[Music] Hi I'm Dustin Abbott I had a really Narrow window here before I had to send These two lenses back to their Respective manufacturers and so I Thought I would seize the opportunity of Having them both at the same time and do A little bit of head-to-head competition Between the brand new Sigma 70 to2 200 Millimeter F2.8 this is their DG DN Sports series Lens for Sony e-mount this is the Tamron 70 to 180 mm F2.8 VC G2 lens also for Sony emount we Finally have some quality alternatives To the very expensive $2,800 a Sony 70 to2 200 mm f2.8 gmaster Mark I lens that lens is fantastic by The way and I think that all things Being equal it is the winner between These three just so you know but it's Only a winner by a small margin in some Areas these two lenses represent a Really good alternative both amazing Lenses both with some comparative Strengths and weaknesses so what I'm Going to do here today is that I'm going To give you my general observations from These various tests the places where I Felt like the Tamron pulled off a whim The place where I felt like the sigma Pulled off a wiim but if you're Interested in the deeper dive and the Actual Visual Evidence of these things
At the end that I will give a a image Quality breakdown where I show you Head-to-head how and why I drew the Conclusions that I did so stay tuned for That if you're interested in a little Bit deeper dive but let's start off by Talking about reasons to choose the Tamron the first of those is price the Tamron comes to Market at a price point Of $1,299 while the sigma is $499 and so we do have a $200 difference Not a huge difference but certainly a Price Advantage if you're on a tight Budget and very clearly this Tamron has The advantage when it comes to the size And that's even more so if you just look At the bare lenses side by side this Almost seems to be in a different class Of lens compared to the sigma which is Slightly the largest and definitely the Heav heaviest lens in the class and so Definitely if you're looking for a size And weight Advantage the Tamron is 83 Millimeters in diameter versus 90.6 Millimeters for the sigma it is 156.25 MM for the sigma and of course The Tamron is an internally or excuse me Externally zooming lens you can probably Put that into the negative Cate category Versus the sigma which is internally Zooming but to make the point here you Can see that even with the Tamron fully Zoomed out it still is significantly
Shorter than what the sigma is is Another Advantage for the Tamron is the Weight and that is a unarguable one it Comes in at only 855 G making it the Lightest lens in the class versus 1345 G for the sigma that is essentially A 500 G difference between the two so This is the lightest in the class the Sigma is the heaviest in the class so That's a win for Tamron particularly for Those of you who want to travel light The Tamron has a 67 mm front filter Thread the sigma has a 77 mm front Filter thread neither one of those is Uncommon but the advantage for the Tamron is that Tamron has very purposely Built a ecosystem in all of their son e Mount lenses with only a couple of Exceptions where you can use a 67 mm Filter thread on all of those and you Have to cite that as an advantage Because if you own multiple Tamron Lenses in a particular class you can buy One set of filters you can share it Across them without having to deal with You know step up rings and all of those Various things and so you're going to Spend mess less money on filters because Of the compact size but also the ability To share them across multiple lenses the Tamron also has an advantage of having a Higher magnification that's a higher Magnification at 180 mm versus 200 mm But the tamron's highest magnification
Actually comes at 70 mm and it is Significantly higher than what the sigma Offers 0.38 times at the highest Magnification for the Tamron versus only 0.19 times for the sigma meaning that The Tamron is capable of basically Double the magnification of the sigma Now I'm going to give a little bit of an Asteris to that that I will elaborate on In the image quality breakdown and so we Can see that in just a few moments Tamron has started to implement you Weather sealed USBC ports on their Lenses and so that only not only allows You to do quick firmware updates more Conveniently than what you can do them In camera by the way by a long shot but Also uh gives you the advantage of being Able to customize the lens and in fact Tamron has fewer controls on it but Ironically it has more ability to Customize at least in the Sony e- Mount Version than what the Sigma lens does For the Leica L Mount version of the the Sigma lens there is an available dock That allows you to do a little bit more Customization and tweaking the Tamron Can actually be customized in a number Of ways the USBC Port is built right Into it and the software to do that is Free and so the Tamron actually gives You a little bit more uh control in Terms of customizing and setting up the Lens as you would like and it's not just
The function of the switch or the button Here it's the you know amount of Rotation in the manual focus ring it's The direction of the manual focus ring You know all of those various things and On that note I will note that the Tamron Lens also has the advantage of zooming And focusing in the same direction as Sony lenses whereas for some reason Sigma persists in zooming the opposite Direction the Tamron as far as the both Of these are really great Optical lenses And as we're going to see in the image Quality breakdown there's mostly just Give and take between them the Tamron Does have an advantage I would say of Having consistently slightly nicer Bouquet and it's not by a wide margin But I would say that the evidence points Towards the Tamron for that and so you Know another area reason to choose the Tamron so how about some reasons to Choose the sigma well obviously it does Have an additional 20 mm of focal length Though like with the one of the points On the Tamron I'm going to put an Asteris next to that because it's a Little bit more complicated than what it Seems and we'll dive into that during The image quality breakdown what is Inarguable is the sigma has a much Better build quality the Tamron G2 Version is improved the materials are Nice but this feels like a prograde lens
Whereas the Tamron still feels more like A mid-grade lens in terms of the build So the materials are nicer here also it Has much more features and controls on It it has an aperture ring it has more Switches has not only the aperture ring But the ability to declick that aperture Ringed you know it has aperture lock it Has just a lot of controls that make it The equal of the G Master lens in terms Of those controls Tamron you can get Some of those things by using the custom Switches but as far as just having a Setup of controls on there the sigma is The winner when it comes to the overall Set of features and controls on it that Includes having three different custom Or function buttons as opposed to just Having one of those on the Tamron and so That means that in multiple positions You'll have one to access on the sigma Whereas with the Tamron you just have The standard position right under the Bank of switches There the sigma has lower magnification But as we're going to see in our image Quality breakdown it does give you Better performance up close in fact it Is razor sharp up close which allows Those close-up images to look really Really fantastic making it a great Option to maybe throw an extension tube On and increase that magnification Because it can perform so well both of
These have dual essentially high- Powerered linear Motors Focus Motors as A part of them and both of them can Focus extremely quickly but I did feel That the sigma was the winner in terms Of just the reactiveness it feels like In all scenarios that the sigma is just Incredibly sharp or incredibly fast to f Focus and there's no lag there's no Spool up anything like that the Tamron Is also very good but I did find in low Light situations that the I think think There's more power in the focus Motors Of the sigma I felt like it was a little Bit more responsive at the margins in Those lower light conditions in a little Bit more difficult Focus situations than What the Tamron was so I'm going to give A wi to the sigma on That the OS is clearly better on the Sigma lens I found that the VC on the Tamon lens was a little bit jumpy and Choppy sometimes the sigma system works Better it's smoother um it is a little Bit more consistent but it also gives You more stabilization and so in this Series of shots you can see that with The Tamron there's only a few Exceptionally still shots this is both Of them shot at around 180 to 190 millim I try to make it as close as possible so Right right in that range and both of Them were shooting at a one8 of a second Shutter speed and so you know definitely
A challenge but the sigma definitely Provided more Keepers as you can see Here and did a better job of providing Some actually perfectly stable shots Whereas the Tamron at best was close so The OS is definitely better in the Sigma Lens the sigma also I felt like again You know give and take between them but One area where I felt like optically the Sigma was Superior is that it I think it Consistently delivered a little bit Better contrast particularly in real World situations and so I'm going to Give it an edge there So a quick conclusion is that both of These are excellent lenses I think that They both are maybe serving a different Purpose they both have fight against the Same Sony limitations you can't use Teleconverters with either one on Sony Both of them are going to hit up against The maximum burst rate of 15 frames per Second even on the sport bodies on Sony Lenses that's an artificial limitation So if you want to be able to use telecon Converters or unlock the fastest burst Rate on your Sony Sports cameras you're Have to look at that g Master lens but Both of these face those same challenges But if you eliminate those and those are Not deal breakers for you they are both Fantastic lenses and so after spending Time with both of them I would say this If you want to travel light the Tamron
Is the clear winner it is the lightest Lens in the class it's the smallest lens In the class but it delivers great Autofocus and very great Optical Performance you can use that and you can Know if you look at the image quality Breakdown that in fact you're not even Losing much in terms of the focal length Even though it stops at 180 mm relative To the Sigma choose the sigma if you want the GM lens but you can't afford it the Sigma is basically the budget G Master Lens it has all of the features and all Of the performance of the G Master lens Except for those limitations that I Point to and I would say at the end of The day the Sony probably focuses just a Little bit better it's got quad Focus Motors instead of the Dual Focus Motors In these but outside of those two things I think Sigma is delivering basically Everything that the Sony lens offers up At a much much cheaper price I mean We're talking about the $1,300 Difference between the two and so if you Want a GM lens but can't afford it go With the sigma if you want a travel Light go with a Tamron I'm Dustin Abbott And I hope that this has helped you here Today please like And subscribe if you Haven't already and you can look in the Description down below to see links to My full reviews of both of these lenses
Now if you want more Stay With Me and Let's dive into the image quality Breakdown so for this series of Comparisons I'm going to keep the sigma On the left and I'm going to put the Tamron on the right that'll help you to Distinguish which is which so starting Off taking a look at vignette and Distortion at 70 mm you can see that the Distortion pattern on the the Tamron Lens is a little bit more pronounced Than what we see on the sigma to correct The sigma I used a minus three for the Distortion and a plus 27 for the Vignette for the Tamron I used a minus 4 So just a hair more uh correction for The Distortion but a plus 50 for the Vignette so definitely an area where the Tamron has a disadvantage about 2third Of a stop now on the telephoto end we Can see that both have a similar amount Of pen cushion Distortion you can tell That the Tamron has significantly more Venette I used a minus 8 to correct the Distortion on the sigma and a plus 21 a Very little amount to correct correct For vignette on the Tamron I used a Minus 99 to correct for the Distortion So you know about similar but once again The vignette is even more of a Difference in this case we're closer to Three stops uh compared to the one stop For the sigma so the sigma is definitely A winner in the vignette Department of
Course it does have a 77 mm front filter Dimension compared to the 67 mm of the Tamron now we can see that neither lens Really suffers much from longitudinal Chromatic aberration as we take a look At the test chart here we can see that There really isn't any fringing before After the plane of focus with either Lens now if we compare the resolution in Contrast at 70 mm this is at 200% Magnification on a 61 megapixel a7r Mark 5 we can see in the middle of the frame At 70 mm that the Tamron is the winner In terms of the overall detail and Contrast it just pops a little bit more If we pan off to towards the mid-frame Here we can see that the results are Less significant the two lenses are more Similar than different in this area here I would favor the contrast slightly from The sigma moving down here the same is True the sigma looks a little bit better And off into the corners the corners are Very very close it would be hard for me To call a winner I would call the sigma The winner in the mid-frame we can see Looking on this side of the frame about Similar results over on the far left I Would slightly favor the sigma there Moving up here very very similar I would Say just a little bit more for Sigma and Up into the left corner we can see that The results are largely similar but with A little bit more contrast for the sigma
So what we take away is that the Tamron's sharper in the center but the Sigma is a little bit better in this Mid-frame Zone and then you get to the Corners and the Tamron catches up again And they're about equal now at the Telephoto end that's 200 mm for the for The sigma 180 mm for the Tamron we can See that in the middle of the frame once Again the Tamron is maybe just a hair Sharper uh it's very very close but the Two lenses uh show just a little bit of Variance there in this mid-frame they Both look really really excellent hard For me to call a winner there if we pan Down here we can see that once again in This Zone I think the sigma gives a Little bit better contrast figure moving Down this direction Very very close perhaps just a hair more For Sigma and then off into the very Corner the sigma is a little bit sharper And has better contrast there over on This side we can see that they look very Very similar in this Zone maybe a hair More contrast for the sigma and over Here on the far left side close but I'm Going to slightly favor the Tamron in Terms of the contrast and detail there You can see here in the hair just a Little bit more delineation if we pop up To to this Zone here and I'll Center Them we can see both of them look really Really good hard for me to call a winner
There I'm going to call that a draw and Then up into the upper left corner we Can see that I would slightly favor the Sigma's result there so once again some Give and take which is pretty consistent Throughout this Zoom range they're both Incredibly sharp and if you put them Side by side in a torture test you know You're not really going to call a clear Winner there's some give and take across The frame so up close we can see that on The telephoto end which is not the Tamron's highest magnification level but We can see that it delivers just a Slightly higher degree of magnification Basically 0.21 versus 0.19 times and so just a minor Improvement there however the tamron's Biggest kind of resolution or Magnification however the tamron's Biggest magnification comes on the 70 mm End where you can see it is cap able of A much higher level of magnification I Believe it's 0.34 times now as far as the performance Up close we can see that the sigma it Kind of claws back a little bit here Because it really is fantastically sharp Up close and we're going to see that Becomes relevant in just a moment now The Tamron is good I would say but the Sigma is better in terms of its overall Pop contrast and detail so in a sense we Have a bit of a draw here once again in
That the sigma doesn't have as good of Magnification so that's a a disadvantage But it does have the superior Performance up close so in a real world Comparison you can see how that plays Out so obviously the Tamron has the Ability to give you a higher Magnification that's also going to give You larger softer bouquet in the Background more compression of the Background uh in that sense whereas the Sigma is delivering a lower amount of Magnification but we can see once again That up close the Tamron just isn't Quite as good at rendering the fine Details and that becomes even more clear In a three-dimensional setting whereas You can see that in that area of focus That the sigma is doing a better job It's really really crisp up close now if We look over into the bouquet area Here's an area where we'll examine this A little bit more but there is probably A little bit more wind for the Tamron Than there is for the sigma the Tamron Maybe has a hair more outlining but the Sigma has more of you call it onion Bokeh just those concentric circles Generalized busyness in the bouqu Circles and also you'll notice that the Tamron does a little bit better job of Having circular shapes closer out to the Edge of the frame now this particular Test is an interesting one in that I
Fully anticipated that because of the 20 Mm different in focal length that I was Going to have some radically different Framing so I was shocked after I first Shot with the sigma and then I lined up With the Tamron that I got H pretty much The same framing we can see looking at The image at large that they're framing Fairly similarly the sigma is just a Very hair tighter looking more like Maybe 5 mm difference rather than 20 mm Difference and so we can see taking a Look here both of them are really really Sharp uh in in this particular shot but The you know the size of objects in the Frame is only very very very slightly More magnified than what the Tamron is And so you can see here with the sigma The diameter that is just a little bit Larger than it is here but the Difference between the two is really Really insignificant and if we look at All of these various objects that are Framed Here Again The Tam or the sigma Is ever so slightly larger but it is not Hardly noticeable unless you have them Side by side likewise in this shot here We can see similar kind of thing that Really they kind of deliver a very Similar kind of result now we're going To spend a few seconds here on this Image just kind of checking out if few Other things so looking at some of these Shiny surfaces this is an area where
Very typically I'm going to see Longitudinal chromatic aberration and so We can see that neither one of these Lenses is giving any kind of issue with That the textures are clearly defined There's not really any kind of bleeding Even in these light areas what we can See however is that the contrast on the Sigma holds up just a little bit better And you can see it in areas like this Now I did find that they did not always Meter the same in this case the meter Ing for the subject is probably a little Bit better on the Tamron but they just Bear that in mind that the metering is Not identical I do feel like the sigma Delivers a little bit crisper contrast Compared to the Tamron both of them are Obviously just ridiculously sharp but Here in a real world setting I would Slightly favor the performance from the Sigma lens now here you can see the Focus distance we are about 6 to 7 ft Away a couple of meters from this Bookshelf and so at that particular Distance you can see that yes the Tamron Is ever so slightly different in terms Of the framing but you can see that it Is not significant at all now once again I do feel like the contrast slightly Favors the sigma in this particular shot But if we kind of line things up and we Look at the amount of magnification it Really is very very similar and so you
Can see that yes in this particular Instance we can see that the framing It's not identical I tried to line them Up as much as possible so the the Tamron Is ever so slightly wider but if I look Up here on the top end we can see that The lineup is not identical so the Difference in the framing particularly If you look at the magnification of Different things is really not Significant at all we'll take a look at This little house right here and you can See that the sigma I think has done a Better job with the actual rendering of It but we can see that in terms of the Size that occupies the frame or this you Know oldfashioned radio here the size of Them is not significantly different so Out of curiosity I thought I would take It to a further diff distance and so Here we more like 40 ft say 13 M or so And you can see that there is a little Bit more difference in the framing here So just out of curiosity I counted the Bricks that would be in the frame across This top row comparing the two so what I Found is that the Tamron has the Equivalent of 23 bricks in frame while The sigma has 21 bricks and frame so it Is in this case framing tighter but even At a more of not quite Infinity distance But a much further distance you can Continue to see that the amount of Difference in framing is not as
Significant as what you might think and So again let's look at this spot right Here and you can see it is definitely More magnified on the sigma but not by a Significant degree so that 20 mm Difference in focal length maybe isn't As big a deal as what you might think so Likewise in this shot here it's the same Distance this is 180 mimet this is 200 Mm and we can see that the difference is Minuscule I mean it is just within a few Millimeters and so my only conclusion Can be that the sigma must do some Focus Breathing whereas the Tamron and its Externally zooming design is able to not Do any of that Focus breathing which Allows you to have a a little bit more Than what that 180 mm suggest and a Little bit less than what that 200 mm Suggest so let's take a little bit Closer look at the bouquet quality now In this particular shot I shot the Tamron first but basically everything That I do Nala thinks that she needs to Be a part of it and so very quickly she Jumped into frame so we're going to have To ignore her she really wouldn't leave Me alone for this so in this case one Thing that's interesting to me is that Both these are at 212th of a second here So they're composed very similarly you Can see however that the Tamron is Delivering a slightly Brighter Image Compared to the sigma now frankly that
Surprised me a little bit because the Tamron has a smaller front Dimension 67 Mm filter thread versus a 77 mm filter Thread here and so it's interesting to Me that the Tamron would deliver the Brighter Image which is not necessarily What I would expect but we're here more To talk about Boke so let's take a look At a few of these areas so we can see Here that looking at this particular out Of focus area I wouldn't say that there Is anything there significant to point To looking over here at this is says Home here we can see that both of them Are delivering a really soft area the The Tamron has just a very slightly Creamier look but that could be in part Because it's exposing a little bit Brighter the Shadows are lifted a little Bit more and so there's not really a big Takeaway there uh both of them are Delivering I would say similar type Bouqu in this kind of setting as we look At these out of focus areas they just Really don't look particularly different I would maybe very slightly favor the Tamron for that overall look of softness But as we can see it really is nothing Significant that we're looking at now Once again in this particular shot Interestingly the faster exposure is Actually on the sigma but the Brighter Image I would say actually belongs to The Tamron so again interesting the
Light transmission May slightly favor The Tamron we can see if we look in at These that both of them deliver really Really fabulous results I mean that Detail on nser is fabulous and since she Jumped up there I thought I might as Well use her obviously with a moving Target you can't get them to stay still Long enough to be identical but we can See that both of these lenses deliver a Really fabulous amount of detail but They do deliver a different look the Tamron look is perhaps a little bit more Cinematic the sigma look is a little bit More high contrast and sigma is doing Contrast really really well with this Particular lens if we try to look at the Outof focus area Frankly I I have a hard time I've Already looked through it I don't really See much of a difference here if we look Towards like the back of Nala as we Transition towards defocus I mean in Both cases the edging looks pretty much The same it's just not a lot of Conclusions I can draw from that but We'll look at one final image that I Think kind of shows the pros and cons For both lenses and so in this case if We take a look here we can see that I'm Definitely F favor at closer distances The performance of the sigma as far as The detail and contrast really really Fantastic job the downside of detail and
Contrast is shown here and that Sometimes that produces a little bit Busier bouqu than what the opposing lens Does here so the there there's not a Radical difference but there's Definitely a little bit more busyness in These circles than what there is on the Tamron so the Tamron gives us ever so Slightly nicer looking bouquet at least When it comes to the specular highlights Like this as you can see throughout this Series there's a lot of give and take These are both excellent Optical Instruments they both have very slight Strengths and weaknesses compared to the Other well if you've stuck to the end Thank you for watching I hope that this Has helped you to make a more informed Decision about which one of these lenses Is going to go into to your bag thanks For watching have a great day and let The light [Music] In
