Tamron 28-75 f/2.8 Di III RXD for Sony FE Review
Introduction
When Tamron announced their new 28-75 full frame lens designed for the Sony E-mount I had mixed feelings at first. Why would we need another lens in this focal range when we already have the amazing Sony 24-70 f/2.8 G-master? On the other hand I was very excited to see a lens brand like Tamron starting to design lenses specifically for the Sony E-mount. This was great news on it’s own, but why start with the 28-75? I love extreme wide-angle lenses. The 28-75 zoom range is a range I actually rarely use. I usually carry my 12-24 or 16-35, a 50mm prime and then a 70-300 or 100-400 meaning I skip the entire 24-70 or (or in Tamron’s case the 28-75).
However, there were a few important things that made me try this Tamron lens. First of all, I was just interested to see what kind of quality Tamron would produce for the Sony E-mount. Second, and more important, was the weight of this lens. With its 550 grams this lens is 40% lighter than the 24-70 f/2.8 Sony G-Master. Weight being an important factor for me, I got triggered. Tamron managed to make this lens much lighter because their use of material and cutting some mm on the wide end. Last, the price which is 800 euro compared to the 2250 euro G-Master. That’s a big difference!
Sony A7RIII with the 12-24 f/4 per size comparison against the 24-70 f/2.8.
Now in this review I am not going to compare this lens with the 24-70 G-Master or even the 24-70 f/4 Sony Zeiss. Why? Because there are other people who already did a great job doing that. Check Max Yuryev on Youtube for example. I'll focus on the quality of this lens on it's own.
Let’s start with some specifications:
Diameter : 73mm
Length : 118mm
550g
Filter Diameter 67mm
Aperture blades: 9
Elements/Groups: 15/12
Closest focusing Distance: 0.19m (more on that later)
material: plastic, polycarbonate
When I see lens types and names like this one I always wonder what all this fanciness means, so let’s get this out of the way! ‘Tamron 28-75 f/2.8 Di III RXD’ . Di stands for Digitally Integrated Design (to reduce ghosting, flare, CA and peripheral light fall-off along with improved resolution). RXD stands for Tamron’s new Rapid eXtra-silent stepping Drive autofocus motor. III simply stands for the version number of this lens. It has previous versions for other mounts.
Build Quality
When we look at the build quality of this lens there is nothing spectacular about it. It feels a bit like a Sony kitlens. It’s mostly plastic material (polycarbonate) with the metal mount. The lens is dust and moisture resistant. It is not completely weather sealed. However, compared to Tamron's earlier lenses this version has much better resistance than its predecessors.
Tamron placed extra rings to prevent dust and moisture coming in under the zoom and focus rings.
When using the lens, the thing I noticed first and was rather annoying was the place of the zoom ring. This is not the place you would be used to. From the body, the focus ring comes first and then the zoom. Normally, it’s the opposite. I am not sure why Tamron chose to do it this way but it takes some time getting used to. For me it wasn’t really a problem, but if you’re doing a wedding shoot with multiple bodies and lenses this could be very annoying.
The design of the lens is quite basic with zero buttons on the lens. There’s no AF/MF button or any customisable button. Everything is controlled via the camera body. The focus ring is endless and smooth with no scale on the lens. The zoom ring is quite sturdy and not that smooth. This all sounds a bit negative but all in all it’s not that big of a deal. Using it on my A7RIII it feels great. The whole package looks nice and is very nice to carry around with not too much weight on your hands.
Performance
So as always, enough with the tech-talk. I like to go out shooting and see how things perform in the field. How does this lens perform? Funny enough I started out with this lens in my garden. Why? As I mentioned earlier this lens has a minimum focus distance of 19cm on the wide end (28mm). At 75mm it focuses at 39cm. This means you can kind of make macro shots with this lens which is extremely fun. Here are some examples with the lens used at it’s minimum focus distance:
Sony A7RIII, Tamron 28-75 at 28mm, f/2.8, 1/1250s, ISO 100
Sony A7RIII, Tamron 28-75 at 28mm, f/4, 1/320s, ISO 100
Sony A7RIII, Tamron 28-75 at 75mm, f/2.8, 1/1000s, ISO 100
I love playing with minimum focus distances of lenses and this one does not disappoint. As can be seen the bokeh of this lens is quite nice as well. It has a nice softness to it. It’s not extremely soft but very acceptable as a background blur. Here are some other examples from the bokeh of this lens:
Sony A7RIII, Tamron 28-75 at 75mm, f/2.8, 1/80s, ISO 250. Good example of the front and background blur/bokeh.
Sony A7RIII, Tamron 28-75 at 75mm, f/2.8, 1/125s, ISO 200. I love to play with an out of focus foreground with lenses like the Tamron. The bokeh in the foreground is nice and smooth.
Sony A7RIII, Tamron 28-75 at 75mm, f/2.8, 1/1200s, ISO 200. The bokeh from the flowers in the foreground allows me to create artistic effects.
Sony A7RIII, Tamron 28-75 at 70mm, f/8, 1/40s, ISO 160.
Sony A7RIII, Tamron 28-75 at 75mm, f/2.8, 1/60s, ISO 250.
Sharpness
This is where the Tamron 28-75 shines. The sharpness of this lens is out of this world. As a landscape photographer sharpness is the most important property of a lens for me. The Tamron does not disappoint here. It’s one of the sharpest zooms I own. Even at f/2.8 the lens is tack sharp, all the way to f/14. At f/22 the lens (obviously) loses a lot of sharpness. Don’t be afraid to use this lens wide open! It’s sharp across the entire zoom range, from corner to corner at almost every aperture. Fringing and chromatic aberration on this lens is also minimum. Again, the number 1 property of the Tamron is the sharpness.
Sony A7RIII, Tamron 28-75 at 53mm, f/4, 1/1250s, ISO 100. A lens review is not complete without my cat. In all seriousness though, this lens is extremely sharp at all apertures.