Most zooms of this type cover a 70-200mm range, but Tamron opted for a slightly shorter maximum focal length here, 180mm. The result is a lens that's decidedly smaller and lighter than your typical pro telezoom, but at the same time is just a little bit easier to squeeze into your camera bag. Above: Sony FE 70-200mm f2.8 GM OSS coverage on Sony A7R II (FF) body at 70mm (left) and 200mm (right), Distortion Compensation ON Compact and lightweight - Despite an impressive zoom range and fast constant aperture the Tamron 70-180mm f/2.8 Di III VXD is compact at just 149mm at the 70mm end. It weighs just 810g. fitting comfortably on any Sony full-frame E mount camera. How close do you have to get for 1:10 magnification e.g. for a very tightly cropped head-shot? At its longest focal length the Tamron III achieves 1:10 at a distance of 1.88m (6.2ft.) while the Sony has a longer reach of 2.14m (7.0ft.) due to its longer focal length. [+]

The Deko platform is provided by Pay4Later Ltd, t/a Deko which acts as a credit broker, not a lender and does not charge you for credit broking services. Pay4Later Limited is registered in England and Wales (company number 06447333) and is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (register number 728646). For more information please go to www.dekopay.com/support or visit www.dekopay.com. Maybe, of course, Tamron is just waiting for agreements to improve with Nikon (and maybe even Canon) so that when they do deliver an SP 70-200mm f/2.8 VC for mirrorless, they can maximize their market depth. What do you dislike about the R8? I mean it has the flagship autofocus system which not even sony does for entry level bodies and a multiple times higher drive speed making the entrance into action, which formerly almost needed the most expensive bodies, affordable for the masses. Focus performance is usually pretty easy for me to test. I’d generally head out to my local kitesurfing spot, and the only constraint would be wind. Optics: The Tamron 70-180mm f2.8 Di III has 19 elements in 14 groups including 6 special dispersion elements and 3 aspherical elements. This is a slightly simpler design than the Sony with 23 elements in 18 groups. Both lenses have fluorine-coating on the front element to repel water, dust, and dirt and make cleaning easier. The Tamron G2 has 23 elements in 17 groups and does not employ fluorine-coating. [+]Using the A7RIV, the minimum focus distance at 70mm is also not accessible with AF at all. You have to use MF to make use of the macro potential. At 180mm, the MFD is accessible with AF-C and it also works fine there. How did they play a role especially when they released new lenses in EF, F mount while Sony users were begging for E mount? Unavailability as a reason to switch? Well Canon has now the Sony role so all switch to Canon due to your logic? The camera even had an overheat shutdown while shooting stills, not video, on a hot day of a mere ~89F. The most obvious competitor and a lens none of us has personally used for a longer time. Considering it is not as hot as other manufacturer’s 70-200mm 2.8 lenses and it is very expensive I would rather get the Tamron lens reviewed here.

Minimum object distance in manual focus is 0.30m (0.98ft.) at 70mm focal length with manual focus and 0.84m (2.8ft.) at 180mm focal length. Maximum magnification of 1:2.5 at 70mm focal length is a bit weaker than from the Tamron G1 albeit still very good and comes with a slightly longer working distance of 13cm (lens hood detached). At 180mm focal length maximum magnification of the Tamron G2 is 1:4.4 with a working distance of 0.64m, and 1:10 is achieved at an object distance of 1.87m. The Sony GM II achieves its maximum magnification of 1:3.3 at 200mm focal length and 0.82m minimum object distance. This leaves 0.60m working distance between front lens and object. [+] The optical design has been revamped from the first-generation 70-180mm F2.8 and achieves uncompromising high image quality across the entire zoom range. TAMRON also shortened the MOD (Minimum Object Distance) at the wide end to 0.3m (11.8in) compared to the first-generation 0.85m (33.5in), enabling users to enjoy unique photographic expressions distinctive to the lens. Additionally, the new 70-180mm F2.8 G2 zoom features TAMRON’s renowned VXD (Voice-coil eXtreme-torque Drive) linear motor focus mechanism enabling high-speed, high-precision auto-focusing that performs well whether shooting stills or video. The new 70-180mm F2.8 G2 zoom also supports the dedicated TAMRON Lens Utility™ and TAMRON Lens Utility Mobile™ apps that were developed in-house by TAMRON. The software can be used to customize functions based on various shooting styles for still photography and video. The new lens design improves operability and provides scratch resistance. This single lens combines profound maneuverability and practicality that is worthy of the second-generation G2 badge and will deliver shooting experiences that make a fast-aperture telephoto zoom lens even more enjoyable. Product Highlights MTF (Modulation Transfer Function) curves describe to what extent the tested lens can faithfully reproduce contrast of the subject in images it captures.

Tamron 70-180mm f/2.8 Di III VXD Lens for Sony E-mount

In MF mode and when set to 70mm, focusing is down to an amazing 0.27m (10.6 inches), offering a maximum magnification of 1:2, or half life-size. The result is that the edge resolution falls away, offering variable soft focus effects depending upon aperture. This effect has gone by the time we reach the standard close-focus point of 0.85m and from there onwards images are sharp from centre to edge. It does mean that there is an extra facility here for soft-focus effects more along the lines perhaps of a Lensbaby lens. This offers creative potential not available with any other lens in this zoom range. Chromatic aberrations, typically seen as purple or blue fringes along contrasty edges, are pretty well controlled with this lens - the example below shows the worst-case scenario. Light Fall-off Optical performance is outstanding with bright clear results thanks to a series of aspherical, low dispersion, hybrid and extra low dispersion glass elements. Despite this array of high-end optics, the lens remains impressively lightweight at just 810g. Outdoor photographers will appreciate the weather sealing properties as well as the ability to hand-hold this lens for longer periods of time. A fast, constant aperture of just f/2.8 allows enough light to ensure subject isolation as well as superb low light performance. To your point, however, many photographers do indeed just throw their camera in 1.5x crop mode, because so many applications these days just don't require 40-60 megapixels. As a wedding photographer, I absolutely don't hesitate to throw even the 30-MP A7IV into 1.5x crop mode. Camera compatibility and functionality - The 70-180mm f/2.8 is compatible with many advanced features that are specific to Sony mirrorless cameras. This includes:

The second thing to consider is that this is entirely dependent on your ability to handhold a lens at low shutter speeds. I would recommend this YouTube video called “Da Grip” if you want some hints on how to stabilise a camera for lower shutter speeds. The new Tamron 70-180mm telephoto zoom features a constant aperture of f/2.8 throughout the range, an impressive minimum focus distance of 0.85m throughout the zoom range, an all-new VXD (Voice-coil eXtreme-torque Drive) linear focus motor for quiet and fast AF operation, and a moisture-sealed construction. As of November 2020 this Sony lens and the Tamron are priced pretty much the same. As this f/4.0 version is not nearly as hot as other manufacturer’s 70-200mm 4.0 lenses and it is heavier and bigger than the Tamron reviewed here despite being a full stop slower the only reasons I see to get the Sony are the buttons and the OSS. If that wasn’t obvious enough: get the Tamron here, seriously. Tamron also says the lens features a “moisture-resistant construction” (including gasket at the bayonet) but you should be careful what you read into it. Being an extending zoom lens I am sure dust will still find its way inside and any losses or damage due to moisture/water do not seem to be covered by Tamron. Tamron 70-180mm 2.8 at 180mm setting (fully extended) with hood attached Here’s the results: With SteadyShot=on the combo produced results down to 1/50 sec (2 stops) which had a comparable distribution to the shots at 1/200 sec with SteadyShot=off. At 1/25 sec (3 stops) 14 out of 20 shots were very usable. But at 1/12 sec (4 stops) results became very erratic with only 30% usable images. This is roughly a 3 stop advantage from image stabilization at 180mm focal length. I had certainly hoped for more as these results are not better than what the Tamron 70-180mm f2.8 G1 had achieved – without the aid of VC. Perhaps results are closer to Tamron’s claim of up to 5 stops on newer Sony Alpha camera bodies.This was also why I was greatly missing an AF/MF switch. If you are mainly using lenses that don’t have it and you already have mapped AF/MF switch to a custom button this may not bother you as much though.

As you pull focus, you’ll notice some focus breathing: the image becomes more magnified at closer focusing distances. When I adjusted the focus from infinity to 1.88m on the new Tamron at 180mm focal length, I measured a 4% increase in magnification. This is quite visible and might annoy some videographers but it is a much smaller effect than the Sony FE 70-200mm f2.8 GM OSS shows with its 11% increase in magnification. The same test at 70mm focal length produced only a 0.4% increase.A trinity of fast lenses - Tamron’s third fast lens offering compliments the previous 17-28mm F/2.8 Di III RXD and 28-75mm F/2.8 Di III RXD options. These are specifically designed for Sony FE mount and all feature impressive optics, build and image quality. Tamron 70-180mm f/2.8 Di III VXD Lens Specifications Lens type AF performance is excellent, as I would expect of a lens like this. Tamron has never been subpar in this area with this series, and the 28-75mm both had similar performance to their GM counterparts. My keeper rate was higher on my a9, though part of that is simply due to the fact that lower resolution makes the motion blur less obvious. Moving up to 1/25th second improved the keeper rate to where most shots were acceptably sharp and some excellent. What is odd is that I didn’t much better results at 70mm than what I did at 180mm, though I did find that I got a little better results when I manually selected the correct focal length in SteadyShot. Currently there’s only one other f2.8 telephoto zoom available for Sony’s E-mount. Other alternatives all have a slower focal ratio or have to be used via adapter adding to the size and weight of the combo.