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XF16-80mm vs. XF18-135mm for travel/landscape/architecture photography

Started Mar 3, 2022 | Discussions thread
OP wantfastcars Regular Member • Posts: 206
Re: XF16-80mm vs. XF18-135mm for travel/landscape/architecture photography
1

Flying Fijian wrote:

Third, re: the Tamron 18-300. Despite the high praise I do see for it in individual lens reviews, I saw a review on another website that compared it directly to both the 16-80 and 18-135 at the same focal lengths and the Tamron lens was noticeably softer throughout the image. Granted, that was only one source, but being able to directly compare it to both of the other lenses I was interested in felt like it had more weight to it. I'll look into it more.

Hey just wondering if you have a link for this comparison review as I haven't found anything...thanks

I was mistaken - it was comparing the Tamron 18-300 to the 16-80 and the 70-300, not the 18-135.

https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1730838/0

They aren't perfectly 1:1 comparisons, and are extremely limited in testing scope, but even still, especially at 300mm, the Tamron is markedly less sharp.

This is somewhat of an outlier, but the poster is using the same body as I am with similar lenses to what I'm considering. To me, looking at these particular images at least, the 16-80 looks much better at the 45-50mm range and the Tamron is completely obliterated at 300mm. Granted this is not consistent with the largely positive reviews of the Tamron lens, but having that clear AB test was valuable to me, especially given it's the same body I'd be using.

 wantfastcars's gear list:wantfastcars's gear list
Fujifilm X-S10 Fujifilm 50-230mm II Fujifilm 15-45mm F3.5-5.6 OIS PZ Fujifilm XF 16-80mm F4 Fujifilm XF 70-300 F4-5.6 R LM OIS WR +8 more
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