- For Sony shooters, Tamron has been a great option
if you're looking for cheaper alternatives
to the native Sony glass, and that's great.
But this time around, with this lens,
Tamron has done something really special,
and I think a lot of people
are going to be really excited about it.
What is up people? Dunna here.
And today, we're gonna be talking
about the new Tamron 35 to 150 F/2 to 2.8 lens
for Sony E-mount full frame cameras.
Now let's just take a second
and think about all of those numbers that I just said.
35 millimeters and F/2 at the wide end.
Take a second and think of
any other Sony E-mount full frame zoom lenses with F/2
as the widest aperture.
I don't know about you, but I couldn't find any.
Even the highest end professional zoom lenses
for Sony E-mounts are all constant F/2.8 apertures.
And while this lens doesn't give us a constant aperture
through the zoom range,
it does manage to still get us to F/2.8 out at the long end.
So here's what's going through my mind
when I hear all of this.
If you carry a 16 to 35, 24 to 70 and a 70 to 200,
to make sure that you've got great coverage,
this lens could technically replace the need
for the 24 to 70 and 70 to 200,
and you'd still be covered between 16 and 150.
And to top it off, in that situation,
you've got an extra stop of light
and shallower depth of field at 35 millimeters.
All of that makes this an incredibly versatile offering
and allows you to use one lens for a variety of shooting,
like street, portraits, maybe a great wedding lens and more.
Okay, so on paper, that all sounds great.
But the question is, how does it actually perform?
So I went out shooting both photos and videos
with this lens, and I've put together a short video
for you to see exactly how it performed
in a practical, real world situation.
After the video, we'll come back.
We'll take a look at some of the photos
and talk about my experience
and some of the pros and cons of this lens.
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The following video was filmed entirely on the Sony FX3
and the Tamron 35 to 150 millimeter F/2 to 2.8
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All right, so in a practical application
was the 35 to 150 everything that I hoped it would be?
Mostly, I'd say yes.
Tamron has definitely done something different
with this lens than what we've seen
in some of their other lenses.
This lens doesn't feel cheap or like a budget option.
It feels like a premium option,
meant to stand up against the Sony G Master
or Sigma Art lenses, in my opinion.
The materials that they've used actually remind me a lot
of my Sigma 24 to 70 F/2.8 Art lens.
It's less plastic-y feeling than other Tamron lenses
and the zoom and focus ring have a much nicer feel to them.
They're smooth and responsive,
yet there's still a nice amount of tension
and physical feedback from the rings themselves.
We've also got some extra options
that you see on other premium lenses,
like a lock so that your barrel doesn't creep on you.
We've got a manual focus toggle switch,
and three custom buttons.
On top of that, we've got a new three-way custom switch
that changes what the custom buttons do and a USB-C input
that allows you to do some really cool things
using the Tamron Lens Utility.
I did an entire video going into detail
on what can be done with this,
and it's so cool in my opinion.
But a couple of things to note
are the ability to set your custom buttons
to perform pre-programmed focus poles,
or to switch your focus ring to become an aperture ring
at the click of a button.
If you haven't seen that video already,
I highly recommend that you check it out after this one.
This lens is also weather sealed with a gasket on the back,
as well as weather sealing on several other points
on the lens, including on the USB-C port,
which a lot of people asked about in my other video.
So for those shooting in harsh weather,
you should still be well covered here.
Now with that premium-feel, wide zoom range
and impressive aperture comes the fact
that this lens is fairly large and heavy.
It's definitely bigger than my 24 to 70
and quite a bit heavier too.
The barrel does extend when you zoom in
and we've got an 82 millimeter filter thread,
so it's quite a bit wider
than the typical 67 millimeter thread
that we've been seeing on other Tamron lenses.
When I was out shooting with it,
the size and weight was definitely something
that I couldn't ignore,
but it didn't feel unbalanced or burdensome necessarily.
For long shoots or long walk around days,
I can see it getting a bit tiring,
and it definitely isn't compact or inconspicuous
by any means.
Autofocus performance worked great for me.
It was quick and accurate in photo mode
and smooth in video mode.
Every once in a while, I did notice this lens
doing a little auto-focus jump
before it started moving in the right direction,
but I couldn't replicate the issue on purpose
and it didn't really get in the way enough
to really call it a problem.
It just seemed like isolated incidents
that corrected themselves fairly quickly.
The other thing that I found really impressive
was that the focus breathing on this lens is super minimal.
When I was using the pre-programmed focus poles
that I made with the custom buttons,
I didn't really notice any breathing
going from super close focus to super far.
When it comes to image quality, I'll admit I was nervous.
The focal range and aperture
kind of seemed too good to be true,
so I figured it would have to suffer somewhere.
But honestly, it's pretty darn great.
Sharpness was super solid to my eye.
The contrast in colors looked great straight out of camera
and edited nicely.
And as far as that variable aperture goes,
you've got F/2 from 35 millimeters to about 38.
Then at 39, it switches over to F/2.2.
At 59 millimeters, we go up to F/2.5,
and then from 80 all the way to 150, we're at F/2.8.
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(camera shutter clicking) The one thing that I can say
I came up against here was some pretty intense flaring
when shooting towards a light source.
When I was doing that sunset video,
I definitely got a lot of flaring
and some really washed out images.
Sometimes I actually kind of like that,
but everyone's a bit different there,
so I figured it was worth saying.
Okay, so brass tacks,
is this a new Dunna recommended lens?
Well, firstly, earlier I mentioned that this lens
wasn't like the other inexpensive Tamron lenses
and that goes for both the features and quality,
but also for the price.
The 35 to 150 F/2 to 2.8 is going for 1899 US
or 2599 Canadian.
This is not a budget lens by any means.
If you're comparing this
to something like the Sigma 24 to 70 F/2.8,
it looks really pricey.
But then again, if you compare it to the 24 to 70 G Master,
it's actually not that bad.
Honestly, I don't think that this lens is overpriced
for what you're getting,
but I also don't think it's a cheap lens
and it's not an everyone needs it in your kit kind of lens,
specifically because of that price.
It's going to be out of reach for a lot of people
who are just starting to build up their kit.
And while the versatility is amazing,
that's still a decent amount of money for a single lens
and there are other options out there.
For some people, I think this lens
will seem like a no brainer.
And for other people, I think it'll be a no way.
Let me know which one of those people you are
down in the comments,
and just let me know what you think of the lens in general.
And on your way down there,
make sure to hit that Like and Subscribe button.
And hit the bell notification so you don't miss out
on future reviews and tutorials.
Thank you so much for watching and I'll see you next time.
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