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.

Sigma 28-70mm F2.8 DG DN Review

Dustin Abbott

February 24th, 2021

Sometimes lens makers surprise you. Most “connected” photographers have their own ideas of what a lens maker should do, and, as a gear reviewer, I typically hear most of those suggestions. But clearly lens makers often have a different roadmap, and Sigma’s latest lens release is clearly one that no one expected. I hear a lot of clamor for Sigma to release a 50mm F1.4 DN lens in the vein of their excellent 85mm F1.4 DN that I reviewed last year. Sigma has already released a 14-24mm F2.8 DN lens (my review here), a 24-70mm F2.8 DN lens (my review here), so the logical lens that most have expected is a 70-200mm F2.8 DN lens…but that’s not what we’ve got here. Sigma has instead chosen to release a second standard zoom for Sony FE (full frame E-mount) and Leica L – the Sigma 28-70mm F2.8 DG DN. Sigma asked if I wanted to test a new lens without telling me what it was, so, when the 28-70DN (as we’ll call it for brevity) arrived, my surprised expression looked pretty much like this:

I spent my first little while after opening the lens trying to wrap my mind around Sigma’s logic in releasing this particular lens…now. It’s only been 13 months since the release of the Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 DN, a lens I felt was a strong alternative in both performance and price ($1099 USD) to the much more expensive Sony G Master version ($2198 USD). The 28-70DN comes with a Contemporary badge rather than an ART designation, has a smaller size and zoom range, and also comes with a smaller price ($899 USD). We all like a lower price, sure, but it feels like you are giving up a lot for that $200 in price difference, including losing a significant 4mm off the wide end (24mm vs 28mm), trading a full dust and splash proof design for a one with minimal weather sealing (a gasket at the lens mount), and the loss of a focus hold button and zoom lock. Sigma is obviously banking on successfully addressing two different markets, and there’s no question that they have Tamron’s wildly successful 28-75mm F2.8 RXD in their sites (my review here). The Tamron has been the best selling lens in the world since its release a couple of years ago, and it is different enough in kind from Sigma’s 24-70mm F2.8 DN that Sigma clearly felt a more direct competitor was warranted.

I’ll bear this in mind in my review, and, since I own the Tamron (I use it regularly for my channel and also for its general purpose flexibility), I have the luxury of being able to do a number of direct comparisons to help you make an informed decision if you are deciding between the two lenses. You can see from the photo above that the Sigma manages to be smaller even than the Tamron (though it does give up 5mm of focal length on the zoom end), so that helps open up another potential angle of Sigma’s logic. We’ve seen Sigma dive into the more compact lens market in the past year with the i-Series (24mm F3.5, 35mm F2, 45mm F2.8, and 65mm F2 lenses, all of which I’ve reviewed and you can find in this playlist). These lenses addressed the reality that most of Sigma’s recent lenses have largely been well, large. Certain people love Sigma’s large aperture ART series lenses and their highly corrected optical performance, but others find them unnecessarily large and heavy. Sigma’s focus recently seems to be on addressing the secondary market of those who want good optical and build quality but want smaller, more compact lenses to pair with smaller cameras like the Sony a7C, the Sigma FP, or Leica SL2-S . The 28-70DN seems to be a zoom lens to compliment the compact prime lenses of the i-Series.

While the 28-70mm F2.8 DN has a smaller zoom ratio than competitors, there’s no question that this is still an incredibly useful zoom range…particularly in such a compact lens. You can shoot wide angle landscape shots like this:

…but you can also zoom in to short telephoto range to isolate subjects and create shallow depth of field photos like this:

That versatility is what makes such a lens so useful for so many things, and helps explain why the Tamron has sold so well at this same price point. Sigma clearly wants a piece of that success…but they’ll need to provide some compelling reasons to the choose the 28-70DN over the Tamron or their own 24-70mm F2.8. So join me as explore the highs and lows of this compact standard zoom for Sony or Leica. If you prefer to watch reviews, you can choose either the long-format definitive review or the shorter standard review.

Sigma 24-70DN Build, Design and Handling

Part of Tamron’s success on Sony (particularly with their zooms) has come by choosing a slightly unconventional route. They’ve designed lenses that often have slightly reduced zoom ranges and eschew a lot of features in order to allow them to produce smaller, lighter, cheaper lenses that are still optically competitive (and sometimes better) than the much more expensive first party Sony lenses. Sigma has adopted a similar philosophy here, recognizing that by eliminating the traditional need for a standard zoom to go to 24mm, Sigma’s engineers would be freed to not only create a much smaller lens (the Sigma 24-70 DN, at 835g, is nearly 78% heavier than the 28-70DN!) but also to eliminate some of the frankly massive amount of barrel distortion we saw on the 24-70mm. Here’s a look at how the 28-70DN compares to some competing options (I’ve manually added the information for the 28-70mm since it isn’t available to retailers yet).

Up front we have a 67mm filter thread, which is much smaller than the 82mm filter thread we see on either the Sigma or Sony 24-70mm F2.8 lenses. This is a reflection of the much narrower 72.2mm diameter of the 28-70mm as compared to the 88mm of the 24-70mm lenses. The Tamron 28-75mm shares this smaller diameter (slightly larger at 73mm) and the 67mm filter size. The Sigma’s size advantage is more in the length, where it is a full 14mm shorter than the Tamron (103.5 vs 117.8mm). That could be the difference between a camera/lens combination fitting or not in your carrying solution if you prefer, say, a compact sling bag. That smaller size is noticeable even with the lens hood attached.

Both lenses include a plastic lens hood, and neither is particularly special, though I give a slight edge to the Sigma due to it have a little more texture variation (and style). Sigma has chosen to position the 28-70DN under the Global Vision division of “Contemporary”. Typically the lenses branded Contemporary carry Sigma’s lowest level of build, with Sport lenses given the most robust while Art lenses land in the middle. The build here is actually pretty decent, though, and is certainly on the level of the Tamron save that the 28-70DN only has a gasket at the lens mount as opposed to the Tamron’s thorough weather sealing with six internal seal points and a fluorine coating on the front element. The Sigma feels ever-so-slightly nicer in the hand, however, due to slightly more upscale materials on the barrel.

The 28-70DN loses a few features relative to the 24-70mm F2.8 DN. There is a single AF/MF switch, and we don’t have either a Focus Hold button or a zoom lock.

I didn’t necessarily miss the zoom lock button, though, as the damping on the zoom ring is excellent. I didn’t experience zoom creep at all, and zoom action is smooth and precise. There is no wobble in the inner barrel that extends out about 3cm when zoomed out to 70mm.

The manual focus ring also moves nicely. The focus ring is a “by-wire” system, meaning that input on the focus ring is electronically communicated rather than through a direct mechanical coupling. This means that input on the focus ring will not create any physical changes unless the lens is attached to a camera and powered on. The focus ring has a nice feel to it, and Sigma has done a good job emulating traditional manual focus.

The aperture iris has 9 rounded aperture blades, and this helps keep the aperture shape fairly circular when stopped down.

Here’s a look the geometry of bokeh highlights at F2.8, F4, and F5.6:

Another area that the Sigma mirrors the Tamron is the dual approach to minimum focus distances. Increasingly we are seeing a separate MFD distance for the wide and telephoto ends of lenses rather than just one. In this case, the two distances are 19cm on the wide end and 38cm at 70mm. The MFD on the wide end is a bit challenging, as it requires getting very close to the subject. Here’s what MFD at 28mm looks like in terms of camera position and then the magnification level:

You get a very high 0.30x magnification on the wide end, though as I often point out, accessing this is a little more difficult due to how close you have to be to your subject to achieve it. The Tamron 28-75mm shares the MFD but somehow achieves a slightly higher 0.34x, which is noticeably tighter.

What you can see with both lenses is distortion up close is exaggerated and there is field curvature, so you have a “sweet spot” of focus that you have to properly utilize. The Sigma has slightly more distortion, so this effect is more exaggerated. The Tamron also shows superior contrast and resolution close up at F2.8.

The Sigma can focus one millimeter close than the Tamron on the telephoto end (38 vs 39cm), but the Tamron has that extra 5mm of focal length, giving it a higher magnification level at 75mm:

In both cases, however, the higher magnification figure actually comes on the wide end. Sigma’s magnification at 70mm isn’t listed yet, but considering that the Tamron has a 0.25x at 75mm, I’m estimating the Sigma at roughly 0.22-0.23x. As before, the Tamron gives you better contrast and resolution at MFD on the telephoto end, though the Sigma is perfectly capable of giving you some lovely up close images.

I would have liked a more thorough weather sealing on the lens, but overall I quite like the build and handling of the 28-70 DN. I think it strikes a nice balance between size, weight, and build quality.

Sigma 28-70mm F2.8 DN Autofocus Performance

The Sigma 24-70DN utilizes a stepping focus motor (STM) that makes fast, quiet focus changes. If you watch the video review you can see/hear the focus motor during focus changes in video. It’s all good news, though, as the focus is quiet, focus pulls are accurate and smooth, and there is little to no hunting or settling. I saw minimal focus breathing during focus pulls on the wide end, though you can see a bit of size changing at the telephoto end. Nothing extreme, though.

A lens with a maximum aperture of F2.8 is fairly good in low light, though obviously not as good as lenses with even larger maximum apertures. In many cases, cameras will focus with the lens aperture wide open and then close it down to the preset aperture choice at the moment of capture. A lens with a smaller maximum aperture is going to be at a disadvantage in low light conditions because the physical aperture is smaller than alternative lenses, meaning that less light can reach the sensor. F2.8 is what I would call a “medium” maximum aperture, but it is wide enough that one should be able to shoot weddings or events with the lens and get solid results.

Under normal lighting conditions, though, I had no problems. I was able to “hit the nail on the head” even with an extremely shallow subject.

Eye AF works fine, too, though increasingly this is a foregone conclusion as the eye detect technology in Sony cameras has gotten so good.

I was fairly impressed with good focus in this up close shot mostly because of how low the contrast was on the subject.

I also had excellent AF even with an extremely strong backlighting to my subject. Focus locked on without hesitation for this shot.

My general purpose accuracy was also excellent. In fact, I have nothing negative to report on this front. Autofocus was fast, quiet, and accurate whether shooting stills or video. I shot a devotional episode for my church using the lens and didn’t see any hunting or unnecessary focus loss. Focus was solid in all the situations I shot with the lens…and that’s all you can ask for.

Sigma 28-70DN Image Quality

The optical formula is made up of 16 elements in 12 groups, including 2 FLD, 2 SLD, and 3 aspherical elements. These more exotic elements help achieve an excellent optical performance. This is a less complex optical formula than the 24-70 DN (19 elements in 15 groups), and that in itself helps expose the additional challenges of going to 24mm rather than 28mm. The optical performance (other than the up close performance noted earlier) is pretty strong across the board for most situations, though with a few minor missteps.

All chart tests done with a Sony a7RIII (42Mpx) using a tripod and a two second timer.

We’ll work through the chart results by first looking at distortion and vignette at 28mm.

The 28-70DN shows the typical shortcomings of a zoom lens. There is some obvious barrel distortion which is unfortunately not very linear, making a manual correction more difficult. We should see a profile for RAW images in the next Adobe update, though, and the lens will be corrected in camera for JPEGs and Video footage. There is considerably less distortion (+13 to correct) than the stronger barrel distortion of the 24-70mm DN (+21 to correct).

23-Vignette-and-Distortion-Sigma-Comparo

The Tamron 28-75mm is our winner here, showing considerably less (and less complex) distortion along with slightly less vignette that moves in a more linear pattern (easier to correct for). The Sigma needed near max settings (+95) to correct for vignette while the Tamron needed something more like a +50.

Distortion turns to pincushion variety at 70mm, though it’s a more linear distortion that corrects more easily. I used a -9 to correct the distortion and a +55 to correct for the vignette.

The vignette on the wide end is strong enough to be fairly obvious with the kind of snowy landscapes I have to shoot this time of year!

We can only call this an average performance; nothing to brag about.

So how about resolution and contrast? Here’s a look at my test chart:

And here are the crops from the center, mid-frame, and extreme corner at 28mm. Contrast and resolution are excellent across the frame, with no evidence of lateral chromatic aberrations near the edges.

This is obviously a very strong performance, and means that you aren’t really giving anything up optically when compared to the bigger, more expensive 24-70mm DN. And how about if we compare at 28mm to the similarly priced Tamron? In the center of the frame, the Tamron sports a little bit more resolution and contrast, but as you move out in the image circle the scenario reverses, with the Sigma being much stronger in the corners.

Stopping down to F4 boosts contrast and resolution, with levels reaching excellent even in the corners.

Here’s a real world test at F2.8 (I did correct for vignette), and you can see that the crops from the center and then the edge show little drop-off in performance.

As you might expect, real world landscape results are very strong. Good detail and contrast across the frame.

The same trend continues at 35mm, where results across the frame are similarly excellent, though the corners at F2.8 aren’t as good as at 28mm: Here’s a look at F2.8 and F4 in the center of the frame:

You can see what I mean if we look over at the corners. They are sharpening up by F4, so at landscape apertures everything will be nice and crisp.

50mm results are pretty much identical to 35mm, so we’ll skip over that and look at 70mm.

At 70mm the lens is weakest in terms of contrast, and the corners at F2.8 are slightly softer.

You can see that the lens doesn’t sharpen up as fast at F4, and it will take stopping down to F8 to see a similar level of performance in the corners as what we’ve seen at F4 previously. Use F5.6 and F8 at 70mm if you want good sharpness across the frame:

The Tamron at 75mm is slightly sharper and has better contrast in the center of the frame, but the Sigma looks better in the midframe and corner area. Which lens will perform better for you will really depend on how you use such a lens and how important corner performance at wider apertures is to you.

I was very impressed on the flare front. The lens’ coatings and optical formula are highly flare resistant, and I saw minimal ghosting and no loss of contrast in any of my tests. There can be a little prismatic veiling around the sun’s epicenter, but nothing destructive to the image at all. These shots show both wide open and stopped down performance.

That’s true even if I pan across the sun while shooting video. This is definitely a nice performance.

I saw minimal amounts of chromatic aberrations in my tests (either longitudinal or lateral). The longitudinal CA here is the worst I could find, and that is with bright morning sun shooting through ice crystals!

No one is going to have any kind of significant real-world issue with chromatic aberrations.

Bokeh is generally pretty good. Best case scenario with lenses like this is when you can get close at 70mm and highly defocus the background, but I thought bokeh looked fairly good at other distances, too.

Obviously you don’t have the same ability to produce massive amounts of bokeh like you would with an 85mm F1.4, for example, but lenses like this thrive by doing a little bit of everything fairly well. Use the lens to its strengths, and the 28-70DN will give you results you’ll be very happy with.

All in all, this is a strong performance. The chief competitor (the Tamron), can match the 28-70DN in the center of the frame, but the Sigma rules the corners. The Tamron gave the Sony 24-70mm F2.8 GM a pretty good run for its money, so that tells me that you are getting a strong performance out of this lens. It won’t be hard to get images you can be proud of out of this lens. You can see more by checking out the lens image gallery here.

Conclusion

The Sigma 28-70mm F2.8 DG DN is another solid lens from Sigma. No one has been quite as prolific as Sigma in producing new lenses for Sony and Leica over the past 24 months as Sigma. I’ve reviewed about a dozen new designs from them during that time, which is an average of a new lens every two months. They’ve built a Sony/Leica catalog in a hurry! I’m still not sure that I would have prioritized producing this particular lens when the audience is clamoring for other areas of greater need, but clearly Sigma saw things differently. I still want a 70-200mm F2.8 DN along with a 50mm F1.4 DN, but I suspect we will still see those in time. Meanwhile, those whose priority is to travel small and light and who want the flexibility of a zoom have gotten just that.

The 28-70DN is a jack of all trades, and does most things quite well. It has a nice build (though light on the weather sealing), great autofocus, and excellent image quality. It can shoot up close (like above) or you can step back and shoot the bigger scene:

There’s some give and take in performance between the Sigma 28-70DN and the well received Tamron 28-75mm F2.8 RXD lens, and the price difference on paper is minimal. The Tamron will likely benefit from more sales and markdowns, however, given that it has been on the market for a couple of years. so the gap in real world pricing might be more significant…at least for a while. But my experience says that there are some photographers who will buy a Sigma but not a Tamron and vice versa, so, at the least, this gives a Sigma option for those who want a small, light F2.8 standard zoom and prefer the Sigma brand. The Sigma 28-70mm F2.8 DN Contemporary is a compact, competent lens, but it remains to be seen if the market is actually looking for it.

Pros:

Compact, lightweight lens with nice construction
Includes some weather sealing at mount
Fast, quiet autofocus
Smooth and quiet video AF work
High magnification figure
Excellent flare resistance
CA is well controlled
Excellent sharpness and contrast across the frame even wide open
Weight under 500g

Cons:

Strong vignette
Fairly complex barrel distortion
Close up performance isn’t great

Gear Used:

Purchase the Sigma 28-70mm F2.8 DN @ 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

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
Sony a7R III Camera: B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon.ca | Amazon UK | Ebay
Peak Design Slide Lite: Peak Design Store | B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK
Sony a6500: B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon.ca | Amazon UK | Ebay
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 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!

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

Keywords: Sigma 28-70 DN, Sigma 28-70 F2.8, Sigma 28-70mm F2.8 DG DN, 28-70 DN Review, Review, Sigma 28-70 DN, DN, DG, 28-70mm, F2.8, Review, Tamron 28-75mm F2.8, Tamron 28-75, Review, Sony a7C, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, Sony a9, sony a7III, sony a7RIII, a7R3, Leica L

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.

Sigma 28-70mm F2.8 DN Image Gallery

Dustin Abbott

February 24th, 2021

Sometimes lens makers surprise you. Most “connected” photographers have their own ideas of what a lens maker should do, and, as a gear reviewer, I typically hear most of those suggestions. But clearly lens makers often have a different roadmap, and Sigma’s latest lens release is clearly one that no one expected. I hear a lot of clamor for Sigma to release a 50mm F1.4 DN lens in the vein of their excellent 85mm F1.4 DN that I reviewed last year. Sigma has already released a 14-24mm F2.8 DN lens (my review here), a 24-70mm F2.8 DN lens (my review here), so the logical lens that most have expected is a 70-200mm F2.8 DN lens…but that’s not what we’ve got here. Sigma has instead chosen to release a second standard zoom for Sony FE (full frame E-mount) and Leica L – the Sigma 28-70mm F2.8 DG DN. Sigma asked if I wanted to test a new lens without telling me what it was, so, when the 28-70DN (as we’ll call it for brevity) arrived, my surprised expression looked pretty much like this:

I spent my first little while after opening the lens trying to wrap my mind around Sigma’s logic in releasing this particular lens…now. It’s only been 13 months since the release of the Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 DN, a lens I felt was a strong alternative in both performance and price ($1099 USD) to the much more expensive Sony G Master version ($2198 USD). The 28-70DN comes with a Contemporary badge rather than an ART designation, has a smaller size and zoom range, and also comes with a smaller price ($899 USD). We all like a lower price, sure, but it feels like you are giving up a lot for that $200 in price difference, including losing a significant 4mm off the wide end (24mm vs 28mm), trading a full dust and splash proof design for a one with minimal weather sealing (a gasket at the lens mount), and the loss of a focus hold button and zoom lock. Sigma is obviously banking on successfully addressing two different markets, and there’s no question that they have Tamron’s wildly successful 28-75mm F2.8 RXD in their sites (my review here). The Tamron has been the best selling lens in the world since its release a couple of years ago, and it is different enough in kind from Sigma’s 24-70mm F2.8 DN that Sigma clearly felt a more direct competitor was warranted.

I’ll bear this in mind in my review, and, since I own the Tamron (I use it regularly for my channel and also for its general purpose flexibility), I have the luxury of being able to do a number of direct comparisons to help you make an informed decision if you are deciding between the two lenses. You can see from the photo above that the Sigma manages to be smaller even than the Tamron (though it does give up 5mm of focal length on the zoom end), so that helps open up another potential angle of Sigma’s logic. We’ve seen Sigma dive into the more compact lens market in the past year with the i-Series (24mm F3.5, 35mm F2, 45mm F2.8, and 65mm F2 lenses, all of which I’ve reviewed and you can find in this playlist). These lenses addressed the reality that most of Sigma’s recent lenses have largely been well, large. Certain people love Sigma’s large aperture ART series lenses and their highly corrected optical performance, but others find them unnecessarily large and heavy. Sigma’s focus recently seems to be on addressing the secondary market of those who want good optical and build quality but want smaller, more compact lenses to pair with smaller cameras like the Sony a7C, the Sigma FP, or Leica SL2-S . The 28-70DN seems to be a zoom lens to compliment the compact prime lenses of the i-Series.

While the 28-70mm F2.8 DN has a smaller zoom ratio than competitors, there’s no question that this is still an incredibly useful zoom range…particularly in such a compact lens. You can shoot wide angle landscape shots like this:

…but you can also zoom in to short telephoto range to isolate subjects and create shallow depth of field photos like this:

That versatility is what makes such a lens so useful for so many things, and helps explain why the Tamron has sold so well at this same price point. Sigma clearly wants a piece of that success…but they’ll need to provide some compelling reasons to the choose the 28-70DN over the Tamron or their own 24-70mm F2.8. You can read my text review or watch the video reviews of the lens…or just check out the photos below.

Photos of the Sigma 28-70mm F2.8 DN

Photos taken with the Sigma 28-70mm F2.8 DN

Gear Used:

Purchase the Sigma 28-70mm F2.8 DN @ 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

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
Sony a7R III Camera: B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon.ca | Amazon UK | Ebay
Peak Design Slide Lite: Peak Design Store | B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK
Sony a6500: B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon.ca | Amazon UK | Ebay
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 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!

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

Keywords: Sigma 28-70 DN, Sigma 28-70 F2.8, Sigma 28-70mm F2.8 DG DN, 28-70 DN Review, Review, Sigma 28-70 DN, DN, DG, 28-70mm, F2.8, Review, Tamron 28-75mm F2.8, Tamron 28-75, Review, Sony a7C, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, Sony a9, sony a7III, sony a7RIII, a7R3, Leica L

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 f/2.8 RXD (A036) Review

Dustin Abbott

June 29th, 2018

Sony has been vying to steal some market share from Canon and Nikon for some time, but, while their innovation and impressive spec lists have been widely applauded, the Sony E mount has lacked a competitive lens selection. In some ways that remains true (particularly in the telephoto department), but there has been a significant shift in 2018 that signals better days ahead. Likewise, while Sony cameras (like the a7R3 and new a73) are very competitively priced, and, while there are some very good lenses for Sony FE, they tend to be more expensive than their Canon or Nikon counterparts, which completely offsets the value of the camera bodies themselves. What has been seriously missing are the competent and yet affordable options – a niche often filled by the third-party lens manufacturers. But outside of Zeiss (high end) and a few Samyang/Rokinon (lower end) lenses, there hasn’t been any serious third-party support of the FE mount. Fortunately, that is changing, with both Sigma and Tamron releasing lenses for Sony FE. Of all the recently announced options, however, probably none is more important than the freshly developed Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 RXD (A036). The 28-75 RXD has the potential to be a system seller for several reasons.

One of the first reasons is price. The lens comes to market at a very reasonable $799 in the US Market, nicely filling the gap between the highly mediocre Sony FE 28-70mm f/3.5-5.6 ($398) and the excellent but exceptionally expensive Sony FE 24-70mm f/2.8 G Master ($2199) that I’m concurrently reviewing. The Tamron 28-75 RXD, as we will see, is much closer in performance and features to the latter than to the former. For many buyers this price occupies a sweet spot for affordability.

The second reason is size. The 28-75 RXD is designed from the ground-up for Sony FE, and, as a result, is a much more attractive size/weight for mirrorless than the Sigma ART lenses getting an FE retrofit (existing DSLR lenses are getting a new Sony FE housing and tweaked focus motor, but are, if anything, slightly larger and heavier than their Canon EF and Nikon F mount versions). In fact, the Tamron lens is a much more natural fit on something like the a7R3 or a73 than the 24-70 GM lens.

The third reason is performance. My tests of this lens (which we will explore in detail), where I directly compare it to the nearly 3x-as-expensive G Master lens, reveal that while in most areas the G Master is superior, it is not by a large margin. Many photographers will consider this a “90% of the performance for 36% of the price” proposition.

Spring's Technicolor (Tamron 28-75 f/2.8 RXD)

So, on paper, the Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 RXD is the kind of lens that could help push a lot of photographers into the Sony camp and help sell a lot of Sony a73 bodies. Is it up to that challenge? Read on to find out!

Prefer to watch your reviews? Here’s my full video review:

Build and Design

While the 28-75 RXD can’t compete with the G Master lens in an absolute sense when it comes to build, it is actually a very nicely built lens. I’ve heard some people dismissively refer to it as having a build like the “cheap kit lens”, but this is clearly from those who have not handled both the 28-75 RXD and 28-70 Sony FE lenses. The Tamron actually employs mostly lightweight metals in the barrel, and includes premium features like weather sealing (with not only a rear gasket but internal seals at 6 different spots according to this diagram from Tamron) along with an expensive fluorine coating on the front element.

It is far from a kit lens-type build, and only when comparing it directly to the much more expensive G Master lens does it seem less premium, though at no time does it come across as a budget lens.

The only real physical limitation, in my opinion, is a lack of any kind of switch on the barrel for AF/MF. I enjoy a physical button like this on Sony FE mount lenses because it saves going into the menu and allows you to make this change on the fly. The G Master lens has this along with the very useful Focus Hold button that, to my knowledge, has not been seen on any non-Sony branded lenses. The Focus Hold button can be customized like other buttons on the Sony camera bodies, enabling you to map something very useful like Eye AF to that button.

The upside of the lack of any switches is that the 28-75 RXD has a very clean and modern physical appearance. The barrel has a satin black finish interrupted only by the focus and zoom rings. The profile of the lens is rather long and slender and is very different from a lens like Tamron’s own 24-70nn f/2.8 G2 lens. The 28-75 RXD is only 2.87” (73mm) in diameter, but is 4.64” (117.8mm) in length. It weighs in at a moderate 1.21 pounds (550g), which balances easily on bodies like the Sony a7 series (where it will most often find a home). It has a very common 67mm front filter size. This feels like a lens purpose-designed for Sony FE, and is a much more natural fit than what many of the Sigma FE lenses will be, as they were first designed for DSLRs (where they were already on the large side, anyway).

This is dwarfed by the much larger 24-70mm f/2.8 GM lens, which is 3.45” (87.6mm) x 5.35” (136mm) and weighs a hefty (and near top of the class even for DSLR lenses) 1.95lbs (886g). It has the now standard 82mm front filter thread size (a size unheard of when the Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L II launched with it). The G Master is a large lens in every sense of the word, and there were a lot of disappointed people when they realized that such a lens for mirrorless wouldn’t be any smaller than the DSLR counterparts. For those who envision mirrorless as being a smaller, more compact system, the Tamron 28-75 RXD will be a breath of fresh air.

The 28-75 RXD has the requisite 9 rounded aperture blades which will enable round circular highlights even with the lens stopped down, though, as we will see, the lens does suffer the fairly common deformation of circular shapes near the edge of the frame (they become more cat-eyed there). The lens also received Tamron’s BBAR coatings on elements to help reduce flare and improve contrast.

Everything works as it should, with the zoom ring functioning smoothly. A single inner barrel extends a small amount when zoomed towards the telephoto end, and there is no evidence of any wobble nor any inclination towards “zoom creep”. The friction/damping is just about right on this ring. The zoom ring is towards the front of the lens, and is wide, deeply ribbed, and very easy to find.

The manual focus ring is much slimmer and is closer to the lens mount. Like all mirrorless autofocusing lenses, the manual focus action is a “focus by wire” system where input on the manual focus ring is routed through the focus motor to actually produce focus changes. There is no mechanical coupling to the elements. I’ve actually been fairly happy with the implementation of “focus by wire” on many Sony lenses (including this one), as the damping is fairly good and input lag (a lag between your input on the focus ring and the actual focus action) doesn’t seem to be an issue. I find it easy to refine focus, and, if you are in MF or DMF focus modes, the camera will detect when focus input is made and will automatically magnify the image on the LCD or in the viewfinder to help you visually confirm correct focus. It works quite well…unless you are focusing off-center. If that is the case, you are better off to click the focus magnify button (wherever you’ve got that mapped on your camera), and select the appropriate area before actually magnifying the image).

If you aren’t in MF or DMF modes, input on the focus ring will do nothing. That, combined with no tactile input on either the minimum or infinity “stops” are my continued gripes against focus by wire.

The lens comes with a standard petal-shaped lens hood that is ribbed on the interior to help keep stray light from bouncing around. It’s nothing special, but it does the job just fine. No case or lens pouch is included.

One unique feature (and advantage over the GM lens) is that the Tamron offers two different minimum focus distances and maximum magnification figures. A typical zoom lens has a single minimum focus distance and determines it’s maximum magnification based on the telephoto end. The Tamron 28-75 RXD, however, has two MFDs (one at the wide end, and another at the telephoto end). The telephoto end is an excellent (class leading) MFD of 39cm (15.4″) and a resulting magnification of 0.25x (1:4 ratio). This is class-leading, yes, but only by a small margin over the GM lens (0.24x). What is interesting, however, is that on the wide end (28mm) you can focus down to 19cm (7.5″) where you have an exceptional 0.34x magnification (1:3 ratio). Take a look at how much more magnified the subject is at the wide end MFD.

I love the extra level of versatility this provides, and consider this to be a huge asset for wedding photographers, as they can get in very close with the lens and use it something like a macro lens for shots of rings or details on dresses. This, to me, is a great selling feature and unique advantage for the lens. You want a lens like this to be versatile, and this is just the kind of thing that adds to the versatility.

I’m perfectly content with the level of build this lens provides. The 28-75 RXD provides a nice balance between build quality (good materials, weather sealing, etc…) and a light weight that seems much more natural on Sony mirrorless bodies than Sony’s own lens. Everything functions well and the lens handles nicely. Don’t listen to those who accuse this of being akin to a “kit lens” in build; they’re wrong, and most likely have never actually handled one.

Tamron 28-75 RXD Autofocus

Tamron has developed a whole new autofocus system for this lens (and, I’m assuming, subsequent lenses for Sony FE). They’ve actually done a great job for a first kick at the can, as the Rapid eXtra-silent stepping Drive (RXD) is everything a mirrorless autofocus system should be. It’s extremely fast, extremely silent, and locks on quickly and confidently. It feels akin to Canon’s excellent Nano-USM technology in speed and silence.

Unfortunately for Tamron, a few early reviewers discovered a minor focus quirk in video AF mode under a very specific set of circumstances, and, in typical YouTube fashion, I began to hear from everyone about the “broken autofocus” on the lens. I found this somewhat ridiculous, as I actually had a copy of the lens myself and was just nailing shot after shot. I had already filmed a whole 20+ minute episode (my Sony a73 review) with the lens, and the AF tracked my face literally perfectly the whole review. I’ve used the lens a fair bit on a gimbal as well for some video work, and had no issue that I could point to. I was unable to recreate this “major issue” no matter how I tried. I’m not doubting that at least someone encountered it (as Tamron immediately began working on a firmware fix), but I doubt it was ever a serious issue.

The positive that came out of this whole process is that we discovered that this is a fully native lens that will receive firmware updates delivered through the camera just like native Sony lenses.

As befits a truly native lens, all Sony focus technologies are supported, from focus modes to Eye AF to the Hybrid Phase Detect/Contrast AF focus that is Sony’s unique approach to autofocus. It supports continuous AF in all drive modes, including Hi+.

My personal experience with the 28-75 RXD and it’s autofocus was very positive. I had good success with things like Eye AF (where I got roughly similar results to using the premium Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 G Master when shooting either portraits or using the lens in an event-type setting.) Autofocus was very fast, silent, and accurate. I have very little to complain about based on what I actually experienced.

The only (very minor) complaint I could point to is that one or two cases I was trying to shoot a subject about four feet in front of me with a busy background beyond. The Tamron’s AF grabbed the background several times, while the G Master (I was shooting them side by side) more intuitively grabbed the foreground object. I was able to easily solve this problem either by bring the focus forward manually or touching the screen and switching to a Flexi-AF point for more precise focus. The positive was that after I moved the focus to the forward object, the AF did not return to the background objects even though in AF-C mode. The shot below in particular is one that stood out to me for having this issue.

All in all this felt like a much more sophisticated effort than the Samyang/Rokinon AF lenses for Sony FE that I’ve spent time with. Tamron has a minor marketing misstep with some early negative press from a few reviewers, but my personal experience says that they have a great focus motor that should help them deliver great lenses for Sony FE.

28-75 RXD Image Quality

While it may seem an unfair comparison to pit this $800 (US) lens against a $2200 (US) lens, the premium Sony FE 24-70mm f/2.8 G Master is the only natural competitor on Sony FE, so I brought it in for comparison. While in an absolute sense I do believe that the G Master lens provides the best image quality, the much less expensive Tamron lens actually acquitted itself very well.

The best way to visualize the differences is by watching these two video episodes where I break down the difference in detail:

You can see my summary of these two episodes below…

28-75 RXD Resolution

It is important to remember that these lenses don’t have identical focal lengths. 24mm is much wider than 28mm, and is arguably more useful than the Tamron’s additional 5mm on the long end. Tamron elected to tackle a slightly easier focal range to engineer for, but it was probably a wise decision as it allows the lens to be a little more competitive where the lenses overlap. The 24mm of the G Master is considerably wider than the 28mm of the Tamron, as you can see in these comparisons:

The final image shows the different framing at 75mm, which is visible but unlikely to have as much impact as the difference on the wide end (particularly at closer focus distances). These two images show the difference in framing from 28 to 75mm:

Comparing the two lenses at 28mm, we find that the Tamron is arguably more contrasty and, at the least, just as sharp in the center of the frame. But whereas the Sony shows a more gradual resolution falloff towards the edges of the frame, the Tamron falls off more quickly. There is improvement from the Tamron when stopped down, but it never reaches the levels of the G Master along the edges of the frame as the G Master sharpens up significantly at apertures like f/5.6. Expect it to the be the better landscape option.

A few other observations is that while both lenses show pronounced barrel distortion at their widest focal lengths, the G Master has the advantage at 28mm. The Tamron’s distortion pattern is fairly linear, however, and I didn’t see any major issues in correcting for it. JPEGs will receive automatic correction in camera. The G Master also shows a little better light transmission and delivers a brighter image at equivalent apertures (by about 1/3^rd stops). I also find the color from the GM slightly more accurate, with the Tamron delivering a slightly warmer image. It’s minor, but you can see the difference in these comparisons.

At 35mm the gap closes a bit. The same general observations are true, but the Tamron is closer in the edges of the frame and is arguably sharper in the center. Distortion is more minimal on both lenses, though the GM is still the winner for light transmission. Stopped down the advantage shifts in the GM’s direction. It has more “in the tank” when stopped down compared to the Tamron.

At 50mm the wide open center advantage favors the Tamron with both of them delivering a roughly similar edge performance. They both show a mild pincushion distortion pattern now. As expected, the GM shows the stronger performance when stopped down to f/5.6 and beyond.

AT 70/75mm there is just the slightest bit of pincushion distortion for both lenses. The two lenses are about equal in the center in sharpness and contrast and the GM has the slightest edge on the edges. Stopped down performance favors the GM, but only slightly. The Tamron is very close here.

No, the Tamron doesn’t go to 24mm, but over the overlapping focal range it is surprisingly competitive, particularly at wide apertures. When stopped down, the GM becomes the better landscape lens, through the advantage is less pronounced from 50mm on. There are two ways of looking at this. If you want the best, that’s going to be the GM. Better light transmission, more consistent resolution across the frame, and better performance when stopped down. But if you are on a budget or looking at this from a price-to-performance ratio, you have likely concluded that the GM lens is certainly not $1400 better. The 28-75 RXD is certainly capable of producing nicely detailed images in a wide variety of scenarios, and for portrait work the resolution difference is minimal at best.

But there’s more to it than resolution…

Bokeh, Color Rendition, Flare Resistance, CA, and more…

Beyond resolution there is the component of optical performance that I like to call “rendering”. A lens can be very sharp without delivering great images, while there are some less-than-pin-sharp lenses that actually deliver beautiful images (think Canon 50mm f/1.2L or the Voigtländer 20mm f/3.5). How do real images out the Tamron 28-75 RXD actually look?

Pretty good, actually.

I found that the images had nice color and contrast on a global level. The bokeh is unique and has character, but as this is a pretty subjective measure, you’ll have to decide whether you like it or not. It has a unique outlining effect with some circular highlights that almost looks like it was penciled in. I prefer this to the “onion-bokeh” of the first Tamron 24-70mm f/2.8 VC, but it won’t be for everyone.

There is a bit more geometric distortion of bokeh circles near the edge of the frame when compared to the G Master, and I think that, in general, the GM lens grabbed less hard edges than the 28-75 RXD. At the same time, however, the reality is that identical images shot with both lenses looked more similar than different. Take a look at the images below – first from the Sony, then from the Tamron. Spot the differences?

Here’s a few more shots that show the bokeh from the lens in a variety of different situations:

One area the Tamron actually bests the GM in a minor way is in its handling of chromatic aberrations. The GM shows a very faint amount of fringing in a few situations, while the Tamron is nearly completely neutral. This helps boost contrast and is part of the reason why the Tamron images have nice punch to them.

As noted previously, the Tamron renders a little warmer than the GM lens. I prefer color accuracy, myself, though there will be moments where the Tamron’s color will look slightly richer. The a73 has a more neutral color science than the a7R3, so I found this less pronounced when used on it.

On the a7R3, I slightly preferred the skin tones from the G Master lens, though once again it would be hard to detect this without having both images side by side.

Did you guess which was which? In this case the GM was first, the Tamron second. I think you can probably agree that the differences are subtle.

Neither lens gets a perfect score for flare resistance. Both exhibited some minor ghosting artifacts both wide and open and stopped down, though both lenses did a good job of retaining contrast other than at the epicenter of the sun’s actions. I did feel like the rays of the sunbursts from the GM lens were a little better defined, though both have a similar number of blades. Sequence below is GM wide open then stopped down to f/11, then Tamron wide open and then stopped down to f/11.

All in all, there are no major missteps optically for the Tamron, though not everyone will be fans of the unique bokeh style. You can see many more images in the Image Gallery here.

Conclusion

The Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 Di III RXD represents a very important lens both for Tamron and for Sony. Tamron has needed to venture into the mirrorless market, where it has only had one APS-C option for years. Positive reception of this lens will help position them to have strong sales of future lenses. But in many ways this lens is equally important for Sony, even though it will invariably cut into some G Master sales. The lack of lenses like this (competent and yet affordable) have really held a lot of people back from making the switch from Canon or Nikon, and the 28-75 RXD will undoubtedly be a “system seller”. The 28-75 RXD is a “win-win” for both companies, and I found the Tamron to be that “everyday useful” kind of lens that I haven’t had in a Sony lens. I’m personally tempted by one myself. If you are looking for a quality general purpose lens that has some unique magnification options, good image quality, and fast, quiet AF, you may have just found your new lens…particularly if you don’t want to break the bank to acquire it.

Pros:

Great price to performance ratio
RXD focus motor is very quick and quiet
Nice grade of build with quality weather sealing
Excellent chromatic aberration control
Strong contrast
Excellent center sharpness at all apertures
Good edge sharpness from 35mm on
Full support of all Sony focus modes and features

Cons:

Bokeh can be a little quirky
Pronounced barrel distortion at 28mm
Some users have experienced video focus issues

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Keywords: Tamron 28-75, Tamron 28-75 Sony, Tamron 28-75mm, Tamron, 28-75mm, f/2.8 RXD, Sony, FE, Tamron 28-75 Review, Tamron 28-75 Sony Review, Dustin Abbott, Review, Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 Di III RXD, A036, Autofocus, Eye AF, Image Quality, Sharpness, Resolution, Color, Bokeh, Real World, Sample Images, Video, Video Test, Comparison, Sony 24-70, G Master, withmytamron

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Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 RXD (A036) Image Gallery

Dustin Abbott

May 30th, 2018

It was with great excitement that I saw Tamron’s announcement in February at the WPPI Conference of an all-new lens designed from the ground up for Sony FE. The new Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 Di III RXD (A036) provides something that the Sony platform has had few of – solid alternatives to the expensive premium Sony lenses at different focal lengths. The 28-75mm provides a good build (including weather sealing), fast and silent autofocus (RXD), and beautiful image quality. I’ll be giving it a thorough test over the next month, but in the meantime you can check back regularly for updates and new photos here.

Images of the Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 RXD

Images Taken with the Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 RXD

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!

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Keywords: Tamron 28-75, Tamron 28-75 Sony, Tamron 28-75mm, Tamron, 28-75mm, f/2.8 RXD, Sony, FE, Tamron 28-75 Review, Tamron 28-75 Sony Review, Dustin Abbott, Review, Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 Di III RXD, A036, Autofocus, Eye AF, Image Quality, Sharpness, Resolution, Color, Bokeh, Real World, Sample Images, Video, Video Test, Comparison, Sony 24-70, G Master, withmytamron

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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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Sigma 28-70mm F2.8 DG DN Review

Dustin Abbott

February 24th, 2021

Sigma 24-70DN Build, Design and Handling

Sigma 28-70mm F2.8 DN Autofocus Performance

Sigma 28-70DN Image Quality

Conclusion

Pros:

Cons:

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Sigma 28-70mm F2.8 DN Image Gallery

Dustin Abbott

February 24th, 2021

Photos of the Sigma 28-70mm F2.8 DN

Photos taken with the Sigma 28-70mm F2.8 DN

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Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 RXD (A036) Review

Dustin Abbott

June 29th, 2018

Build and Design

Tamron 28-75 RXD Autofocus

28-75 RXD Image Quality

28-75 RXD Resolution

Bokeh, Color Rendition, Flare Resistance, CA, and more…

Conclusion

Pros:

Cons:

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Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 RXD (A036) Image Gallery

Dustin Abbott

May 30th, 2018

Images of the Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 RXD

Images Taken with the Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 RXD

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