach, with premium lenses and premium performances at a premium price. In the past few years we have quickly seen the full frame mirrorless space on Sony become saturated with just about as much choice as Canon and Nikon had in DSLRs after decades with their current EF and F mounts. Nice!

The one external features (outside of the zoom and manual focus rings) is a zoom lock. That is present because, unlike most 70-200mm lenses, the A056 is not actually an internally zooming lens. The barrel does extend a bit when zooming out, though the overall length never quite reaches that of a typical 70-200mm. Here’s a look at that extension.

Fortunately the zoom action is actually as smooth as an internally zooming lens, with no sticking points or roughness to the zoom action. There is no wobble in the barrel extension, either. There is little to complain about here, particularly because that bit of external zoom saves us in overall length of the lens (a big deal!) and also probably helps with a secondary issue that plagued the Tamron 70-200mm F2.8 G2 lens. That lens (and the previous SP 70-200mm F2.8 from Tamron) suffered from a lot of “focus breathing” that resulted in the lens behaving as if the focal length was shorter than 200mm at closer focus distances. That lens could focus down to 3.12′ (95cm) and had a rather poor 0.16x, though even that was an improvement on the worse still 0.125x of the previous gen G1 lens. We’ve got a big improvement here, with a closer still minimum focus distances of 2.8′ (85cm) and a much better magnification of nearly 0.22x. This actually better the Canon EF 70-200mm F2.8L III (0.21x) but doesn’t match the 0.25x of the Sony 70-200mm GM (though, to be fair, the Canon and Sony lenses achieve that at 200mm rather than 180mm). Bottom line is that this is now a competitive figure, and that is very possibly due at least in part to the fact that the lens extends when zooming. Here’s what that magnification looks like:

That’s certainly useful. You can tell that the center of the image is very sharp at MFD, though the corners lag behind. That’s true by orders of magnitude more in the “secret macro mode”. The 28-75mm F2.8 RXD actually had higher magnification and a closer MFD at 28mm, and that’s true here, too, though you have to manually focus to unlock a a very high degree of magnification (about 1:2 or 0.50x magnification) at a focus distance of only 10.6″ (27cm). The end result is a really center focused, highly magnified image that makes the outer portion of the image feel like something akin to a zoom blur has been applied.

You obviously need to compose near the center of the frame for this to work, but it is certainly an extra bonus that could be very useful to, say, wedding photographers to get close ups of flowers, dresses, etc… Here’s a few samples:

Tamron has elected to not include their VC (Vibration Compensation) in this lens, choosing to rely on Sony’s IBIS (In Body Image Stabilization) to save size, cost, and weight. On the other two zooms, this has been a perfectly good approach, but it falls apart a bit here. In my tests, I found that I didn’t get as good of results I’m accustomed to seeing with in-lens stabilization. Sony’s IBIS worked quite well for video, but I got only about a 20% keeper rate with handheld shots at 1/13th second at 180mm on my a7RIII (I’d expect something closer to 75-80% with lens stabilization). There’s definitely a noticeable improvement in the tests compared to having SteadyShot off, but better doesn’t equal good on most of the shots. Moving to 1/25th second definitely brings an improvement, but at a pixel level almost none of my tests were perfectly steady. The higher resolution of the a7RIV would made this even more apparent, though the SteadyShot might work marginally better in that newer camera.

My keeper rate was higher on my a9, though part of that is simply due to the fact that lower resolution makes the motion blur less obvious. Moving up to 1/25th second improved the keeper rate to where most shots were acceptably sharp and some excellent. What is odd is that I didn’t much better results at 70mm than what I did at 180mm, though I did find that I got a little better results when I manually selected the correct focal length in SteadyShot.

I always add the caveat that even a perfect image stabilizer can only adjust for movement of the camera and not of the subject. If you are shooting a completely stationary subject, a low shutter speed might produce an acceptable results, but with most living subjects you are better served by keeping your shutter speeds up. If you are working within normal parameters, things will be fine, though you do have to be a little more cautious about shutter speed than if you were working with an exceptionally good VC system. This is particularly true if you are using the lens on the RII/III/IV bodies that have higher resolution. Here’s a real-world example taken at 1/60th second, 130mm on a 42Mpx a7RIII that is perfectly stable:

I did have some real-world results that were a bit impacted by motion blur that I was surprised by. Here’s one at 1/100th of a second and 180mm:

Yes, it was cold and wet and so certainly not optimal conditions, but still, what highlighted this issue to me was real-world feedback in that I had some shots impacted by motion blur in conditions where I did not expect them. I could actually care less whether or not I can handhold 1/10th of a second shots at 180mm; the real world applications for that are near nil. What I do care about are shots like these, where image stabilization can help cover you if you forget to think about shutter speed quite as much as you should. I have frequently found Sony’s IBIS to be about as “real-world good” as lens IS, but there appears to be a law of diminishing returns with longer focal lengths.

While some have been critical of the build quality of these new Tamron zooms, I won’t count myself among them. I do think that the Sigma zooms on Sony have been a little more robust, and certainly the GM lenses are a step above in build quality, but I’ve been using the 28-75mm since its release on a nearly daily basis for video and stills work, and it still works and looks like new. These are not big, bulky, or high on external metals, but they are far from consumer grade quality in build. The shell has proven tough and durable on them, and each of these zooms has been equipped with a solid grade of weather resistance, including a rear gasket, internal seals, and a fluorine coating on the front element to help resist oils and water.

During the lockdown due to COVID-19 during the period I’ve been doing the review, I’ve gone on many, many walks. Weather in early spring in Ontario, Canada, where I live is incredibly volatile. As a result, I’ve gotten randomly rained on a number of times, but like with the 17-28mm and 28-75mm lenses, normal weather exposure seems to be easily handled. Weather resistant is not waterproof, but for normal use in inclement weather the A056 should do fine. I also shot a snowy portrait session and had no issues. I’ve not had issues with any of the Tamron zooms even in the coldest of our winter conditions…which are seriously cold!

As noted, the zoom ring moves nicely. It is wide and ribbed in a rubberized material. The manual focus ring is much narrower and has a tighter ribbing pattern. It is reasonably well damped and is non-linear in nature. If you want to make major focus changes, twist it fast, and move slower for more finite focus adjustments. If you turn it slowly, it will take many rotations to go from minimum focus to infinity, but if you make very fast turns you will get there much more quickly. The instances that you will need manual focus, however, are probably few due to the excellent autofocus system. You will need to switch to MF or DMF in the camera, however, as there is no AF/MF switch on the lens.

There is a strong family resemblance to Tamron’s trinity of fast zooms, and, while the 70-200 is easily the largest of the trio, it is actually only a bit longer than the Sony 24-70mm F2.8 and actually weighs less. It will be much easier to transport attached to a camera than any 70-200 you’ve ever used. It comes with a lens hood though without a case.

Another very, very nice asset here is that Tamron has managed to retain the common 67mm filter size across their whole lineup of lenses for Sony FE. This is the sixth lens they’ve released on the platform, and all of them have had that common design element, which is yet another way you can save money. You can use the same filter across all of the lenses rather than investing in filters at a number of different sizes. It also means that you can travel or go out on a shoot with just a couple of filters that you could share across the lenses. Nice!

Our headline features here are the weather sealing and compact size of the lens. The A056 feels reasonably tough (though nothing like the all-metal GM), handles well and is easy to use, though without any of the extra bells and whistles that both Sigma and Sony have included on their professional zooms.

One primary vulnerability, however, is that the A056 does not appear to be compatible with teleconverters. I borrowed an SEL14TC (Sony 1.4x teleconverter) from Sony Canada to test the combination…but didn’t get very far. The TC would not physically mount, as the protruding front element of the TC did not physically fit into the back of the lens. The opening is a bit squared off, and there just isn’t enough physical clearance for it to insert. This result makes me skeptical that the lens would be compatible with a future Tamron teleconverter, as the physical design of Tamron TCs that I’ve seen are physically similar to their first party counterparts.

Maybe this will help, however. To purchase the Sony 16-35mm, 24-70mm, and 70-200mm F2.8 GM lenses, it will cost you about $7000 USD. You can get the Tamron 17-28mm, 28-75mm, and 70-200mm F2.8 and get similar levels of optical and focus performance for about $3000 USD. I suspect many people will be willing to switch to manual focus in camera for that price difference…

A056 Autofocus Performance

Before I get to the good stuff, let me make a general observation. I really like Tamron as a company, but I do have to observe that the sheer quantity of different names for their focus motors is pretty much out of control. In the past 20 years, Canon has had USM, micro-motors, STM, and Nano-USM. Of those four motor types, you will likely only see two used in lens designations (USM and STM). In the past five years alone, I have reviewed lenses from Tamron with focus motors designated USD, RXD, OSD, HLD, DC, PZD, and now VXD. I’m a gear guy that reviews lenses for a living, and even I have a hard time remembering all of those and what they mean. Tamron has been using RXD motors in the previous two Sony FE zooms, but they’ve released yet another new focus drive system. RXD has been fantastic, with quick, smooth, and silent operation. It would appear that Tamron wanted something even more extreme for this new 70-180mm lens, however, probably with the recognition that a lens with this focal length is more often used for sports or other high speed work.

Here’s what the promotional material from Tamron says: “Tamron developed its first-ever linear motor AF drive focus mechanism, VXD (Voice-coil eXtreme-torque Drive), especially for the 70-180mm F/2.8. While operating faster than ever before, the drive also maintains positional accuracy down to 0.005mm (0.0002 in), less than one-tenth the width of a human hair! This provides unprecedented fast and precise AF performance. A floating system that uses two high-speed, high-precision VXD units with advanced electronic control is also used.”

That sounds great…but what is the reality? Pretty fantastic, actually. This is one of the fastest and quietest focusing lenses I’ve ever used, with near instant pulls from close to infinity even at 180mm. Focus speed will not be an issue for anyone, and video focus pulls are smooth, quiet, and precise. I had good success with picking out fine, narrow subjects against busy backgrounds.

Here’s another example where I composed far to the side and yet had good, accurate end results.

Eye AF works well on either human or “pet” subjects, with focus quickly locking on the subject’s eye and delivering well focused results (even in poor light). I had to shoot this photo of my dog at ISO 12,800 because the area where she was laying was so shadowed, but I took three shots from three different focus distances at 180mm and all three were well focused.

This great AF performance makes the lens attractive for portrait work, as it is very easy to get repeatably well-focused results that allow the very good optics of the lens to shine.

There is plenty of speed for tracking action there as well. I shot this series in challenging lighting conditions (early morning dappled light with major variation between light and shadow – my subject was a fast moving small dog who is very dark around the eyes, making eye AF tracking difficult, particularly in poor light). I was shooting in high speed burst on my Sony a9, where the combination with the A056 yields 15FPS. Despite the challenging conditions I could see the potential of the lens. Most of my images were well focused, with over half hitting the category of exceptionally well focused.

This included some shots where a last second cut to the side resulted in my scrambling to keep the dog in the frame (I wasn’t always successful!). I was pleasantly surprised to find that though my subject was almost out of frame, the focus system had managed to still track her. I’ve added a bit of extra exposure to the crop to show how good focus is…despite the fact that the eyes are essentially obscured by her floppy ears.

I’ve done the same with this shot here, which shows great focus on the eyes despite the eyes being in deep shadow (both a shadowed area and due to her very dark face around the eyes).

There would be an occasional pulse early on in a sequence where the very speed of the focus motor would overcorrect and backfocus before coming back to proper focus on the next frame, like this:

I suspect the tricky lighting may have contributed to this, as she started the run in shadow and transitioned to really bright light. Still, however, this is easily the best performance overall that I’ve seen from a Tamron 70-200mm(ish) lens. More standard action should be easy to track.

This is an excellent focus system. I’ve noted a few other photographers who have had a chance to handle this lens and compare it to the 70-200mm GM note that the Tamron actually provided faster, more accurate end results. I certainly won’t complain about this kind of result at 180mm, F2.8:

Bravo for VXD!

Tamron 70-180mm F2.8 VXD (A056) Image Quality

So it focuses fast, is light and compact, and has an appealing price…but does the Tamron 70-180mm F2.8 VXD deliver the optical goods?

Why yes, yes it does.

Let’s get some real world perspective before we jump into formal tests. Here’s a pixel level crop at 137mm, F4:

Very nice indeed. That’s on a 42Mpx a7RIII.

How about this? Here’s a 74mm, F2.8 landscape shot along with a crop from the center and then the edge.

What about 180mm, F2.8?

Some encouraging signs, to be sure. The A056 has an optical formula of 19 elements in 14 groups, but 8 of those are special elements, including a molded glass aspherical element, two hybrid aspherical elements, 5 lower dispersion elements, and one extra low dispersion elements).

At 70mm we find a very minor amount of barrel distortion (+2 to correct in Lightroom) along with some obvious vignette, though the correction in Lightroom only required a +21 in amount to correct, though I slid the midpoint slider all the way over. This is a good thing, however, as it means there is a small amount of vignette that moves very linearly towards the middle of the frame.

At 180mm the distortion has switched to a moderate amount of pincushion distortion (-10 to correct in Lightroom), with an almost identical amount of vignette (+22) that can be corrected the exact same way.

Some pincushion distortion is often flattering for portrait work, as is a nicely linear vignette. Here’s a look at a portrait with and without correction. While the difference is slight, you’ll find that the model’s face looks a little slimmer in the uncorrected version and there is a mild amount of vignette that draws the eyes towards the center. I personally would choose the uncorrected version.

What is surprising is that the 70-200mm G2 lens from Tamron had MUCH heaver vignette (I needed a +48 in Lightroom) despite having a larger 77mm front filter thread (the Sigma 70-200mm Sport was worse still despite a larger still 82mm front filter thread). It’s ironic, but the smaller front element of the A056 doesn’t seem to be an impediment to light transmission or vignette. There isn’t an Adobe correction preset available at the time of this review, but frankly it isn’t much missed because neither distortion nor vignette present a significant problem. JPEG and Video files will be automatically corrected in camera if you have corrections enabled, and a preset for RAW files will appear soon.

I also had good results from my longitudinal chromatic aberration test. I see little evidence of either green or purple fringing, with nice contrast at 180mm, F2.8:

This reconciles with real world LoCA results, which are well controlled even on a very difficult subject here:

Here’s a look at my test chart at 70mm.

Crops from the center, mid frame, and corner all look very good, with good sharpness, contrast, and little evidence of lateral chromatic aberrations.

Little improvement is seen at F4, though there is a bit of a contrast boost at F5.6. Bottom line is that you are getting a strong performance right out of the gate at F2.8.

There’s a mild regression at 100mm, with wide open results being a bit softer across the frame at F2.8 compared to 70mm:

There’s a mild improvement at F4 and F5.6, with excellent results by F8.

There is a very strong rebound at 135mm, however, with the best results yet.

You can see how much stronger 135mm is than 100mm, though here’s proof that there’s room for improvement. It’s an unfair comparison, perhaps, as the Sony 135mm F1.8 GM is perhaps the sharpest lens I’ve ever tested (and has the advantage of being stopped down 1 1/3 stops at F2.8), but here’s how the two lenses compare:

Yeah, the GM still pretty much destroys it, though interestingly the two lenses are closest in performance in the corner. The Tamron is very good for such a zoom lens, but no zoom is in the class of the 135 GM.

The A056 is incredibly sharp by F5.6 from edge to edge.

The 70-200G2 dropped off a little at 200mm, but that’s not the case here. The A056 hits a new peak for sharpness at 180mm, besting even the 135mm performance.

Here’s a look at crops from across the frame:

There is a mild improvement at F4, and by F5.6 we are reaching exceptional levels of contrast and resolution.

So, other than a mild misstep at 100mm, we’ve got great performance across the range. And frankly, even at 100mm, real world results look pretty good. Here’s a photo at 102mm at F2.8 and a crop from the left corner.

The contrast is a little lower, but this is still a good performance.

How about the bokeh?

Ironically you can create the most bokeh by using a close focus subject at 70mm due to the macro(ish) capabilities. Here’s a look at some really beautiful bokeh circles at 70mm at F2.8-5.6:

Very nice! You can see that the 9 rounded aperture blades do quite a good job of retaining a circular shape stopped down.

The results aren’t as incredible at 180mm for this test:

Use the 70mm focal length up close if you want to do big, round bokeh highlights, like I did here:

Still, 180mm looks pretty good, too:

Environmental portraiture looks pretty good with the lens:

Here’s a variety of other real world bokeh shots to allow you to draw your own conclusions:

I think, at the least, it is easily safe to say that the bokeh is more neutral and less divisive than what we saw on the 28-75mm, which has somewhat polarizing bokeh.

Tamron states that the A056 had their G2 (second generation) BBAR coatings to reduce flare effects. The lens is not entirely flare prone, as it still has some susceptibility to corner veiling and ghosting (almost universal for large aperture telephotos). You can see that straight on flare resistance is good, however (and also get a look at sunburst effects).

This is actually a better than typical performance, so I think the coatings are doing their job.

All told, we’ve got a strong optical performance from a lens that seems to be checking pretty much all of the boxes. If you want to check out more photo samples, visit the lens image gallery here. I’ve managed to get a lot of beautiful photos from the lens despite this being one of the ugliest times of year…made worse by COVID-19 prevention isolation!

Conclusion

Outside of the standard zoom (24-70mm, or 28-75mm in Tamron’s FE offering), there is no lens more indispensable for professional work than the 70-200mm focal length (or 70-180mm here) and a large maximum aperture of F2.8. A lens like this allows you to shoot portraits, weddings, or events, some sports, and any number of everyday subjects. Tamron has managed to reinvent this popular lens with a smaller, lighter, and yet high performing lens in the Tamron 70-180mm F2.8 VXD for Sony full frame mirrorless. It is very sharp from F2.8 on:

It has incredibly fast, accurate autofocus, that helps to deliver images with beautiful subject isolation and nice looking bokeh.

There are few vulnerabilities here. The missing 20mm is actually not a big deal in everyday use, and the elimination of the focus breathing issue of the G2 lens means that at many focus distances the 180mm doesn’t really behave any differently than Tamron’s last 200mm lens! The lens isn’t as feature rich as competitors, but it delivers on the most important elements of focus and optical performance, so I suspect there will be many willing to forgive a few missing switches or buttons. The apparent inability to work with teleconverters could be another potential dealbreaker for some photographers; this is a lens designed to work only as the bare lens. One workaround is to switch into APS-C mode if you need more reach and don’t want to crop later on. My only other potential negative is that I don’t think Sony’s SteadyShot IBIS is as effective as lens stabilization for a focal range like this, though it still works reasonably well.

But that nitpicking aside, there is a whole lot of good going on here. What stands out the most to me is how easy the lens is to use. You don’t have to treat it like you would a typical 70-200mm F2.8, where the sheer bulk and weight of the lens requires a different approach to photography. The A056 weighs less than many modern prime lenses and packs along fairly easily. I suspect most photographers could walk around for hours with this lens and live to tell about it! The fact that such a relatively small, light package also delivers excellent autofocus and image quality makes me think that Tamron very likely has another winner on their hands.

Pros:

Significantly smaller and lighter than competing lenses
Weather sealing
Amazingly fast and highly accurate autofocus
High levels of sharpness across the frame
Good color rendition
Good chromatic aberration control
Good bokeh
Competitively priced
Good close up performance and hidden “macro mode”
Shares a 67mm filter thread with whole Tamron FE lineup

Cons:

20mm shorter focal length than competing lenses
In Body Image Stabilization not as effective as Lens IS in longer focal lengths
No physical controls (switches, buttons) that competing lenses have
Not designed for work with teleconverters

Purchase the Tamron 70-180mm F2.8 VXD @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Sony a9 Camera: B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay
Sony a7RIV Camera: B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay
Sony a7R III Camera: B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon.ca | Amazon UK | Ebay
Peak Design Slide Lite: Peak Design Store | B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK
Peak Design Leash Strap: Peak Design Store | B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK
BenQ SW271 4K Photo Editing Monitor – B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon.ca | Amazon UK
Adobe Photoshop Creative Cloud 1-Year Subscription
Exposure Software X5 (Use Code “dustinabbott” to get 10% anything and everything)

Purchase your gear at:

B&H Photo | Amazon | Ebay | Make a donation via Paypal

Visit Dustin’s Amazon Storefront and see his favorite gear

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!

Use Code “DUSTINHDR” to get $10 off ($15 CDN) any Skylum product: Luminar, Aurora, or AirMagic

Keywords: Sony, Tamron, withmytamron, A056, Tamron 70-180, Tamron 70-180mm, VXD, F2.8, 70-180, 70-180mm, 28-75mm, 17-28mm, Di III, Sony FE, Tamron 70-180mm Review, Tamron 70-180 Review, 70-180mm F2.8, Dustin Abbott, Autofocus, Sample Images, Video, Video Test, review, Video review, Real World, Wide Angle, Sony a7RIII, Sony a7RIV, Portrait, Sharpness, Resolution, Bokeh, 70-200mm, GM, G2

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 70-180mm F2.8 VXD (A056) Image Gallery

Dustin Abbott

April 9th, 2020

The Tamron 70-180mm F2.8 VXD is one of the most highly anticipated lenses of 2020. It is a fast, reasonably compact F2.8 telephoto zoom for Sony full frame mirrorless, and provides an alternative to either of the Sony 70-200mm zooms. The 70-200mm F2.8 GM costs more than twice as much ($1199 vs $2598) and weighs 670g more (an 82% increase!) The Tamron is 51mm shorter as well. It is smaller and lighter even than the Sony 70-200mm F4 OSS lens. But can it deliver the goods optically…and does that new VXD motor bring the speed. Stay tuned to find out. I’ll be reviewing the Tamron 70-180mm VXD on my Sony a7RIII and Sony a9 bodies, and you can see photos from both cameras below. Stay tuned for my ongoing coverage.

Here’s a livestream where I answer some early questions about the lens:

Images of the Tamron 70-180mm F2.8 VXD

Images taken with the Tamron 70-180mm F2.8 VXD

Purchase the Tamron 70-180mm F2.8 VXD @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Sony a9 Camera: B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay
Sony a7RIV Camera: B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay
Sony a7R III Camera: B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon.ca | Amazon UK | Ebay
Peak Design Slide Lite: Peak Design Store | B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK
Peak Design Leash Strap: Peak Design Store | B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK
BenQ SW271 4K Photo Editing Monitor – B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon.ca | Amazon UK
Adobe Photoshop Creative Cloud 1-Year Subscription
Exposure Software X5 (Use Code “dustinabbott” to get 10% anything and everything)

Purchase your gear at:

B&H Photo | Amazon | Ebay | Make a donation via Paypal

Visit Dustin’s Amazon Storefront and see his favorite gear

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!

Use Code “DUSTINHDR” to get $10 off ($15 CDN) any Skylum product: Luminar, Aurora, or AirMagic

Keywords: Sony, Tamron, withmytamron, A056, Tamron 70-180, Tamron 70-180mm, VXD, F2.8, 70-180, 70-180mm, 28-75mm, 17-28mm, Di III, Sony FE, Tamron 70-180mm Review, Tamron 70-180 Review, 70-180mm F2.8, Dustin Abbott, Autofocus, Sample Images, Video, Video Test, review, Video review, Real World, Wide Angle, Sony a7RIII, Sony a7RIV, Portrait, Sharpness, Resolution, Bokeh, 70-200mm, GM, G2

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 SP 15-30mm F2.8 VC G2 (A041) Review

Dustin Abbott

November 14th, 2018

The Tamron SP 15-30mm f/2.8 Di VC USD entered my collection a few months after my review of the lens in February 2015. It resonated to me as a lens that, while large and heavy, really delivered a fantastic optical performance. It was also the only wide angle zoom at the time to hit 15mm while having both a wide F2.8 aperture (which lets in twice as much light as the F4 competitors) and an optical image stabilizer (Tamron’s VC, or Vibration Compensation). Since that point nearly four years ago I’ve pitted it against many other wide angle primes and zooms, and it has always shown well in those comparisons. It certainly does not win in every metric, but neither has it been completely outclassed by any other wide angle option regardless of price. I got a hint a few months ago that this new G2 (A041) version was coming to market, and I was excited for the release as the G2 (Second Generation) series have brought minor optical improvements along with vastly improved build, autofocus, and VC (Vibration Compensation) performance.

The Tamron SP 15-30mm f/2.8 Di VC USD G2 is coded by Tamron as A041, so I’ll utilize that identifier to avoid confusion with the first generation lens, which Tamron identifies as A012. Tamron’s advantage with the G2 lenses is that they are able to deliver a more polished lens than many competitors since they are on their second generation of stabilized zoom lenses over zoom ranges like 15-30mm or 24-70mm where most lens makers are on their first generation (or not as all). My observation has been with each of the G2 lenses that the optical improvements are real, but are overshadowed by improvements in other areas like build, autofocus, and the performance of the Vibration Compensation. As we will see in this review, the same remains true here. What is indisputable, however, is that the finished product of the A041 is definitely a more polished, mature lens that is easily competitive with the best wide angle zoom lenses on the Canon and Nikon platforms.

Prefer to watch your reviews? You can see my detailed video review below, complete with hands-on sample images, video clips, and real-world observations for a real photographer.

Some people have asked me about the “why?” of this lens. “Do they not have any fresh ideas at Tamron?” I think this it to miss the point of the 15-30 G2. Tamron’s bread and butter is their professional zoom lenses which have netted them a lot of critical and commercial success. It’s easy to see their intent by their marketing materials, which emphasize the completion of the “trinity” of the 15-30, 24-70, and 70-200 F2.8 G2 lenses. The release of the A041 is about standardizing Tamron’s pro-grade zooms to a common build design, feature set, and performance. Most reviews agreed that the last generation of Tamron’s pro-grade zooms was competitive optically but sometimes lagged in some of the other metrics like build and autofocus. The G2 series represents an opportunity for Tamron to leverage their investment in optical development (with some minor improvements and tweaks) by pairing the optics with more modern, competitive lens designs and focus motors.

Another key component is compatibility with Tamron’s Tap In Console, which allows Tamron to future-proof their lenses by being able to roll out firmware updates to users quickly and efficiently while also giving users the ability to both customize and maximize the performance of their lens to their individual needs. A full autofocus calibration, for example, is a time-consuming process given that you can insert values at three different focus distances for a number of focal lengths. Once it is done, however, you can be assured of having more accurate autofocus than what was previously possible, as the lens has been optimized for focus at that particular focal length and focus distance.

A041 Autofocus Performance

Tamron has achieved better autofocus performance (noticeably improved focus speed, for one) along with better VC performance by going from a single processing unit in the older lenses to dual processors in the newer lenses. That allows one processor to be tasked to autofocus and the other to vibration compensation. The net benefit seems to be more torque for autofocus (better speed) along with more processing power to run focus algorithms (better focus accuracy). I’ve tested each of the G2 lenses and compared them to the pro-grade Canon lenses and found that the Tamrons could focus as quickly and accurately. That’s a significant achievement, and the idea from 5-10 years ago that third party lenses were inferior in their focus ability is largely erased in this current generation. Tamron’s USD (UltraSonic Drive) motors have continued to get more and more refined.

I got consistently good autofocus results during my review. Out of the box I noted a bit of a front-focus bias at 30mm and distant subjects, but I input an AFMA tweak that easily solved the issue. The most practical test of this came while shooting an event, and after the focus adjustment I consistently got accurate focus on the speaker.

I’ve often noted that wide angle lenses put less stress on autofocus systems in terms of accuracy than telephoto lenses as the depth of field is much larger (and thus more forgiving) at wider focal lengths. What can be an issue for some wide angle lenses is a tendency to pulse back and forth at times. There was no such issue with the A041. I used it in a variety of lighting conditions, even in essentially a dark room (proper exposure required a 2 second exposure at ISO 6400!)

I was able to lock focus more quickly with the A041 via adapter in these lighting conditions than the Canon RF 24-105mm F4L IS on the Canon EOS R, which is saying something. The A041 has a maximum aperture advantage, but it is also a third party lens being used via adapter. There was a little hunting in that type of condition, but in less extreme situations the lens also locked focus quickly and confidently.

Yes, I did use the Tamron SP 15-30mm F2.8 VC G2 lens via adapter on both the brand-new Canon EOS R mirrorless system along with my Sony a7R3 (via the Sigma MC-11 mount converter). It should be noted that the lens was neither developed for either system nor has Tamron worked at specifically testing and developing for those platforms with the A041, but I was pleasantly surprised in both cases. On the EOS R the lens essentially performed natively, and, as I’ll reference in the segment on the VC, I actually was able to get better handheld results due to lower vibration on the mirrorless shutter. Autofocus was quick, accurate, and image quality was excellent. I also found that continual AF in video capture was surprisingly good. Transitions were smooth, and the lens was not “jittery” or pulsing during continuous AF. It’s a nice pairing there as the wide focal length helps offset the significant crop factor of the EOS R in 4K capture. You can see some footage from the combination in the video review. Here’s a few EOS R/EF Adapter/A041 samples:

I essentially expected this (at least for stills) on the EOS R, but I was more surprised with the a7R3/MC-11 combination with both new Tamron lenses, where the performance was generally excellent for stills photography. As a rule, I don’t find that any lenses outside of some Sigma ART series lens do very good in AF-C mode during video with the MC-11, so I didn’t really focus on that. But for stills photography I was pleasantly surprised, as the lens didn’t really give me any hiccups in either AF-S or AF-C modes. While I didn’t use it extensively on that platform, I did try the combo for a hike, and I had no observable issues.

Bottom line is that the dual processor approach of the A041 delivers a better autofocus performance than what the A012 (G1) is capable of. There’s genuine progress there.

A041 Vibration Compensation (VC) Performance

It is also easy to see the significant improvements to their VC performance. Each of the G2 lenses has shown smoother performance (quieter VC performance along with smoother transitions on and off). Some lenses allow you to choose different VC modes as well, and while that is not the case with the A041, you do have the ability to customize the VC performance in three different modes via the Tap In Console. Mode 1 is the standard balanced profile that attempts to stabilize both the viewfinder and the final result. Mode 2 emphasizes viewfinder stability and is the preferred mode for handheld video as it keeps vibration compensation on longer. Mode 3 does little to stabilize the viewfinder but focuses all the processing power on stabilizing the image at capture. Typically Mode 3 delivers the highest rating of “stops” of compensation. The 15-30 G2 is the highest rated wide angle zoom stabilizer by CIPA (Camera & Imaging Products Association of Japan) at a very impressive 4.5 stops (the A012 sported only a 2.5 stop rating by comparison). Here’s a solid example at 1/6th of a second and 30mm, handheld, without VC on:

If we turn the VC on, however, this is what we get:

An informal conversation with a Tamron insider revealed that the stabilizer is actually even more effective than the rating, but the rating represents the limit of where the testing standard is right now. They also noted that while the first generation stabilizers could negatively impact optical performance (something I have noted with some products in a few of my reviews), the new generation of VC motors is able to provide stability without an optical cost. The VC in the A041 functions essentially just as you would desire. It stabilizes everything well, is utterly silent, and is incredibly smooth in operation.

On a practical level, however, I’ve personally noted that there is a limit to how low of a shutter speed I can personally handhold. The higher ratings are easier for me to match with telephoto lenses. For example, I can consistently get good results with Canon or Tamron’s 100-400mm lenses at 400mm and 1/13th second shutter speeds. That’s five stops of stability. To achieve the equivalent result, one would have to handhold a 30mm shot for 1 second or a 15mm shot for 2 seconds. That is much, much harder. I was able to achieve fairly reliable results at 1/4th second (2 stops) and did get a few usable results at 1 seconds, but not reliably. Here’s one at 1 second, 15mm:

Even the vibration of the mirror box and the drag of the shutter at slow shutter speeds introduces too much movement for me (or any lens) to reliably overcome. I got a little better results with the EOS R, as the lack of a mirror meant that the shutter introduces less vibration. In the previous section on autofocus I shared a photo that I actually handheld for 2 seconds in an essentially dark room (you would have to have had a 2 minute exposure at ISO 100 to achieve a similar result, which tells you how little light was in the room). I could definitely NOT consistently produce the same result, however.

What is definitely true is that you can stand still and easily handhold video footage (which is far more practical). When I turned VC off and stood still, the footage shows constant movement, but when I switched the VC on it is as if a giant fist grabs the scene and holds it in place.

So, the VC is excellent for standard applications and can also work well enough to allow for some creative shots with movement or panning. And frankly, it is the latter that will matter most in real world use of slow shutter speeds. There’s a reason that tripods exist, and trying to substitute handholding for long shutter speeds is a mistake. I should note that Canon and Nikon still make you choose between having an F2.8 aperture or having an image stabilizer; Tamron is the only one to give you both on those platforms.

Tamron 15-30 G2 (A041) Build and Design

I would recommend that you check out this video where I thoroughly detail the build and design of the A041 and compare it to the first generation A012 lens:

Tamron has managed to pack in a number of significant improvements to the build and handling of the lens while managing to hold the weight nearly equal. This is good, as the original was already a bit of a beast, weighing in at 2.43lbs (1100g). The G2 gains a mere 10 grams, and so it tips the scales at 2.44lbs (1110g). You are getting a lot for that additional weight, however, as the new lens sports a more robust build (the housing is primarily metal alloys) and expanded weather sealing. The G2 lenses sport some of the nicest construction of the current zoom lenses, and it is a sign of the times that I say that matter-of-factly about a Tamron lens!

The physical dimensions are identical to the previous generation lens at 3.87″ (98.4) diameter by 5.71″ (145 mm) in length. The great news about this is that if you have invested in an after-market filter solution (I use the Fotodiox WonderPana system), it will fit the new lens perfectly, as you can see here:

The bulbous front element makes using traditional filters impossible, though Tamron has added a rear gel filter holder to the lens mount on the A041 (on the Canon EF version, at least):

Gel filters are better than nothing and inexpensive (you can buy them in sheets and cut them to size), but they are rarely the best option optically (this will depend on the quality of filter, of course). At least Tamron has made efforts to solve a significant issue with the lens, as the inability to use filters have probably been the most common reason cited to me by people that have decided against the 15-30 VC.

Tamron’s new look is sleeker and more modern, with mostly satin-finished anodized metal making up the barrel. There is some engineered plastics near the front of the lens, as there is a fixed lens hood in position there, and the engineered plastic is probably the more durable option for resisting minor dings or deformations. There is actually both an inner fixed lens hood along with an outer one, and at the most forward position of travel (actually at 15mm), the two lens hoods provide something akin to a double-walled layer of protection. At no point does anything protrude past the outer dimensions of the lens.

Tamron has redesigned the switches as well. There are two of them – an AF/MF switch along with the ON/OFF button for the VC. I like the new switches because they feel more definite and precise and are also easier to use while wearing gloves (which I do a lot of living in Canada!!) Some have complained with other G2 lenses of inadvertently hitting them, but I’ve reviewed all the G2 lenses and owned the 70-200 since it’s release and never once had that happen to me.

Also improved is the design of the focus and zoom rings. The focus ring is closer to the camera, and, while it isn’t particularly wide, it has two features that help its ergonomic performance. The first is that it is curved outward in the middle, giving it a different tactile feel from the zoom ring and also making it easier to find. It’s a nice tough. There is also nice beveled portion of the lens barrel above this, which gives a natural position for the finger to find and keeps one from inadvertently engaging the zoom ring.

The zoom ring has a slightly different ribbed pattern from the A012, is quite wide, and is smoother in operation from the first generation lens. It still has slightly firm damping, but a bit lighter and better-operating than the A012. It functions fine, and, like other Tamron lenses, it zooms in the “Nikon” rather than “Canon” direction.

There is a more robust gasket at the lens mount along with a fluorine coating on the front element to help protect against moisture and fingerprints. More internal seals help the lens achieve a new degree of weather sealing. The lens cap fits over the fixed lens hood, and, as a result, is bulkier than a typical lens cap. I find these types of caps a bit of a pain as they don’t fit in a jacket or pants pocket very well.

The copy I reviewed said both “Designed in Japan” and “Made in Japan” on it.

I have one criticism of Tamron’s new finish compared to the older flocked design. The smooth portions of their lenses in plastic (like lens hoods, for example) are much more prone to bag marking. I’ve seen it happen quickly even with review copies of lenses, while the A012 I own still looks basically new. You can see the marks on the lens hood portion of this photo near the front top of the lens.

This criticism aside, the improvements to the autofocus, VC, and build of the lens are real and definite. This has the fit and finish of a professional-grade lens along with a modern, visually aesthetic look.

A041 Image Quality

First of all, let’s be clear about what is happening with the G2 lenses. These are not brand new optical formulas; they are optimized versions of the existing optical formulas that have taken the same basic elements and optical formulas while make minor changes to how they interact. Tamron has further improved performance by employing new and improved coatings. Here’s what I have observed in all four of the G2 zoom reviews that I’ve done: the G2 lenses deliver a slightly more consistent performance across the frame. All of the previous generation Tamron zooms were extremely strong in the center of the frame with some dropoff at the edges of the frame. The G2 zooms sacrifice a tiny bit of that center performance to achieve a more consistent performance across the the frame. Each G2 lens has delivered a stronger edge and corner performance when I’ve compared them to the last generation lens. I would argue that this is most important with the A042, as edge and corner performance on a landscape-oriented lens is deeply important. The A012 was always competitive in the center of the frame with anything I compared it to, but the corners sometimes lagged behind other competitors. I think the 15-30 G2 is ready to compete on the edges.

I break down optical performance into two major categories: Resolution (sharpness, contrast, and longitudinal chromatic aberrations) and Rendering (Color, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, etc…) For a detailed look at some of the things that I will point to in this review, I recommend that you watch my Image Quality Breakdown video here:

A041 Resolution

The A041 largely inherits the strengths and weaknesses of its predecessors. If we look at an uncorrected RAW image at 15mm, we will find that there is a moderate amount vignette that is actually much less than competing zooms along with some noticeable barrel distortion. The barrel distortion is fortunately that of a linear nature and corrects cleanly when the standard profile is applied.

On that note, however, unlike Sigma’s most recent wide angle zoom, the 14-24mm F2.8 ART that I reviewed here, the A041 is not supported by Canon’s Lens Aberration Correction, meaning that JPEG images will not be corrected in camera. This is one advantage that only Sigma enjoys among third party lenses at the moment on Canon systems.

As we look at an uncorrected image at 15mm from both the A012 and the A041, we can see that center performance is roughly equal, while edge and corner performance favor the G2:

As you can see, it’s not by a huge margin, but it is visible (particularly at higher resolutions than shown here). Another observation I made when comparing throughout the focal range is that the A041 has slightly better light transmission wide open. You can see that the center looks a little brighter, and the histogram confirms this by being slightly shifted to the right (higher exposure) when I compare them with equal settings. I’ve demonstrated this below:

Yes, it is slight, but that does give a little more advantage where one needs the extra light. Ironically the reverse is true when you stop down to smaller apertures, where if there is any tiny advantage, it goes to the A012. The point is that where you want better light transmission is at maximum aperture, and, though slight, that’s what the G2 gives you.

The sharpness and resolution advantage persists into smaller apertures. Here at F5.6, for example, it is easy to see that the A041 is delivering better edge performance.

In an absolute sense, this little bit of edge/corner improvement is enough to make the Tamron competitive with the very best. I went back and compared the edge performance of the fantastic Sigma 14-24mm F2.8, and, while I don’t have the lens on hand right now, my similar tests when I did that review show that the A041 is roughly equal in sharpness, which is impressive. When I compared the Irix 15mm F2.4 Blackstone (which I do have on hand), I found the A041 had the advantage at both F2.8 and F5.6 (F2.8 results shown here):

In real world use the Tamron exhibited crisp, detailed results with good color and contrast. Here’s a full (handheld) image along with crops from across the frame – left to right):

For the sake of brevity, I will cover only the middle of the focal range (20mm) and the end of the focal range (30mm) here. You can see more focal lengths in the image quality video. At 20mm both the vignette and distortion are more mild and will cause few issues for anyone. The difference on the edge at F2.8 is milder, but is still observable at a pixel level. I do find that the corner/edge performance at F5.6 favors the A041 a little more obviously.

Real world images at 20mm look good as well.

Finally, at 30mm we find some vignette and an exceptionally mild amount of pincushion distortion. The resolution and contrast in the center looks about the same, but along the edge you can see that the textures are better defined, crisper, and the little bit of veiling on the A012 is improved on the A041. What we also find, however, is that there is a real advantage along the edges/corners even when the lens is stopped down to F5.6.

All of these improvements are mild, to be sure, but remember that this A012 is the same copy that I’ve been using in comparisons with many other of the very wide angle zooms and primes that I’ve reviewed over the past 3 1/2 years that has done so well in those comparisons. That mild bit of improvement is enough to make the A041 very competitive with the very best options on Canon and Nikon. Here’s a real world 30mm landscape image:

One final consideration: most all of the lenses that the A041 are competing with make one choose between maximum aperture and image stabilization. We’ve seen that the improved VC of the A041 allows one to get better real world images handheld because the more modern VC unit doesn’t punish image sharpness. I would say that in an absolute sense I still favor the image punch from the Sigma 14-24 F2.8 ART, but one also makes the trade-off of getting a lens without stabilization.

A041 Rendering

So we’ve seen that Tamron has helped make the A041 even more competitive in terms of resolution and contrast, but are there other improvements as well? In my series of comparisons, I found little difference between the two generations of Tamron lens when it came to distortion and lateral chromatic aberrations. Barrel distortion exists at wider apertures, and I do believe that there are better options if your priority is shooting interiors, architecture, or other work requiring straight lines. The best tool for that kind of job is a tilt/shift lens, though these tend to be very, very expensive. Good alternatives with low distortion include the Laowa 12mm F2.8 Zero D (manual focus only) or the Sigma 12-24mm F4 ART, which does have autofocus. The amount of distortion in the 15-30 G2 is roughly similar to that found in Canon’s 16-35mm zooms.

Tamron stated that there is reduced lateral chromatic aberrations due to improved coatings in the A041. I’m not disputing their claim, but I find in real world use the difference is so minor as to be undetectable in my tests. So yes, lateral chromatic aberrations (these occur along the edges of the frame as both green and magenta fringing simultaneously and are not improved through stopping a lens down to smaller apertures) are there, but fortunately, as this comparison below shows, Lateral CA is the easiest to fix because it manifests consistently. Lightroom or ACR’s one-click “Remove Chromatic Aberrations” will clear it up simply and non-destructively.

So, not necessarily a big deal, but also not really an area of improvement.

Similarly true is the A041’s performance with flare resistance. In this area I can see some improvement due to improved coatings. All of the same vulnerabilities that I’m familiar with from years of use of the A012 are there (particularly from the side), but they are somewhat mitigated by the improved coatings. They are slightly less pronounced, as you can see in the comparison shots below.

Contrast and color rendition has always been a strength for the 15-30 G2. Often when I’m comparing it to other lenses I note how good the microcontrast is (particularly in the center before, but now extending toward the edges). Here are a few images that show off this strength for landscape work.

Bokeh is obviously not a top priority in a lens like this, but used at 30mm and f/2.8 the lens produces a 0.20x magnification figure that is useful. Bokeh doesn’t look bad from the lens:

What’s more important is how the lens deals with coma, a type of distortion that deforms the shapes of distant bright points of light like stars. The A012 has been a lens that I’ve often recommended for astrophotography work, and the A041 is ever-so-slightly better due to that improved light transmission at F2.8. It delivers crisp star points and shows little deformation of shapes even near the edge of the frame. The relatively low vignette helps make this a better choice than many other options, too, as the mild amount of vignette on the A041 can typically be corrected non-destructively (something not as true for the new Tamron 17-35mm F2.8-4).

What the Tamron SP 15-30mm F2.8 VC G2 lens delivers is image quality that, while imperfect, has no real fatal flaws. There is some vignette, some distortion, some flare, and some lateral chromatic aberrations, but none of them are significant enough to be a real deterrent. On the positive side, the A041 delivers excellent sharpness and contrast, great color rendition, and low amounts of coma. It’s very good at a lot of things, and not very bad at any of them. I would recommend that you visit the Lens Image Gallery to see more photos and help draw your own conclusions.

Conclusion

Perhaps the single biggest challenge for the Tamron SP 15-30mm F2.8 VC USD G2 (A041) lens is that there isn’t anything particularly wrong with the lens that it replaces. There are some real advantages to the A041, from the build, weather sealing, and Tap In compatibility to the improvements to the autofocus and Vibration Compensation systems. The image quality improvement, while mild, helps make the lens even more competitive. But all of these improvements are evolutionary rather than revolutionary, which results in many existing A012 owners not feeling particularly motivated to upgrade. But perhaps the A041 is less for them and more for those who don’t yet own a wide angle lens and are considering the merits of the available options on the market. There is no question that the 15-30 G2 is one of the most attractive wide angle options out there for Canon and Nikon owners, and the price point of $1299 USD is extremely competitive when one considers either the Nikon 14-24mm F2.8 G or the Canon 16-35mm F2.8L III. I think the most compelling alternative is Sigma’s 14-24mm F2.8 ART lens, which, while it lacks stabilization (as do all of these options), offers up a wider focal length and great image quality at an equally compelling price. If you want both F2.8 and stabilization in a wide angle lens, however, the Tamron 15-30mm F2.8 G2 is the best option available and the G2 version is the best version of the lens.

Pros:

Improved, pro-grade build
Improved autofocus speed, confidence, and accuracy
Outstanding VC system
Strong resolution across the zoom range and image frame
Great color and contrast
Good coma control
Relatively low vignette compared to other wide angle lenses

Cons:

Large and heavy
Cannot use traditional front filters
Lateral chromatic aberrations still there
Still vulnerable to some flare

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Keywords: Tamron 15-30 G2, A041, Tamron 15-30mm G2, Tamron 15-30 f2.8 G2, Tamron, SP, G2, 15-30, 15-30mm, 15-30 F2.8, Tamron SP 15-30mm f/2.8 Di VC USD G2, Tamron 15-30 G2 review, Tamron 15-30mm f2.8 G2 Review, Review, Dustin Abbott, Photography, Video Test, Comparison, Test, Sample Images, Resolution, Chromatic Aberration, Autofocus, Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 5DIV

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Tamron SP 15-30mm F2.8 VC G2 (A041) Image Gallery

Dustin Abbott

October 26th, 2018

The Tamron SP 15-30mm f/2.8 Di VC USD entered my collection a few months after my review of the lens in February 2015. It resonated to me as a lens that, while large and heavy, really delivered a fantastic optical performance. Since that point nearly four years ago I’ve pitted it against many other wide angle primes and zooms, and it has always shown well in those comparisons. I got a hint a few months ago that this new G2 version was coming to market, and I was excited for the release as the G2 series have brought both optical improvements along with vastly improved build, autofocus, and VC (Vibration Compensation) performance. The Tamron SP 15-30mm f/2.8 Di VC USD G2 (hereafter 15-30mm G2) seems poised to deliver a mature, polished performance than its predecessor in an era where most competing lenses have still not managed to marry Image Stabilization with this wide focal length. I’ll be breaking down the improvements along with a detailed image quality examination in my review, but in the meantime you can check out my hands on breakdown of the build and design below along with checking out the images that I’m taking during the review process. Stay tuned for more content and coverage of the 15-30mm G2!

Images of the Tamron SP 15-30mm F2.8 VC G2

Images taken with the Tamron SP 15-30mm F2.8 VC G2

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Keywords: Tamron 15-30 G2, A041, Tamron 15-30mm G2, Tamron 15-30 f2.8 G2, Tamron, SP, G2, 15-30, 15-30mm, 15-30 F2.8, Tamron SP 15-30mm f/2.8 Di VC USD G2, Tamron 15-30 G2 review, Tamron 15-30mm f2.8 G2 Review, Review, Dustin Abbott, Photography, Video Test, Comparison, Test, Sample Images, Resolution, Chromatic Aberration, Autofocus, Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 5DIV

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Tamron 70-180mm F2.8 VC VXD G2 Review

Dustin Abbott

September 14th, 2023

Tamron 70-180mm G2 Build and Handling

Tamron 70-180mm F2.8 G2 Autofocus Performance

Tamron 70-180mm F2.8 VC VXD G2 Image Quality

Conclusion

Pros:

Cons:

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Tamron 70-180mm F2.8 Di III VC VXD G2 Gallery

Dustin Abbott

September 14th, 2023

Photos of the Tamron 70-180mm G2 Build and Handling

Photos taken with the Tamron 70-180mm F2.8 VC VXD G2

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Tamron 28-75mm F2.8 Di III VXD G2 (A063) Review

Dustin Abbott

November 8th, 2021

A063 Build, Handling, and Features

Tamron 28-75mm VXD G2 Focus and Video Performance

Tamron A063 Image Quality Breakdown

Conclusion

Pros:

Cons:

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Tamron 28-75mm F2.8 VXD G2 Image Gallery

Dustin Abbott

November 8th, 2021

Photos of the Tamron 28-75mm VXD

Photos taken with the Tamron 28-75mm VXD

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Tamron 70-180mm F2.8 VXD (A056) Review

Dustin Abbott

April 27th, 2020

Tamron 70-180mm F2.8 VXD Build and Handling

A056 Autofocus Performance

Tamron 70-180mm F2.8 VXD (A056) Image Quality

Conclusion

Pros:

Cons:

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Tamron 70-180mm F2.8 VXD (A056) Image Gallery

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