Today I'm going to be comparing the Tamron 17-28mm lens with the two Sony 16-35mm lenses
Everyone should have a wide-angle lens in their camera bags. I've had one for a
while but it's time to upgrade and I might have dropped my old wide-angle
lens so I do need one I want ease-of-use and portability to be
able to shoot the night skies but also to be able to shoot cityscapes real
estate and landscapes now this isn't a scientific test but a real-life one and
what works for me might be different for you if you want to see all of the images
I took they're available for download in the link in the description below
both the Sony lenses have really good build quality they have a metallic body
and feel like they're well constructed whereas the Tamron has a very much
plasticky feel to it in saying that the Tamron does have a weather strip around
the mount which is really good the G master also has this but the F for Sony
doesn't the Sony F 2.8 is the only one with the extra button on the side it
also has the manual autofocus switch when it comes to built-in optical
steadyshot the sony f/4 is the only one with this now the Sony bodies do have
that embody image stabilization so the other two lenses will be stabilized with
the Sony a7 series cameras they just don't have that extra optical steadyshot
in the lens when it comes to weight and size there's no getting around it the
sony f 2.8 g master is an absolute beast and when it's on your camera you know it
it does add quite a bit of weight to your camera bag and after a day's
shooting you can definitely feel it it is 680 grams but it's more the size that
makes the difference the f4 is slightly lighter at 518 grams and it's smaller
but not as small as the Tamron the Tamron comes in as the smallest lens and
it's the lightest at 420 grams although it does sit nicely on the camera putting
the 16 to 35 2.8 in the bag was also a challenge in my tactic for 50 aw at the
bottom of the bag where it said it's narrowest I couldn't put it face down
and let's be honest the thing is huge I had to adjust my bag just to accommodate
it it reminds me of my old canons shooting days they are all fly-by-wire
focusing lenses so you won't get the feel of a truly manual focus lens but
you do get the benefits of having Port au focus so first of all I'm going to
look at the astrophotography shots I haven't used the f4 as this shouldn't
even be an option if you're planning on shooting the Stars with these lenses and
let's say you're using a tracker looking at the shots that I got I probably
should have used a shorter exposure length especially when i zoom in as the
Stars are starting to drag a little bit but I did get up at two o'clock in the
morning so I think I must have been a little bit tired so if we ignore my
flagrant misuse of the five hundred rule even a two point eight with both lenses
there are no coma aberrations towards the edges of the shots if you're not
sure what this is check this image from my canon 50
millimeter F one point four and look at those bird-like shapes that the stars
are forming around the edges of the frame this is due to poor optics being
accentuated at the wider apertures so going back to the wide-angle lenses
they're both really good wide open and they don't show any kind of coma
aberrations another thing I noticed was that the Tamron produced a slightly
darker imager than the Sony G master but then the sony did have this strange dark
patch in the center of the image when it comes to Vinnie etting I've done a quick
edit on the next two in Lightroom and we can clearly see that both have bad
vignetting this can be removed afterwards but it's something to be
aware of on the final set I've corrected for the vignette and they do produce a
good image however if you look at this bottom right corner there is more light
pollution and the sony seems to deal with this a lot better the Tamron is
giving more of a red glow in this haze towards the horizon whereas the sony is
a lot more neutral I'm gonna try these two lenses again later in the month when
I go to a much darker location and also I might actually remember to use the
five hundred rule properly so if you're thinking about one of these lenses
solely for astrophotography I'd either go with the Sony G master
I would scrap these completely and go with a fast prime lens but for the
occasional astrophotography shoots they will produce some great images next
we'll move on to cityscapes and what better place to photograph than the
tallest building in the world where you'll definitely need a wide-angle lens
so I'm just going to have a look at a few images here but I have a whole
series of shots in the downloadable folder wide open at F 2.8 if I crop in
at 1 to 1 the Tamron actually looks a little bit sharper than the G master and
this is really surprising then closing down to f/8 they all even out and all
three of the lenses perform really well which is to be expected
although the f/4 is not as sharp around the edges as for chromatic aberration
even though the dynamic range in the shot isn't huge they all do seem to cope
with it well at their longer focal lengths both the G master and the Tamron
again a very sharp and the f4 is trailing just a little bit but it still
does a good job as for starbursts both the Tamron and the sony produced nice
results and again the f4 has less aperture blades so it has less of those
starburst lines coming out from the harsh lights if you're not sure about
starbursts and you want to learn more click on the eye in the corner or the
link in the description to another of my tutorials next we're going to look at
the landscape shots these are shot from a tripod and at f-16 at shoulder height
everything is pretty much in focus although if the foreground was any
closer I'd probably take a few different shots and focus stack them the center
shot this seems really good on all three lenses and again this is to be expected
with the edge focus if we look to the left at the pylons in the distance on
the horizon they all look pretty close to me but if you spot a difference let
me know in the comments below next I have the three shots at f/8 and by this
point the Sun had come out the foreground is a little bit blurry so you
would have to focus stack with a 16 or a 17 millimeter at this aperture again in
the center they all are comparable when it comes to sharpness when we look at
the edges both Tamron and the G master very similar and
the f4 is just a little bit softer lastly we get on to the interior real
estate shots I did a quick bracketed sequence for each lens and then blended
them in Lightroom this is a tricky shot as it's so bright outside and that is a
daylight white balance light coming in from the interior lights they have a
warm glow so it really is a mixed lighting scenario for a customer ID edit
these a lot differently but this was just a quick edit for the video and the
DNG files are available for you to download and play to your heart's
content again all three lenses coped very well although they did distort a
little bit towards the edges I'd be comfortable in using any one of these
lenses to produce online images for any real estate company but if you really
need as much wide-angle as possible I'd go for either one of the Sony's or if
you're solely getting this lens for real estate I'd get a more specialized lens
for the job obviously as they are wide-angle lenses it's a little harder
to get the background out of focus same compared to a 50 millimeter lens but the
extra stop in the aperture will help the Tamron and the sony 2.8 G master you
have to get close to your subject but you can do it one other thing is with
the G master that extra focal range will also help in this respect and talking of
focal length both of the Sony lenses win in this respect on the wide side it's
minimal and I didn't really notice it too much but when it comes to the longer
end it really is noticeable and with the Tamron 17 to 28 millimeter they really
have cut it drastically this is how they keep the weight and size down but it's
quite a sacrifice as 35 millimetres is a really useful focal length one downside
of the Tamron is when you're zooming in or out this front element does move in
and out and even though it's internal and it doesn't stick out past the front
of the lens I wouldn't like to shoot in very harsh environments when I was in
the desert the other day I did put a UV filter on it and this was because I was
thinking that the sand might into this groove and cause the lens to
sound really grindy and horrible and that's the last thing that I want it's
probably the last thing that you want so if you are shooting in really harsh
conditions you might want to invest in a filter to cover that front up with the
f4 from Sony it does lengthen slightly as does the F 2.8 so if you're going to
be using this on a gimbal this might be worth thinking about and talking of
gimble's you may have a problem mounting the G master because it is so heavy if
you've maybe got like the Zion crane - I think it is or some of the bigger
gimbals it won't be a problem but then again with all of that weight
if you're filming on a gimbal all day you want the lightest possible setup the
Tamron is seven point four eight inches which is 19 centimeters and both the
Sony lenses are 11 point zero two inches or 28 centimeters as for the sizes even
though the numbers don't look that different the G master does feel a lot
bigger and on the peak design capture clip the sony f4 and Tamron feel much
better for hiking whereas the G master feels really heavy and it pulls on your
shoulder strap now I know this is quite a strange title but you'll see what I
mean in a minute if you're into astrophotography these
lenses will appeal to you not so much the f4 but both the F 2.8 lenses however
one thing that really comes in handy is this little nipple on the side marking
both the Sony's have this but the Tamron doesn't it just has this white mark so
when you're kind of fumbling around in the dark the nipple really helps put the
lens on the camera that sounds really wrong anyway a wish
Tamron would put a nipple on it so you can feel where the lens should be
without having to turn a light on with the filter sizes the sony f/4 has a 72
millimeter filter the sony f 2.8 g master has an 82 millimeter filter and
the Tamron has the 67 millimeter filter now when it comes to price the Tamron
wins hands down at the making of this video it was 899
dollars a Sony f4 is one thousand three hundred forty-eight dollars and the Sony
G master is two thousand one hundred and ninety-eight dollars and after looking
at the image quality I don't think that there's one thousand two hundred and
ninety nine dollars worth of difference in the quality of the images however in
saying that it all does come down to your budget so I went for a walk and
took some photos with each of these lenses and very quickly I noticed a few
things that I wouldn't have noticed if I was just trying them out in the shop
first of all as I've already said the Sony G master is huge but it actually
feels really good to shoot handheld with and even though it is big it really
isn't that heavy it kind of reminds me of my old Canon lenses with the size and
the feel of it with the Tamron it did feel really small and I'd be more
comfortable in blending in with the crowd with this lens however that loss
of those seven millimeters on the longer end does really make a difference and I
did miss them it still is a decent range but just not as good as the G master or
F for Sony Zeiss lens so because of this I'm really torn do I have the practical
zoom of the 16 to 35 while sacrificing that weight or do I have this smaller
travel-friendly Tamron and sacrifice the 35 millimeter end now what do you think
let me know in the comments below as I've said I've got all of the images
available to download so you can have a look for yourself after looking at the
sharpness and the look of the images I really couldn't justify spending that
much on a lens I would like to have that 35 millimeter longer end but I can
sacrifice that with a saving of almost $1,300 and also if I need that 35
millimeter end I can always buy the sony 35 millimeter 1.8 and I'd still have
five hundred and fifty dollars left to play with now if you want to learn more
about photography go to one of my tutorials here and if you want to see
more on the Tamron click here for Jason Vaughn's perspective and if you haven't
already subscribed for more tutorials thanks for watching and I'll see you
next time