Hi I'm Dustin Abbott I'm here today to Give you my video review of the new Tamron 17 to 50 mm this is an F4 di3 Meaning it's designed for mirrorless and It has their vxd Focus motor more on That in just a moment a few months ago I Did a review of Sony's 20 to 70 mm f4g Lens and the premise behind that lens Was taking essentially a standard Zoom 24 to 70 mm and stretching it back a Little bit to the 20 mm point to allow Some crossover into the wide angle space And the idea kind of proposed by Sony Was that you know with modern Highresolution bodies I primarily shoot At a 61 megapixel resolution point my Other Sony camera is a 50 megapixel Camera there's a lot of capacity there For cropping to get get more reach but Of course all the resolution and Cropping ability in the world doesn't Get you wider and so their idea was is That it's if you can stretch this it Allows you more flexibility Tamron has Kind of taken that same idea except for Kind of approaching it from the other End and rather than taking a standard Zoom and stretching it a little bit back Into the wide angle they've taken Essentially a wide angle zoom and Stretched it out at least into normal Range at 50 Mm but of course going even wider and so If you can compare 17 mm achievable by
The Tamron with the 20 mm achievable by The Sony you can see that there's a Significant difference in the framing There and so if you're in a tight space Being able to go even wider could be Potentially even more useful than that That additional 20 mm on the telephoto End of the lens now Tamarind already had A very good very well-received 17 to 28 Mm f2.8 lens it cost about $100 more Than what this lens does but but it does Have that faster maximum aperture at the Same time however this new Zoom benefits From coming in their G2 or second Generation phase of development so it Really has the same level of build and Feature set which is at a higher level Than what that earlier 17 to 28 mm lens Had so this is really in many ways to me It's it's a great lens for Stills but it Makes even more sense for video it's an Internally zooming lens so it means it Achieves a constant balance point it is Fairly featured Rich when you dive into The ways you can customize it it has Extremely good autofocus and it has a Price point of just $699 us the chief complaint I got from You as the audience about the Sony 20 to 70 mm was that it was overpriced at About $1,100 so this comes in at $400 Cheaper which is going to make it I Think quite interesting for a lot of of Potential buyers so is it worth buying
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Gifting them with Gadget Discovery Club So as noted this is an extremely useful Zoom range it allows you to go all the Way from 17 mm and the various points Along the way are 20 mm 24 mm 28 mm 35 And then 50 mm as you can see along the Sequence what's interesting to me is That every single one of those Corresponds to a fairly popular uh prime Lens range and so this is a lens that Covers a lot of really really important Focal links in one Zoom as noted we get The G2 level of build and so this is Nicer materials yes it's still primarily Engineered Plastics but it's more Upgraded a classier finish there's a Little bit more shape and design to the Lens itself it feels like a nicer built Lens than what earlier generation Tamron Lenses were and beyond that it does get Some expanded features that we'll break Down in just a moment the lens itself is 74.8 MM in diameter so that allows it to Retain that 67 mm front filter thread That has been pretty much common for all Of the uh Tamron lenses on Sony to this Point with the exception of some of the Extreme examples like the 35 to 150 and Then also the 150 500 mm those two Lenses have larger uh filter sizes but Every other lens has a 67 mm filter size So it's easy to share filters along all Of these this particular particular set Of lenses the lens is
114.5 MM in length that's 4 1/2 in and It weighs in at 460 G or 16.2 o and so It's a moderately sized lens kind of More of a Slender lens than it is a Squat one and the weight is moderate if You know feels like a little bit of a Heft in the hand but it's light enough That most people should be able to carry It most of the day without too many Complaints beyond that it does have a Thorough weather ceiling And so that includes eight different Seal points internally gasket at the Lens mount a flooring coating on the Front element so a professional grade of Weather sealing and of course the fact That it's internally zooming a lot of People prefer that because they feel Like there is less of an option for Either dust or moisture to intrude Because nothing is extending in and out Beyond the uh the outer casing of the Lens itself it has nine rounded aperture Blades and so that'll keep a circular Shape up to a tamaron say two stops Beyond um maximum aperture so that gets Us up to f8 and then after that you'll Start to see a little bit of the Aperture blades so obviously that's Useful now there is no traditional Aperture ring here but what we do have Is under the customization you do have The ability to get the focus ring to Work as an apture ring more on that in
Just a moment there is a custom button Here on the side and so you have the Ability to just program that through the Camera body much like you would Sony's Focus hold button but but through using The also included USB C Port that is Weather sealed by the way and so while It's exposed it is sealed and so you're Not going to get moisture or dust Intrusion in there but you can hook that Up either to uh by USBC to either a PC But then also to anything with a USBC Port and so that could also be a tablet And you can run either the app or the Program called tamron's lens utility and That gives you a lot of different Options on how to customize the lens and So part of that includes more options For how you're going to customize that Custom button which would include if you Have it set up as I do at the moment you Can click it and switch between a focus Ring or an aperture ring and so it does Give you back that extra measure of Control if you prefer having something Like an aperture ring there's a lot of Other functions you can assign to it as Well beyond that however there's also Some interesting options when it comes To the focused ring and Its Behavior you Have the ability to choose between a Linear or nonlinear Focus you can even Choose the direction that the ring goes And you can also also choose how much
Focus throw or rotation there is as Little as 90° I believe and as much as 360° of rotation so a lot of direct Control over that which does again lend Itself to the functionality of this as a Video type lens I will also say that the Feel of the manual focus ring is good it Has I would say the appropriate amount Of weight to where there's a little bit Of resistance and so you can make Precise movements but at the same time It's not so heavy that there's any kind Of sticking point or difficulty there Now because this is an internally Zooming design it really is great for Using on a gimbal uh once You' set up The balance for it at any particular Focal length you can change that focal Length with the balance point staying The exact same and so that means I could Shoot at various actual focal links While having it on the Gimbal and not Worry about any kind of rebalancing Which is another reason to strongly Prefer an internally zooming design for Video work but even for Stills it means That you you have a very very smooth and Quick ability to zoom throughout there And it just has kind of a feel to it That's hard to emulate in a externally Zooming lens where something is moving In and out now like many of tamron's Recent zooms we have a varying minimum Focus distance depending upon whether
You're at the wide or the telephoto end On the telephoto end is actually where You get your highest magnification and Minimum Focus distance is still only 30 Cm there and it gives you a very useful Right over zero .26 times of Magnification and so there's going to be A lot of different applications for that And again as a video lens it means that You can get quite close to your subject Without worrying about passing that Minimum Focus distance and of course if You're at the wide end it means that you Can get really literally within about 3 Ines of the front of the lens and and it Will still Focus down that closely so Obviously that's going to be useful I Found that up close results varied a Little bit uh contrast seem to be Reduced in some situations but in other And did quite well but nonetheless this Is certainly a useful application for The lens now as noted in our Introduction autofocus comes via Tamron's top tier Focus system at this Point and that is their vxd which stands For voice coil extreme torque Drive in Other words it's a high- powerered Linear motor and in this case we have Really great Focus speed as you can see Here Focus speed is pretty much Instantaneous as you go from one extreme To the other I didn't hear any kind of Noise in operation Focus transitions are
Smooth and confident I found that I Could track Nala on the move for both Stills which I can't always do by the Way it takes a very reactive lens to be Able to get up that amount of speed just To you know kind of track that Persistent aggressive movement on a Small object but also I found for videos You can see in the sequence that uh it Stayed really just perfectly I was kind Of backing away as quickly as I could From her as she persistently came before Me you can see that the video kept Tracking her perf perfectly at that Point I would say that when it came to Autofocus for Stills I had zero issues At all autofocus was just excellent in All situations and the same is true Really for video as well I found that For vlogging for example I had very Strong accuracy uh keeping a uh keeping It locked on my face without any kind of Issue moving around with a varying Background no issue with that when I did Focus pools you can see there is next to No Focus breathing so it means that Focus changes are they're just very very Smooth they're very quick but it Basically just a matter of something Else seeming to be in Focus you don't Hardly see any kind of transition Between the two Focus points the same Was true when it came to my hand test That uh very easy transitions back and
Forth from the hand to the eye all went Well there and then out in just kind of Real world video shots you can see for Example in this sequence that as I Transition from one subject to another There's nothing abrupt or jarring all of Those transitions are quite good and and So again a very very useful lens in Video applications the one criticism I Will say is that this lens is not par Focal I kind of hope that it would be But there is quite a difference between What is in focus at 50 mm and what would Be at focus at 17 mm and vice versa Beyond that minor complaint however I Give very very high marks to this lens For its autofocus Performance so let's talk about image Quality then as you can see here the MTF Charts particularly at 7 1 mm are really Really strong 50 mm strong as well but Not quite as strong over in the corners You can see that in the center of the Frame it is very very sharp um resolving At a very high level and so we'll just Break down to see if that's what we Actually see in real world use and then Also in my specific more scientific test So we'll start by taking a look at Vignette and Distortion as you can see There is at 17 mm is where we get the Bad news there is a significant amount Of barrel Distortion and also a Significant amount of vgn yet
Furthermore as you can see here on the Right side if you try to manually Correct for it it doesn't correct all That cleanly it's not a linear Distortion and so as a byproduct we have A definite mustache pattern Left Behind After correction now here's a look at a JPEG there isn't a raw profile yet but The jpeg shows that the in camera Correction does a much better job with The Distortion um the lines are a lot Cleaner it's not perfect but it Certainly is a lot better looking now I Have manually corrected with a plus 44 Which is definitely on the high side of The Distortion and then vignette I've Had to nearly max out the sliders to try To correct for the vignette so there is A lot of both to put that into Perspective however while the vignette Isn't as bad on the Sony lens the Distortion is actually worse still and It was a similarly complex kind of Distortion so even at 20 mm the 20 to 70g had even more Distortion it was over A 50 to correct for it and it definitely Left a similar mustache pattern behind Now the good news is that the Distortion At 28 mm and then at 50 mm is alt Together different it's just a very mild Amount of pin cushion Distortion at 50 Millim there is really nothing to Correct only about a minus 2 at 28 Millim and the vignette drops to where
It only requires about a stop of Correction versus the nearly four stops At 17 mm so we only have a distortion Problem and a vignette problem at the Very wide end of the lens now when I Test it on my chart you can see a little Bit of green fringing here after the Plane of focus because of the nature of The focal length and maximum aperture Combination there will be very few rur World situations where you'll encounter The longitudinal type chromatic Aberration so probably not a real world Factor a bigger problem would be the Lateral chromatic aberration that comes Near the edges of the frame fortunately That's a very well controlled here you Can see that we have zero issue in the Transitions from black to white near the Edge of the frame we'll take take a look At our overall resolution in contrast Starting at 17 mm F4 this is 200% Magnification and a 61 megapixel Sony A7r Mark 5 so definitely a torture test But in the middle of the frame we can See a near perfect result a very high Resolution very high contrast mid-frame Also looks excellent and if we pan down Here towards the corner we can see that Even the corners at 17 mm look very good Stopping down to f5.6 gives us just a a Little bit more contrast that will Mostly show up towards the edges of the Frame and our Peak Performance comes
Here at f8 and we can see if we pop Around different places in the frame That we've got good centering a good Performance here on the left side up in The upper left corner we can see that it Looks good as well in the edge very very Crisp and up into this right corner we Have a nice performance there as well Now after f8 we're going to see Defraction will start to become a factor And by the time we get to the minimum Aperture of F22 we can see we've lost a Lot of contrast and resolution due to The effects of defraction so I would go As far as f11 here but anything beyond That I would probably avoid now if we Move on to 20 mm and compare back to the High water mark of 17 mm we can see in The middle of the frame 20 mm is if Anything just a little bit better a Really strong performance there Mid-frame is simly looking really really Excellent perhaps even a bit better than What we saw at 17 mm but if we go all The way down to the corner we can see That that Advantage is lost it's not Resolving as highly though we can see Due to reduced vignette in the corner we Do see a Brighter Image in the corner as Before we can see some improvement at F5.6 and just a bit more at f8 now 28 mm Is quite similar with a very good Center Performance that gets a little bit Better when stop down to f5.6 on the
Right the mid-frame is probably just a Little worse at F4 it comes back up to About the same level if stopped down to F5.6 but the corners don't look quite as Good as what we have seen at wider focal Lengths left side looks a little bit Better but it's not as good as what we Have seen previously 35 mm the center is Maybe just a little bit softer though it As you can see it does sharpen up some When stop down but we see that the Mid-frame is actually really strong even At F4 looking better still at f8 and the Corners are definitely a lot better than What we saw um at 28 mm for example the Corner performance here particularly When sto down is actually very very Strong so at the telephoto end of the Zoom range we can see that the center is Looking very nice again stopping it down Gives us more detail and contrast Mid-frame is strong and gets a little Bit better still when stop down and we Can see that in the corners the corners Are fairly good wide open very crisp When stopped down and so this is a Pretty consistent performance across the Zoom range we can see here even wide Open 50 mm F4 that in this kind of sweet Spot if we zoom in a pixel level you can See just how incredibly crisp and Detailed the image is and uh the bouquet Is probably helped a little bit by the Fact that this was a foggy day which
Makes it look really really soft in the Background as we'll see in a moment Bokeh isn't quite this good but Certainly resolution and contrast is we Can see here that the bouqu is you know Fairly good in this zone right here in The transition zone there's a little bit More edging than what I would like but We can also see that colors look great And the detail on the subject is really Fantastic as noted before in some up Close situations like this one here Contrast is a little bit softened here At close Focus distances I will note That the bouquet actually looks quite Nice here here in this situation um I Think contrast obviously is held up a Lot better up close that you can see That along the edges there's a little Bit of loss of contrast there Boke looks Pretty decent here but there definitely Is a little bit of outlining that I Would prefer not to see now in some Situations where you don't have a Favorable ratio from the subject to the Background backgrounds are going to be a Little bit busy that's just the nature Of having a maximum focal length of 50 Mm and a maximum apture of only F4 Upside is is that detail on the subject Looks really nice here and so overall It's a good-look image obviously for Real world work this lens delivers a lot Of detail and really really nice color
And I know that this this image right Here seems almost oversaturated that Actually is accurate to the colors I got Right before a a stormy day so before The sun sun had risen Over the Horizon The colors were just intense this day Obviously more muted colors due to the Overall Haze of the day but you can see As we poke in here that the detail Everywhere is just really really Gorgeous this is a lens that offers a Lot in terms of its resolution and its Color as well this image to me just Really shows off the great color Saturation levels of the lens and of Course then the detail as well looking Even at 100% magnification we can see That there's just tons of detail inside The frame this being a very overcast Kind of day so not a day for colors to Pop and yet I do think that there is Really nice color and contrast in this Particular image that shows that this is Definitely a lens capable of producing High-end results so finally let's talk About flare resistance for a moment this Has Tamron second generation B Bar Coating so G2 Coatings you can see that Whether it is wide open or stop down Contrast holds up really really well and So if we pan across the Sun U for video Shooting at F4 you can see that there's Very very little there in terms of Ghosting and no lost of contrast and
Even when stop down if we do the same There's a little bit more of a pattern There but it's very faint this is a very Good lens when it comes to its overall Flare resistance so overall outside of Heavy Distortion and vignette at 17 mm This is a very strong Optical Performance so in conclusion this is a Very interesting lens I see it as an Interesting lens for travel applications Much like the Sony 20 to 70 mm did Travel with that lens and found it very Useful as a travel lens and I can see This being similarly useful not quite as Much telephoto reach but of course Having that extra 3 mm on the wide end Means that you know perhaps when you're Shooting interior spaces or landscape Scenes City scenes you'll be able to get Just a little bit more in the frame and If you're shooting on a higher Resolution body you can always crop in If you want more reach there it's also I Think an even more intriguing lens than What the Sony was for video work however That internally Zoom zooming design and The ability to go wider means that it's More useful for vlogging it's just more Useful for more video applications and It also comes in at $400 less than what The Sony does that makes it a really Great bang for the buck lens and what a Amazing time it is to be on Sony at this Point and to have these lenses available
For so many different applications and What's even better is that it seems like Now we're starting to see Nikon Z or Zed Development for uh Tamron and so I Suspect this lens will show up in a z Mount in the near future and Canon is Finally making some noises that maybe in 2024 they'll start to open up to third Party development so it could be that we Even see this lens on an RF mount in the Future I would genuinely love it there Because frankly I'm not enamored with Any of the existing wideangle options on Canon RF right now so I would really Love to see it on that application as Well at the end of the day however on Sony Fe which is where we're first Launching in reviewing here we are so Spoiled for choice at this point and This is another very very good option I'm Dustin Abbott and if you look in the Description down below you can find Linkage to my text review to an image Gallery buying links there if you Haven't already please like And Subscribe thanks for watching have a Great day and let the light In
