Tamron's 17-70mm F2.8 III-A VC RXD is a lightweight zoom for Sony APS-C E-mount shooters. Equivalent to a 25-105mm F4 in full-frame terms, this lens handles nicely on a6000-series cameras and offers great versatility for daylight shooting. Fast to focus, it also produces nice, sharp images across the frame and focal length.
Please note that Tamron only appears to 'bake in' chromatic aberration correction into files shot with this lens. As such, distortion correction (and vignetting, for that matter) is the responsibility of the end-user. As you'll see in this gallery, you will need to correct for some fair degree of visually distracting barrel and pincushion distortion on the wide and mid- to tele- ends of the zoom ranges, respectively.
Nowadays the standard of camera comparisons is the phone camera, iPhone 12 or Samsung S20. On photo #2, how much better is it than what we can get from an iPhone 12 or Samsung S20? Not much better. That's because you choose the "wrong" target - with a focal length of 65mm, I'd like to shoot a target 70 feet away - the distance you can't get a sharp image with detail from a phone camera. On photo #1, a scene in a low light situation, with aperture open to 2.8, only shows so-so sharpness at the center, and mostly poor detail with high noise overall. A photo doesn't feel coming out off a f/2.8 Zoom lens. The above two pretty much form my opinion on this lens: ordinary quality, not worth of owning. This lens reminds me of a Nikon zoom lens I owned a long time ago, AF-S Nikon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 G ED, something I regretted owning after a week of use. But that's a f/3.5-5.6 lens and the disappointment was understandable. This is a f/2.8 and should be a high-end lens.
1mm from goodness, 2-3mm from greatness (on the wide end). Really wished they had traded some tele for wideness... a 14-50/2.8 sounds way more appealing to me and could be used for M43 too. There are plenty of 50-85 1.8s available but not many wide primes and no good AND affordable 16-xx zooms for Sony E
Occasion given there must be a clarification in any gear tested. If RAW files are baked in camera and if they can be disabled or not. If RAW files have been processed with the S/W provided by camera manufacturer, ACR or whatever S/W are welcomed.
Who sells an 18-135mm F4? Every lens I'm aware of ends up of F5.6 or F6.3. For an F4 equivalent you have to look at FF superzooms and apply crop factor.
I need that on my fuji xt-20. I bought a few month ago the fuji xf 16-80f4, it's really difficult to get good subject separation with f4, color rendition, contrast and sharpness are just ok; it's note enough for a 800€ lens.
In another hand, you have the fantastic 16-55mm, but really expensive, bulky, non stabilised and only 55mm reach.
This tamron would find its place with fuji camera. I think fuji zoom lineup is quite unimpressive regarding to the other brands
Just downloaded some RAWs and put them in C1, the profiles are definitely in the RAW. DPreview just once again deactivated RAW profiles in a Sony gallery because they are not interested in a consistent policy on this
I personally want to see uncorrected pictures when evaluating a lens. Because a lens with a lot of distortions of all sorts, even if efficently corrected by software, leads to a softer image, especially in the corners.
MikeRan, Isn't it the purpose of DPR galleries to help evaluating lenses ? Or are they just there to show what DPR photographers are capable of ? And yes, I do not buy a lens I know nothing about... And this is true for anything else.
Canon and Nikon mount mirrorless lenses have all corrections applied. Sony mount lenses do not.
So when you look at a 20mm lens from one system and a 20mm lens from another system you cannot compare distortion because one is corrected and one is not.
DPR should be coherent thoughout their lens galleries, then. And my initial comment remains valid as it was a wish to see uncorrected pictures in all DPR lens galleries to come. On the contrary, I am interested in seeing corrected OOC JPEGs in DPR camera galleries to know how the camera JPEG engine performs.
It seems bizarre not to bake linear distortion into a $900 lens for a system in which lens corrections are a selling point, particularly since linear distortion is so prominent in the sample images. I would pass on this lens for that reason alone.
Just downloaded some RAWs and put them in C1, the profiles are definitely in the RAW. DPreview just once again deactivated RAW profiles in a Sony gallery because they are not interested in a consistent policy on this
@MikeRan DPReview's policy is: "Deactivate everything our Lord and savior Adobe lets us deactivate"
This just leads to wildly incomparable galleries as different camera manufacturers force different kinds of corrections. Often on Sony RAWs corrections are enabled by default but not forced so DPreview deactivates them and uploads E-mount galleries without corrections
Yes. Understand that but their text is confusing as these corrections are handled in JPG or in many raw developers by default unless you disable them.
It’s frustrating and implies an inherent bias that these are handled differently for different manufacturers.
I understand the interest in wanting to know what the natural performance of the optics is, but when such things aren’t available on some brands because of business agreements between companies to effectively cover up that natural performance then you have to find a way keep a level playing field.
DPR hasn’t figured that out and has apparently stopped trying.
@MikeRan They are aware. I post about this problem under almost every lens gallery for the past 3 years. They acknowledged the problem multiple times. They just don't care
The solution is either: - enable everything for everybody or: - strip all profiles and force Adobe to show the unaltered RAWs this way (or choose a RAW converter that lets you disable corrections for all manufacturers)
But again they don't care. So we get software corrections with RF-,Z-,L-,X- and M43 mount galleries. No corrections on EF-,F- and K- mount galleries and mostly no corrections on Sony-E galleries
I honestly thought there were no corrections offered by Tamron after reading this statement from dpreview...
“Please note that Tamron only appears to 'bake in' chromatic aberration correction into files shot with this lens. As such, distortion correction (and vignetting, for that matter) is the responsibility of the end-user.”
Yep. That’s the statement we are talking about. Misleading at best. But really just flat wrong if you ask me.
This lens, like all the other recent Tamron lenses feeds distortion and falloff correction to the body and the body can apply these corrections in real time to JPGs and embed the correction data in RAWs to be used to correct the raws (or not, at the users discretion.)
I don't get why anyone would disable lens corrections in test shots. The corrected test shots will demonstrate any image quality deficiencies from digital correction, allowing potential buyers to evaluate the final product.
The bigger fundamental problem is that these corrections are applied inconsistently across brands which make for misleading results comparing brands. Really questionable for a review site.
Performance appears similar to the older, APS-C, DSLR 17-50mm Plenty sharp but also plenty of barrel and pincushion distortion either end of the zoom range.
Somewhat disappointing that barrel and pin cushion distortion is not 'baked in' at least for the jpegs. Kudos to the reviewer for pointing this out... as this is the first time I have read this as being mentioned in any review.
Looks to be an excellent lens for those folk who are absolutely certain beyond any doubt that they'll stay with APS (you can use it on FF Sony cameras but the image circle won't cover the full area of the sensor, so it seems a bit pointless).
But I'd suggest that everyone else thinks long and hard about buying any APS-only lens, as there is a strong likelihood that within a few months they'll want to upgrade to FF in order to get reduced noise levels, better ergonomics and the option of bodies with much higher resolution sensors.
I haven’t found a FF body that can really beat Fuji output wise. Yes they have a bit better high ISO and you can get a little less DoF, but the colors and tones of the Fuji is something unique that I have a strong preference for. The new Canon’s is the only FF bodies I would consider if I decide to exit Fuji.
PAntunes - Obviously it doesn't apply to Fujifilm users, who would be aware on entering the system that there is no upgrade path to FF, only to MF, which means a complete change of mount.
I think it's worth pointing out the issue to Sony APS users though, as there is a strong likelihood that many will upgrade to a7 series after a while, even if they are hapy at the moment with an a6000 series body.
"there is a strong likelihood that within a few months they'll want to upgrade to FF in order to get reduced noise levels" Well, not so straight forwwrd
PAntunes - No, of course not. What I'm guessing is that most Sony a6000 owners are probably novices who have just bought their first MILC, but they may develop into more serious enthusiasts and want to upgrade to a "better" camera. In all likelihood, they would stay with Sony, and get an FF body, only to find that the crop lens had been a poor choice of long-term purchase.
Fujifilm users are unlikely to be novices. The cameras are specifically designed to appeal to experienced users who like a full set of manual controls using traditional knobs and dials. They are probably more interested in the *taking experience* than in getting the ultimate in image quality, and will in all likelihood have made a conscious decision *not* to get FF.
PAntunes - I was just offering what I consider helpful advice, which you are free to ignore. I've given you my rationale, but you want to play at pedantry.
If you're trying to provoke a flame war over APS vs FF, or Fujifilm vs Sony, you're trying it with the wrong person. Not my thing.
I just think your notion of who's buying this lenses and what people want out of cameras are a little out of touch with reality. The user of a fuji X-A7 is probably as amateur as the buyer of a Sony A6000. A user of a X-T30 or X-T40 is probably as advanced as a A6600.
Would you say to a fuji user to be sure they want an aps camera before buying a 16-55? If a fuji user decides they don't want APS they'll have the same problem as a Sony user with this lens...
"there is a strong likelihood that within a few months they'll want to upgrade to FF in order to get reduced noise levels" Belligerent certainty about other people's thought processes from the usual people trying to promote FF for whatever reason. Nothing new under the sun. In the real world, smart people use their APS-C bodies for years and spend their money on lenses, because good lenses have a much bigger impact on image quality than bodies.
DrewRick - If I'm guilty of "beligerent certainty about other people's thought processes" than you've just demonstrated an equal amount of beligerent certainty that they'll think differently from I suggested.
... and to suggest that I'm "promoting FF" is pure drivel, I merely pointed out that there is a strong likelihood that some APS users will want to switch to FF, or add an FF body (I have both, incidentally), and that it would make sense for them to consider that possibility, if they were about to buy an ASPS lens.
If you interpret that as "promoting FF" then you cognitive powers are diminishing.
Pantunes - You persist in trying to bring Fujifilm cameras into a post about Sony cameras, and it's pretty clear that your purpose here is simply to be as provocative as you can manage, and to score points, rather than address the post in a relevant manner.
Fujifilm, as I've alreadt poined out id entirely irrelevant, because they don't offer an upgrade path that uses a common mount. Sony APS and FF cameras do use a common mount, so it therefore makes sense to advise novices that they should be aware of the fact that any APS lens that they but will not have an image circle large enough to cover an FF sensor, should they decide to get an FF body at a later date.
As a Sony APS-C user for years now, as much as I'd love to go to FF, I won't. Prices in my country are just out of hand. I am grateful that the Sony APS-C lineup exists. Thanks to Sigma and their affordable primes and now Tamron, it gave us a much needed zoom to the Sony APS-C lineup without breaking the bank.
Agreed. It would be an ideal match for an X-T3, as it has optical stabilisation, but unfortunately it doesn't look like Tamron are interested in supporting Fujifilm X mount at the moment.
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