[Music] Howdy again everyone and a rather Unusual little zoom lens has recently Winged its way into my lens testing Situation Room the Tamron 20 to 40 Millimeter F 2.8 di3 vxd it's for Sony E-mount cameras full frame or abs-c and It's 700 in the US or 600 pounds here in The UK I'd like to thank tamon's UK Distributor for loaning me this lens for A couple of weeks for testing although As usual this is a totally independent Review The lenses Zoom range will Definitely have a few people scratching Their heads although that's not Necessarily A Bad Thing starting at a Slightly wide angle of 40 millimeter it Zooms out to a very wide angle of 20 Millimeter so the lens has its toe Dipped into the ultra wide angle Zone But not its entire fit if you're Shooting on full frame even if Ultra Wide angle aficionados feel a bit Short-changed here still it's a lovely Useful Zoom range you're dealing with Very enjoyable for all kinds of wide Angle uses but still able to do a touch Of subject photography if you zoom right In and the maximum aperture of f 2.8 is A nice little bonus too the build Quality is very typical for a Tamron Lens here even down to their preferred 67 millimeter filter size its body is Made of plastic but with a nice brushed
Finish to it and it weighs 365 grams so At under a pound it's not very heavy the Lens is weather sealed and it includes a USB port for firmware updates which Tamron assure me is waterproof too the Zoom ring is rubberized and turns Beautifully smoothly with no stickiness Which is useful for video work the focus Ring above it is thinner and made of Plastic but works very responsively to Being turned as you can see here the Lens exhibits moderate Focus breathing Zooming in and out as you change Focus Whether the lens is zoomed into 40 Millimeter or zoomed out [Music] The lenses Auto Focus motor is silent And accurate in my tests in single shot Auto Vegas mode its speed is a little Pedestrian but switch over to continuous Autofocus mode for some very fast Focusing The Lens comes with a plastic hood and As I mentioned its filter thread size is 67 millimeters it is not image Stabilized but then again virtually all Of Sony's full frame cameras have Stabilization built in nowadays so that Hardly matters overall the build quality Is nice here the lens is small and handy Onto image quality judging by the zoom Range it's clearly a lens that's Primarily intended for full frame Cameras so I'll be testing it on my Sony
A7r III with its full frame 42 megapixel Sensor in-camera Corrections are turned On at 20 millimeter and F 2.8 we see Razor sharpness and excellent contrast In the middle of the image over inner Corners sharpness and contrast tough it Just a little but not much F4 looks About the same but F 5.6 and f8 see a Touch more contrast stop down as far as F-16 and softness begins to creep in Again due to diffraction still it's a Very nice performance at 20 millimeter Here let's Zoom into 40 millimeter then Again at F 2.8 the middle of the image Is fantastically sharp this time the Corners look noticeably soft which is a Shame F4 looks about the same but stop Down to F 5.6 and the image looks far Sharper and f8 sees excellent sharpness Well apart from that corner softness When zoomed in at bright apertures the Lens's image quality is fairly good here With neutral colors and good contrast Let's turn off those in-camera Corrections then and see about Distortion and vignetting at 20 Millimeter we see a disturbing pinch of Barrel Distortion in the middle of the Image and very heavy vignetting I'd have 2.8 at F4 and they're 5.6 those Corners Brighten considerably zoom into 30 Millimeter and that Distortion Straightens out and at 40 millimeter we See some moderately strong pin cushion
Distortion but a little less vignetting Than before again stop down to F4 and Those Corners brighten up quickly and Considerably still you'll definitely Want to shoot with your in-camera Corrections turned on with this lens The lenses minimum Focus distance is a Very nice 17 centimeters making it quite Useful for getting pictures of well Small things at F 2.8 the close-up image Quality sees a big drop in contrast but At least a fair bit of detail is still Being captured F4 and F 5.6 look much Better so stopping down will benefit you When shooting close up let's see how Well the lens works against Bright Lights now the good news here is that Whether the lens is zoomed out or zoomed In flaring remains very low and contrast Remains nice and high and while we're Working in the dark let's take a look at Coma smearing the further good news here Is that bright lights in the corners of Your image don't really see any of it Making the lens a very nice option for Nighttime photography let's zoom out now And look for sunstars unfortunately even If you stop down as far as F-16 any sun Stars here are minimal and finally Boca This lens can get you some nicely after Focused backgrounds if you move in close To your subject in my tests I found that When shooting at wide angles the Backgrounds looked almost perfectly soft
When zooming in though just a little Outlining would be visible on brighter Points of Light nothing too serious Though overall well in terms of image Quality the lens gets a fairly clean Bill of health here and as a wide angle Enthusiast I really enjoyed using it Actually but the fact remains that a lot Of people just won't get that unusual Zoom range and will probably prefer Something that goes a bit wider than 20 Millimeter and that's understandable I'm Tempted to call this thing a Marmite Lens in that respect but I can't Envision anyone hating it because Whatever your needs might be it's still A very nice piece of Kit it is worth Remembering that shooting wider than About 20 millimeter can actually make it Quite challenging to compose your image So for those who are happy to start at 20 it does come recommended [Music] Well guys and girls whatever you might Think of this lens is unusual soon range As a lens reviewer I can honestly tell You I love testing something that's a Little bit different if you regularly Watch my videos and find them helpful And I hope you do then check out my Patreon page down below supporters over There get all kinds of exclusive bonus Content and I'll make it a big Difference to me keeping this channel
Going sponsorship free because who wants To watch a lens review and get ambushed By me talking about Squarespace or Nordvpn check it out in the description Below and ciao for now
