The Best Tamron Lenses for Every Job | Articles | Photo, video, optics

Source: cined.com

Why do pho­tog­ra­phers choose third par­ty lens­es? Most often, native “glass­es” are more expen­sive, while Tam­ron and Sig­ma mod­els boast qual­i­ty at the same lev­el, and some­times bet­ter than Canon, Nikon and Sony. In the Tam­ron line­up, there are lens­es that are not only more inter­est­ing in terms of price-qual­i­ty ratio, but also real mas­ter­pieces in them­selves. In this top, we have col­lect­ed the best, in our opin­ion, Tam­ron lens­es for var­i­ous tasks: the best zooms (stan­dard, wide-angle, tele­pho­to and trav­el zooms), uni­ver­sal primes and por­traits, as well as macro lens­es.

Uni­ver­sal Tam­ron fixed focal length

Tam­ron fixed focal length for por­traits

The Best Tam­ron Macro Lens

The best Tam­ron stan­dard zoom

Tam­ron’s best wide-angle zooms

Tam­ron’s Best Tele­pho­to Zoom Lens­es

Best trav­el zoom

For each cat­e­go­ry, we used our own selec­tion cri­te­ria, because what is impor­tant for a por­trait lens may not be so impor­tant for a macro lens, but the bench­marks com­mon to all mod­els were: high sharp­ness, build reli­a­bil­i­ty and uni­ver­sal val­ue for mon­ey. Most of the lens­es in this top are avail­able in ver­sions for Canon, Nikon DSLRs, or for Sony (Sony FE) mir­ror­less cam­eras — we have marked the avail­able mounts next to the name of each lens in the top.

Universal Tamron fixed focal length

Tamron SP 35mm f/1.8 Di VC USD

Inex­pen­sive clas­sic 35mm with good aper­ture

Avail­able mounts: Canon EF, Nikon F (FX), Sony/Minolta Alpha.

Tam­ron’s SP lens line has main­tained an excel­lent rep­u­ta­tion for a cou­ple of decades, main­ly due to its excel­lent val­ue for mon­ey. The lens­es of the line are con­sid­ered pro­fes­sion­al, but the price for them cor­re­sponds to the stan­dard lines of native lens­es. So the cost of SP 35mm F1.8 Di VC USD as of the end of Novem­ber 2020 does not exceed 50 thou­sand rubles.

In terms of optics, the SP 35mm f/1.8 deliv­ers excel­lent sharp images across the entire aper­ture range. While there are faster primes on the mar­ket, f/1.8 is good enough for low-light work and por­traits with beau­ti­ful bokeh. Opti­cal image sta­bi­liza­tion (only avail­able on the Canon and Nikon ver­sions of Tam­ron) makes it even more use­ful for shoot­ing in low light where cam­era shake can be a prob­lem. In addi­tion, the com­pact body of this fix is ​​pro­tect­ed from bad weath­er.

Tamron fixed focal length for portraits

Tamron SP 85mm F1.8 Di VC USD

This por­trait lens cre­ates creamy bokeh and shows good sharp­ness at f/2.8

Avail­able mounts: Canon EF, Nikon F (FX), Sony/Minolta Alpha.

The Tam­ron 85mm f/1.8 VC is a rea­son­ably priced 85mm lens that com­petes direct­ly in terms of optics with offer­ings from Canon and Nikon.

The 85mm focal length is great for cap­tur­ing full-length and shoul­der-length por­traits with­out dis­tor­tion, while the f/1.8 aper­ture cre­ates nice creamy bokeh. At an open aper­ture, it is not too sharp, but already at about f / 2.8, the sharp­ness becomes excel­lent.

This por­trait lens uses an opti­cal sta­bi­liza­tion sys­tem that helps to work in low light con­di­tions. Also, the opti­cal sta­bi­liz­er ensures the smooth­ness of the pic­ture in the viewfind­er and on the dis­play. The lens is pro­tect­ed from dust and mois­ture, so you can take it on loca­tion with­out fear.

Here is what Tam­ron Ambas­sador St. Peters­burg pho­tog­ra­ph­er Ivan Proskurin writes about his favorite lens:

The Best Tamron Macro Lens

Tamron SP 90mm f/2.8 Di VC USD 1:1 Macro

Sharp macro lens with fast focus

Avail­able mounts: Canon EF, Nikon F (FX), Sony/Minolta Alpha.

Tam­ron has devel­oped sev­er­al gen­er­a­tions of 90mm macro lens­es. The Tam­ron 90mm f/2.8 VC is the lat­est and great­est. The lens offers every­thing you need for macro pho­tog­ra­phy: a 1:1 mag­ni­fi­ca­tion, a con­ve­nient focal length that allows you not to get too close to the sub­ject, and an opti­cal image sta­bi­liza­tion sys­tem. The glass retains excel­lent sharp­ness in the cen­ter of the frame through­out the entire aper­ture range, but the sharp­ness in the cor­ners of the frame is also quite decent.

The mod­el focus­es quite quick­ly, which is gen­er­al­ly unchar­ac­ter­is­tic for macro glass­es. At the same time, the 90mm f / 2.8 can­not be called par­tic­u­lar­ly light and com­pact — half a kilo with a length of 115 cm.

The best Tamron standard zoom

Tamron 24–70mm f/2.8 G2 VC

This zoom is good for land­scape pho­tog­ra­phy

Avail­able mounts: Canon EF, Nikon F (FX).

The Tam­ron 24–70mm f/2.8 G2 VC boasts very sharp images both in the cen­ter and cor­ners of the frame, as well as fast aut­o­fo­cus. The 24–70mm focal length is well suit­ed for land­scapes with a slight­ly nar­row­er field of view, as well as for archi­tec­tur­al, por­trait and even street pho­tog­ra­phy. Although, in gen­er­al, the size (111 by 88 mm) and weight (905 grams) of this lens make it not a very con­ve­nient option for street pho­tog­ra­phy.

Tamron’s best wide-angle zooms

Tamron SP 15–30mm F2.8 Di VC USD G2

A pop­u­lar wide angle among inte­ri­or and land­scape pho­tog­ra­phers

Avail­able mounts: Canon EF, Nikon F (FX).

The sec­ond gen­er­a­tion of the pop­u­lar Tam­ron 15–30mm received improved lens coat­ings, faster aut­o­fo­cus and addi­tion­al opti­cal sta­bi­liza­tion. All these inno­va­tions improve an already excel­lent lens, mak­ing it a favorite of land­scape and inte­ri­or pho­tog­ra­phers.

The only thing to keep in mind is that the large bul­bous front ele­ment of this lens pre­vents the use of con­ven­tion­al screw-on fil­ters.

Tamron 17–35mm F2.8–4 Di OSD

Tam­ron 17–35mm F2.8–4 Di OSD — com­pact and light­weight wide-angle zoom

Avail­able mounts: Canon EF, Nikon F (FX).

As an alter­na­tive, more bud­getary (55 ver­sus 90 thou­sand rubles) option, you can con­sid­er Tam­ron 17–35mm F2.8–4 Di OSD. It is slight­ly longer tele­pho­to and its aper­ture changes depend­ing on the focal length. This mod­el can­not boast of a sta­bi­liza­tion sys­tem, but it is much more com­pact (84x93 vs. 98x45 mm) and twice as light (460 vs. 1110 grams) than the SP 15–30mm.

Tamron’s Best Telephoto Zoom Lenses

Tamron 70–210mm f/4 Di VC USD

Rel­a­tive­ly com­pact tele­zoom with weath­er pro­tec­tion

Avail­able mounts: Canon EF, Nikon F (FX).

The Tam­ron 70–210mm f/4 Di VC USD is a fair­ly unusu­al lens that offers a con­stant f/4 aper­ture and a weath­er­proof body in a more com­pact form fac­tor than the tra­di­tion­al 70–200mm f/2.8. With a light­weight and com­pact design, it’s also great for trav­el.

The lens fea­tures excel­lent sharp­ness, well-con­trolled dis­tor­tion and opti­cal sta­bi­liza­tion with a 5‑stop expo­sure rat­ing.

Tamron 70–180 F2.8 Di III VXD

This fast tele­pho­to zoom is per­fect for Sony’s full-frame mir­ror­less cam­eras.

Avail­able mounts: Sony FE.

The Tam­ron 70–180 F2.8 Di III VXD is a lens for Sony full-frame mir­ror­less cam­eras. It’s a bit “soft” at some focal lengths, but its good price (start­ing at £859), excel­lent optics, and fast aut­o­fo­cus make it a great choice for any­one look­ing for a high-aper­ture Sony tele­zoom. In addi­tion, it is quite com­pact, light­weight and pro­tect­ed from rain and snow.

Tamron 100–400mm f/4.5–6.3 Di VC USD

Also worth men­tion­ing is the Tam­ron 100–400mm f/4.5–6.3 Di VC USD uni­ver­sal zoom, which is suit­able for shoot­ing por­traits, sports and wildlife. Despite a decent range of focal lengths, this is a very com­pact (199 mm long) and not too heavy (just over a kilo­gram) lens. Plus, the front ele­men­t’s water­proof­ing and flu­o­rite coat­ing fur­ther expand its appli­ca­tion options.

A real “work­horse” for sports and reportage shoot­ing

Avail­able mounts: Canon EF, Nikon F (FX).

Here is what anoth­er Tam­ron ambas­sador, Moscow reportage pho­tog­ra­ph­er Ivan Evlakhov, writes about him:

Best travel zoom

Tamron 28–300mm f/3.5–6.3 Di VC PZD

Unfor­tu­nate­ly, this rather com­pact trav­el zoom does not have a sta­bi­liza­tion sys­tem.

Unfor­tu­nate­ly, this rather com­pact trav­el zoom does not have a sta­bi­liza­tion sys­tem.

Avail­able mounts: Canon EF, Nikon F (FX), Sony/Minolta Alpha.

A trav­el zoom should cov­er a wide range of focal lengths, allow­ing you to cap­ture both a beau­ti­ful land­scape and a wild ani­mal from a respect­ful dis­tance. With the Tam­ron 28–300mm f/3.5–6.3 Di VC PZD, the Japan­ese com­pa­ny man­aged to cov­er a very unusu­al range from semi-wide to long tele­pho­to. At the same time, at the same time, she man­aged to main­tain a fair­ly rea­son­able size of the case (96 by 67 mm, 540 grams), which is an absolute plus for a trav­el zoom.

The weak­ness­es of this glass are the max­i­mum aper­ture drop to f / 6.3 at the far end of the focal lengths and the lack of opti­cal sta­bi­liza­tion.

Tamron 28–200 F2.8–5.6 Di III RXD

Tam­ron 28–200 F2.8–5.6 Di III RXD is good for video shoot­ing thanks to qui­et aut­o­fo­cus

Avail­able mounts: Sony FE.

For Sony mir­ror­less cam­eras, Tam­ron has the com­pact and ver­sa­tile Tam­ron 28–200mm f/2.8–5.6. The glass is quite sharp and faster than the native Sony 24–240mm f/3.5–6.3 OSS. The Tam­ron lens also allows you to shoot close-ups with a min­i­mum focus­ing dis­tance of 19cm wide and 80cm long. Adding to the ver­sa­til­i­ty of this trav­el zoom is the qui­et aut­o­fo­cus motor, which makes it a very good option for video shoot­ing.