People using Sony’s cameras have faced a long-term issue of the availability of third-party lenses. They had only to choose from some of the Sony or Samsung lenses, although good, but expensive in the prices.
Tamron 28-75mm f 2.8 was one of the first E-mount lenses introduced for Sony by the third-party manufacturer and was specially designed for mirrorless cameras. After introducing this, the photographers now have a wide range of options and are within the budget.
The Tamron 28-77 mm is an excellent standard zoom lens with quality-built material and is quite affordable.
Table of Contents
Tamron 28-75mm f 2.8 review
Tamron is a Japanese International company making high-quality photo lenses since the 1950s. As Sony has approx. 12% share in Tamron, the company is now making lenses specially optimized for the Sony cameras. Although low in price, the lenses made by Tamron give tremendous results.
The overall built quality of the lens is quite good. However, most of the body is made up of plastic but of high grade. The weight of the lenses is also very light and can be taken anywhere quickly. The zoom and the focus rings are smooth. Besides, it is also somehow similar to Sony 3.5-5.6/28-70 OSS.
Focus
Tamron 28-77mm has some advanced focusing technologies and a silent motor. The Direct Manual Focusing System helps you to take shots fast and accurately. At the same time, the rapid extra silent stepping drive makes the motor quiet. The autofocus also works great in low-light conditions.
Bokeh
The Bokeh of the lens is also functional but is somehow complex to describe precisely. For instance, while taking the photos from close range, i.e., 28mm, or taking macro photographs, the bokeh is quite good and is visible nicely. But the results often get distorted as the range is increased.
I have taken several close-range photos of several flowers, plants, etc., and the results were amazingly high. As described above, bokeh’s problem arrives when we go for the long-range or the low light. There we can say that the result of the lens bokeh is below average.
Flare Performance
The lens is also not very good in flare performance and flares tremendously while taking the shorts of incoming light. For example, if you take photos of the sun at any time, you will notice the flares in your photos. Typically, the zoom lenses have anti-flare technologies that reduce the flares at the minimum.
But unfortunately, not in the case of this lens.
Image Quality
The image quality is surprisingly excellent. Either you are taking the photos in low-light, macro, sharp images, or landscapes, the results are more than expected. The lens shows maximum vignetting at the 28 mm and 75 mm but decreases with the lens correction.
The wide-angle shots are also great with sharp edges or corners. If you compare the lenses with some of the other companies’ lenses, you will find no significant difference in almost every term.
Tamron 28-75mm specifications:
- Diameter: 73 mm
- Field of view: 75° to 32° (diagonally)
- Length: 117.8 mm
- Weight: 550 g
- Filter Diameter: 67 mm
- Number of Aperture Blades: 9 (rounded)
- Elements/Groups: 15/12
- Closest Focusing Distance: 0.19m
- Maximum Magnification: 1:2.9 (28mm), 1:4 (75mm)
- Mount: Sony FE
Pros and Cons
Let’s have a look at some of the pros and cons of the lens. Although the lens does have several unique features and qualities, it does have some drawbacks as well.
Good things:
- Central sharpness at every focal length
- Excellent mid-frame performance over most of the frame
- Bokeh at close distance
- size
- weight
- rubber gasket
- useful macro features at the short and the long end
- correction of LoCA and LaCA
- nice contrast & color rendering
- AF speed and noise
- Low distortions for a standard zoom
Average things:
- no accessories included
- close up sharpness wide open
- higher magnification at the short end than at the long end
- flare resistance (for a zoom lens)
- built quality
- zoom and focus ring inverted (in comparison to most other zooms)
- corner sharpness
Cons:
- strong vignetting wide open
- cheap lens hood
- bokeh at a longer distance
- the small sharp area at the close focus distance
Most of the companies provide some accessories for their lenses in the packing. But unfortunately, this model hasn’t any.
Where to use:
Now, let’s have a look at the places/settings where this lens works best.
- Low-light: The pictures taken in the low-light will be quite useful. As most of the events nowadays happen outdoors like birthdays, weddings, etc. It would be a great idea to use this lens.
- Outdoors and Portrait: As taking photos of sceneries like landscapes, mountains, etc. I have used this lens in several different spots, and the results were great.
- Macro: We can also take high-quality photos of several flowers, plants, or pets. And you will notice the results more than expected.
Conclusion
The Tamron 28-75mm is overall an excellent lens. Not to forget that it was the first lens that was designed for a full-frame mirrorless camera. The best thing about the lens is the budget range. You can get the sharpness, quality, and results of some expensive glasses with this lens and at a meager price. Its been a long time since I am using this lens, and wherever I did the shoot, i.e., weddings, birthdays, hills station, or low-light, the result was excellent.
Moreover, the other companies, e.g., Nikon, Canon, etc. they have a variety of lens options available. But the case is quite different for Sony’s camera, especially for the E-mount ones. There were few available, and the Sony DSLR owners didn’t have many options. Another factor was the price as Sony’s lenses weren’t quite affordable.
The introductions of the Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 <- Affiliate Link 🙂 not only reduced the price factor, but it was the same in terms of results as of Sony’s lenses. Before going to buy the lenses, examine these factors precisely and think twice before taking any step.
