Foreign Hi I'm Dustin Abbott and I'm here today To give you my video review of the Tamron 70 to 180 millimeter F 2.8 VC vxd G2 or second generation lens one of the Few highlights of 2020 was the release Of tamron's original 70 to 180 Millimeter F 2.8 vxd lens which provided A valid alternative at a much lower Price point to the okay but not Exceptional Sony 70 to 200 millimeter G Master lens now obviously since that Point Sony has seriously upgraded the G Master into the incredible Mark II Version and so Tamron is following suit With their own G2 version or second Generation version of their 70 to 180 Millimeter lens This lens adds Optical stabilization More features faster autofocus and a Truly incredible Optical performance all For about 1299 US Dollars which is Fifteen hundred dollars cheaper than the GM Mark II so the question is is this Lens worth buying or even upgrading to If you have the original 70 to 180 Millimeter what we're going to explore That right after a word from our sponsor Today's episode is brought to you by Phantom wallet the minimalist modern Wallet that is now even better with the New Phantom X that is crafted from Aluminum right here in Canada it is 22 Percent smaller and 35 percent lighter
While still making it easy to access Your cards and money when you need them Thanks to their unique Fanning mechanism You could even customize your wallet due To its modular design with accessories Like a money clip cash holder ID display And even chipolo and air tag tracking Integration visit Store.phantomwallet.com to check out Their unique sizes Styles and finishes That span from aluminum to Wood to Carbon fiber and use code Dustin 15 for 15 off when you're ready to check out The second generation lens boasts a Number of improvements over the first Generation lens when it comes to the Overall build and feature set here now It has grown a little bit it has added On some weight it went from 810 grams in The original version to 855 grams here Or 30.15 ounces but of course that still Makes it by far the lightest lens in This particular category it's still About 200 grams lighter than the very Light Sony G Master Mark II lens and so If you're looking to travel light this Is still I think the best option out There it is ever so slightly wider two Millimeters wider a total of 83 Millimeters now and it is seven Millimeters longer at 156.2 millimeters so that's 3.26 inches In diameter by 6.2 inches now I will Note that as you can see it does extend
A little bit about an additional 25 Millimeters but that still makes it About 25 millimeters shorter than what The G Master is at 200 millimeters in Length and so this still is the most Compact and lightweight option in the Class I'm presuming that they're going To drop and discontinue the Mark 1 lens Just like they did with the original 28 To 75 millimeters A priority for Tamron has been the uh Sticking to a formula of a 67 millimeter Front filter thread and they've done That with almost all of their lenses With only a couple of exceptions and so We still have that 67 millimeter front Filter thread here which means that you Can now share filters across a wide Variety of Tamron lenses in Sony email They've also added a number of new Features here that includes a custom Button a three-way custom switch and a USBC Port which is weather sealed by the Way all of these things work together in That you can use the connect the lens Via the USBC port and you can use Tamron's free lens utility software Now that software allows you to do a lot Of things you can directly apply Firmware updates to the lens but when it Comes to these new functions you can Also assign various functions to the Three position custom switch so Basically what that's doing is allowing
You to have three different setups for How you're going to have direct control On the lens itself now you can leave one Of those options to just be the camera Default and so if you typically have a Sony Focus hold button assigned to some Function just set one of those settings On that and whenever you use the custom Button or the focus hold button you will Access that function but you have two Other things you can program in and you Can see here there's a drop down of Various things that you can apply to That so that will not only change the Behavior of what this Focus hold or Custom button does but in certain Instances it will also change the Behavior of the manual focus ring and so You can make that an aperture ring for Example you also have the ability Through the lens utility software to Control the behavior of that Focus ring Namely you can make it linear or Non-linear and you can choose three Different Focus throw links and so all The way up to a 360 degree Focus Rotation and as little as 90. you can Set that all up there So this obviously is very very useful Adding a lot of Direct Control onto the Lens itself on the other side there is a Zoom lock because this is an externally Zooming lens I will note that the actual Zoom action is very light and very easy
Um it doesn't feel all that different From an internally zooming lens because They've really I think engineered that Quite well Now I will also note that there are Those that don't love having an Externally zooming lens because they Feel like it doesn't seal as well Tamron Has offset those concerns by adding a Number of seal points here there are 11 Seal points as you can see from this Diagram starting at the the lens mount Itself throughout the various switches And Rings there up to the front where we Have a flooring coating that makes it Easy to clean and also helps to protect That front element So all told here we have a nicely built Lens that adds on some more interesting Contours it's a better looking lens and I think a more functional lens because There are those Contours that make the Actual Rings fall to hand and are Defined a little bit better so Definitely an upgraded lens so I will Note it still feels a little more Plasticky to me than what the new G Master lens does how be it this is a Vastly improved lens that feels more Professional grade at this point Now we also have two different minimum Focused distances uh and so if you're at The 70 millimeter lens you can autofocus As close as 30 centimeters and get a
0.38 times magnification however you can Manually focus and get even closer than That and get up to about a one to two Macro level or a 0.50 times Magnification on the telephoto end you Can autofocus as closely as 85 Centimeters and you can get a Magnification of 0.21 times Magnification so lower but because your Working distance is longer you also get A flatter plane to focus and you know in Some cases a little bit better in result Very useful obviously adding that near Macro capabilities to the lens now on The negative front there is no tripod Collar included you can see that this Middle section now occupied by these Switches it's not really designed around Adding a tripod color some people really Prioritize that but I will point out as You can see here this lens is Lightweight enough that I didn't have Any kind of issues aligning my test Chart for example there was no kind of Downward drag and even on this mini Table tripod which by the way people Always ask me about this I always put a Link to it in the description of my Videos because people are really Intrigued by this you can see here that There's no issue with any kind of you Know creeping or down and it's not going To stress that mount too much so Probably not a big deal however I know
That many people do prefer still having A tripod collar a nice lens hood is Included here and while it's not as Interesting to me for example as sigma's Hoods which tend to be really well Engineered I will note that it does seem To be strongly made and A Cut Above just Kind of the generic hoods you sometimes Get Another negative here however is like The first generation lens this lens is Not designed to be used with Teleconverters now I will note from what I understand from various other Third-party manufacturers this seems to Be a Sony design to where they are Limiting teleconverter use to only first Party lenses so no teleconverters on Email if it's a non-sony lens so not Really a Tamron problem but a reality if You the consumer want to use a Teleconverter Now unlike the first generation lens we Do have Cameron's VC or vibration Compensation that is their Optical Stabilizer there is not a separating on This that I've seen Tamron give which Tells me it's probably not a top-notch Rating However it does help the behavior here Is not flawless I do notice a little bit Of drift after I let off the shutter That sometimes the image will move a Little bit and I don't find that the
Viewfinder image just locks downs and Stabilizes quite as well as the best Optical stabilizers at the same time I Will note that I was able to get pretty Good results however for example this Shot at 180 millimeters at one-fifth of A second that's about five stops you Know between the lens stability and Whatever I'm getting from the camera Body and so you know that's useful Enough and you'll also see from some of These video clips that I was able to get Stable video footage and no real issue There Tamron does note that at 100 millimeters And below it actually uses AI to Determine the best behavior so for video Use you're going to get better results If you shoot at 100 millimeters or less In terms of the stabilization from the End lens Optical stabilizer so let's Talk about autofocus as previously we Have tamron's vxd drive that stands for Voice coil extreme torque Drive in other Words it is their most high powered Autofocus system and here we have got Dual vxd motors on either side of the Focus group to help to drive Focus very Quickly it's essentially the same Formula as what Sony is using on their Lenses though Sony will go as high as Quad of their linear Drive Motors on Their cameras or their lenses I should Say
Now we had that system before it is Improved here however also with updated Algorithms for the new AI tracking Subjects that are included on Sony's Most recent bodies Byproduct in the real world use I didn't Have any problem tracking action uh for Example birds in Flight I was able to Quickly lock on and track them through a Panning sequence I will note that we are Continuing to be limited at 15 frames Per second on Sony sport bodies like This alpha one here it can shoot up to 30 frames per second with a Sony branded Lens but only 15 frames per second with A third-party lens now for many people That's not going to affect them for Example I'm filming on the a7r Mark V it Can't even do 15 frames per second so That's a non-issue for many of Sony's Bodies but if you're shooting an A9 or An alpha one that could be a limitation To bear in mind my only negative when it Comes to Stills autofocus Focus speed as You can see here is really good near Instantaneous and that's true not only At 70 millimeters which is easier but Also at 180 millimeters it is still Nearly about the same speed I did occasionally see a focus rack Where Focus went the wrong direction Before it moved to where it went and so Instead of focusing forward it would Back focus and then move forward not a
Huge deal because focus is so fast and Maybe it will improve obviously I've Been reviewing a pre-release copy maybe Um the you know the actual firmware will Be updated a little bit more for the Actual production release and so that Could help that a little bit further I Had very good Focus Precision whether it Was for inanimate objects if it was for Birds I got very good Focus like in this Shot and a series of shots that I took Of geese on the pond animals whether it Was Nala whether it was a fox various Other animals I got very good focus and Then most impressively I did shoot an Extended portrait series with it and I Got just perfectly focused results in All scenarios different Focus distances I layered things in front I shot at Different focal lengths it didn't matter What I did every thing was just Perfectly focused and I could see that Focus locked onto the eye stayed locked On the eye and for this video sequence Here you can see that as I moved around That it stayed just locked on the the Model's face no issues at all with Focus Pulsing or moving around so for Stills And for General um autofocus just very Very good I also found that my video Focused pools were quite good you can See that they're Snappy generally Confident I had one instance as you can See in this final sequence where it did
Rack the wrong direction as I've talked About before and so that took a little Bit longer on that particular Focus pull Now my hand test did work well as you Can see here with good transition from The hand to the eye and as I approach The camera and moving there close you Can see that Focus locks onto my eye Quite quickly and accurately there so in General very good performance when it Comes to video as well So let's talk about the image quality I Didn't know if this lens would be really Improved optically considering the first One was quite good but we do have a new Optical formula that adds an additional Element and an additional element group It's got about seven exotic elements as You can see from this breakdown and you Can see comparing the MTF charts that The new MTF is just better still and it Is one of the best looking MTF charts That I have ever seen so does that Translate into real world use well let's Dive in together and let's take a look Okay we'll start by taking a look at Vignette and Distortion we have a really Really consistent pattern throughout so There's not going to be anything that's Particularly interesting here but what You're going to see is varying degrees Of pin cushion Distortion and varying Degrees of vignette all of it corrects Very easily as you can see here on the
Right even with a manual correction the Pincushion Distortion being the lowest At 70 millimeters it's a minus four same Is true of vignette a plus 50. so right Around two stops at a 115 millimeters I Just chose a midpoint there the Distortion has grown to where it's a Minus nine and vignette is a plus 68 Correct likewise at 180 millimeters the Distortion is the same and vignette is a Little bit heavier it's the heaviest There so it's about three stops by the Time that you hit 180 millimeters as you Can see it all corrects easily not Really a big deal I also saw basically No longitudinal chromatic aberration you Can see that there is no fringing either Before or after the plane of focus on This test chart likewise with this high Contrast subject where there's lots of Opportunity for fringing after the plan Of focus you can see it's just Completely neutral real really excellent Performance they're likewise when it Comes to lateral chromatic aberrations That show near the edge of the frame we We can see if we look over here the at The edge here that everything is nice And clean and just to give you a little Bit of a preview yeah this lens is like Fabulously sharp so for our formal tests They're done on the 61 megapixel Sony A7r Mark V and I'm showing you results At 200 percent starting at 70
Millimeters if we look in the center of The frame at 200 percent you can see Flawless results it is just tons of Resolution tons of contrast the mid Frame looks excellent if we pan down Here continues to look excellent and Right off into the corner we can see Great sharpness right there to the very Edge of the frame very impressive Results here's a real world shot 70 Millimeters F 2.8 and if we look in at The subject you can see that the detail Is just Flawless there there is nothing To be concerned about resolution is just Amazingly strong now when you start this Sharp wide open obviously there isn't a Whole lot of room for further Improvement because you're already near Perfect and that's what we see here at F4 results they don't really look Terribly different in the center of the Frame better in the mid frame however And down in the corner we can see just a Little bit of more sharpness and Contrast there as well at 5.6 just shows A brighter more consistent result Looking back here to the mid frame not Really much different so you're going to Peek around F 5.6 and start to decline After f8 due to diffraction your minimum Aperture is F22 throughout the zoom Range but as you can see diffraction has Really taken off all of that bite that Sharpness there the contrast and so I
Would shoot at a maximum of f11 if Possible take a quick look at a real World landscape shot F 5.6 and as you Can see the detail is just brilliant I Mean all across the frame as long as We're in the depth of field you can just See that it's just perfect from side to Side just amazing contrast and detail All throughout all these details are Just really finally just delineated There now it would feel like we've seen The best yet but if you go on to 100 Millimeters you can see that if anything There's actually even more punch there In the center of the frame likewise in The mid frame it looks just a little bit Better in terms of contrast and even Down into the corners the corners just Look crisper and a little bit brighter There as well we see the only Vulnerability really in the middle of The zoom range around 135 millimeters And as you can see in the center of the Frame even at our from our Peak at 100 Millimeters it's really not much Different and in the mid frame it's only Very slightly less but the corners Aren't quite as good and they never Really sharpen up to the level that we See here and so that's really the only Issue I can point to there but for real World use again going back to a portrait Shot here we can see that the detail at About 140 millimeters here is just it's
Just gorgeous I mean so I don't think That there's any kind of real concern Here I mean the detail looks great and As we look in this case you can see Great detail right down to the very edge Of the frame there now some lenses drop Off towards the edge of the zoom range That is far from the case here we can See that contrast just punches way up at 180 millimeters the center of the frame Is just incredibly sharp likewise we can See that the mid frame is as good as What we have seen just really crisp just Look at all the detail and contrast Compared to 135 millimeters and then also we can see That we've got that consistency back to Where it is sharp right there into the Corners of the frame pop over on this Side and you can see that the queen is Looking really crisp there by comparison To what there was at 140 millimeters not That this is bad at all for a better bit Of real world perspective take a look at This fox at 100 magnification just look At how amazingly crisp that lens is it's A really really impressive result Likewise in this portrait shot at 180 Millimeters F 2.8 you can see that the Detail on my subject's face is just Flawless just really really gorgeous Likewise if we take a look at a Landscape image not only is the detail Just really great here but if we look
Just right off to the edge of the frame You can see the detail all along there I Mean let's just pop back out for a Moment look at this is how much we're Zooming into this image and yet you can See just the fine detail on these Cottages on the far side of the river It's just really really impressive how Sharp this lens is it also manages to Have a very nice bokeh and color you can See in this image that there's a nice Isolation of the subject here very nice Detail if we look at it at 100 Magnification but at these various Layers in this particular image I think That they're handled really quite nicely You get a little bit closer and Obviously the background starts to blur Out even more softly and you know the Closer you get but the more that that's Going to be true this image of knowledge Just really shows you know all the Things that are at work here obviously Depth of field is really small but if You look at all the fine hairs around Her eye and then this transition towards Defocus everything just looks really Really nice even if you get a little bit Further out to where obviously you're Not going to blow away the background in The same degree but we can see focus on The subject the subject looks really Really crisp and then the foreground and Then the background bokeh also look
Really really nice there so the lens is Obviously capable of really great color And a lot of contrast pop here we zoom Into this image I mean you can make out The individual faces in the tour boat There and obviously the colors look Really really crisp everything looks Really great this image even though it's Foggy some trying to push through the The uh the Mist there but we can see if We look in that there's just really Really nice detail all throughout there The flare resistance is also improved Here we we've got the generation 2 B Bar Coatings and so here I've put the sun Just right outside the frame the place Where it sometimes affects things and You can see that contrast has just held Up really nicely we've got a beautiful Image here so optically this lens is Really a standout as noted in the Introduction Sony really improved their GM lens it's not the gold Master for Nothing but Tamron has made equivalent Improvements to their G2 lens so while It's not at the GM tier all across the Board I do believe it is a great second Tier choice at about fifteen hundred Dollars less we're talking about 1299 US Dollars for the G2 Tamron and we're Talking about twenty eight hundred Dollars for the GM Mark II we've got Great Optics great autofocus a good Feature set here and on the negative
Side there's 20 millimeters less no Teleconverter use and the VC is not as Good as the GM's OSS however this is a Great value lens it is going to deliver Equivalent image quality with just a few Less bells and whistles and for that Reason I think it's very intriguing if You're looking for a cheaper alternative To the G Master lens and yes I think There is enough here that if you can get Reasonable value in selling your Original 70 to 180 millimeter lens I Think it might be worth the upgrade to This lens because it does add a whole Lot to the table I'm Dustin Abbott now If you look in the description down Below you can find links to my full text Review and also to my image gallery There are buying links that are there as Well if you haven't already please like And subscribe thanks for watching have a Great day and let the light in All right
