- A portion of this video is sponsored by DUER,
and you're going to see firsthand
exactly how awesome their winter denim is.
This is what happens when you pack
your backpack too heavy, I think.
Okay, here's the bottom line.
Tamron did not have to make this lens.
No one that I know was really asking for it.
The original version is one of the highest selling
Sony E-mount full frame lenses, but oh my goodness,
am I glad that they decided to make it anyway.
This is the Tamron 28-75 F2.8 G2.
And pretty much everything on this lens got an upgrade
from the original, except for the price.
Well, okay.
It's $20 more expensive than the original,
from 879 now up to 899 for the G2,
but pretty much the same price.
And after seeing how awesome the new Tamron 35-150 was,
I was really excited to see if this lens held up
to the performance that we saw there.
So of course, I went out shooting both video and photos
to give you a hands-on, practical look at what
using this lens might be like.
I hiked through snow up to my thighs,
over some questionable ice,
and into a cave of frozen wonders,
all to make an example video for you so that
you could see the quality of this lens.
After that video, we'll come back,
take a look at some photos,
talk about some features, build, image quality,
and my experience using this lens.
But real quick, before the video example,
I want to tell you about this video's sponsor,
and the pants that I was wearing when I went
for that trek through the snow, DUER.
So in this video, you may notice that I'm just wearing
a pair of black jeans, hiking in the snow.
And you might think, "why would he do that?"
Well, these are the Fireside jeans
from DUER's Winter Denim Line, and they are fleece lined,
they have limitless stretch, reinforced seams,
and a water resistant DWR treatment.
So basically, they look like nice black jeans,
but they're built to last, to keep me warm, to keep me dry,
and to flex for when I'm moving around a lot,
like when I'm hiking to a cave.
DUER seriously has the most comfortable pants.
I have like four different pairs of their pants now.
The Firesides that I already mentioned,
the Stay Dry jeans that have the same
water resistance, stretch, and durability,
but better for all seasons,
'cause they don't have the fleece.
The Adventure pants, and then my personal favorite,
the No Sweat pants that look like nice black pants,
but they feel like sweats.
And even the hat that I was wearing on the hike
is DUER's responsibly made Merino Wool Beanie,
and it was perfect for the trek.
So make sure that you go check out DUER,
using the link down in the description,
and use the code "Dunna15" to get 15% off your purchase.
And now, let's put those pants to the test at the same time
that we put the Tamron 28-75 to the test. Enjoy.
(upbeat music)
The following video was shot entirely on the Sony FX3
and the Tamron 28-75 F2.8 G2.
(ambient music)
So once again, we're back out here.
The Rocky Mountains in Alberta.
I hit up my friend, Pete, who you might recognize
from the Porsche video, and basically said,
"hey, I'm coming your way. Build me an adventure."
So we're currently hiking up to a spot
that looks pretty magical.
If conditions are right,
the ice actually grows up from the ground,
rather than like, the icicles coming down from the top.
So I'm pretty excited to hopefully see that.
We're not sure, 100%, what the conditions have been like
as far as making that happen quite yet.
And meanwhile, Pete is scoping out photo spots,
get some ideas for coming back later when he can
take his wonderful nighttime photography.
(music continues)
- This is where I should have brought spikes.
- So we're running into a part where we're not really sure
how thick this ice has gotten yet.
And the easiest way is to go across this little creek here.
We're testing the waters a little bit here.
It's pretty deep right there.
- [Dunna] Yeah?
- So I'm going to go really quick.
It's still early in the season. (laughs)
- [Dunna] This is not sketchy at all, Pete.
(Pete laughing)
That sounded pretty solid.
- It's pretty solid.
(Dunna laughs)
(bright music)
- I managed to get myself in a bit of a predicament here.
I'm really glad that these pants have a waterproof coating.
(groans)
Sunk right up to the thigh there. (laughs)
(sighs) Oh, man.
(music continues)
Ah, here we go again. (grunting)
This is what happens when you pack
your backpack too heavy, I think.
I keep sinking in, I need some like Legolas powers right now
where I can just be on top of the snow.
- See some footprints that are going through
just underneath down there?
But we have to traverse over that cliff there
and then come back down, and then down there,
but it looks like it's accessible. So that's good.
(music continues)
- So we're just approaching what Pete is calling
our "final descent," back down kind of into the valley here,
or whatever you want to call it,
closer to the water, and it is sketchy.
So Pete is going ahead,
a great guide and host to check it out
before I have to go down there,
'cause I don't know what I'm doing.
- It looks pretty good. The snow is packed really nicely.
So there's nice steps that someone made for us.
So it should be an easy trip down.
Whoa! (laughs)
(music continues)
(music abruptly stops)
(music continues)
(music abruptly stops)
(music continues)
(laughs)
- There we go.
- Yeah, every once in a while,
just look for overhead hazards. I forgot.
- [Dunna] Wait, was I supposed to bring a helmet?
Yeah, I don't see a lot of footprints or anything.
- Well, they're over there.
- [Dunna] Yeah.
- So it's probably okay.
- [Dunna] How are you feeling about this, Pete?
- Just about ready to try, without my camera.
(snow crunching)
- [Dunna] How does it look after that?
- There's some sketchy bits, for sure.
(Dunna laughing)
- Okay, so it's sketchy like, within reason here.
So Pete kinda went ahead to check it out,
but I lost sight of him,
so I need to go make sure he's okay.
So there's like, this water,
and then we need to go up that way.
You can kind of see like, how much there is to stand on,
but like, who knows how it's changing throughout there?
But Pete made it all the way down there,
and he's on his way back, so...
- You just got to be careful right here.
And then we're pretty good all the way to the end.
And then at the end, there's one more sketchy bit
that's just a bit hollow that we gotta be careful there.
One final hollow bit before the cave, before the reward.
Yeah, you'll definitely hear it hollow in the middle.
- All right, here we go.
(snow crunching)
- [Pete] You hear that? - [Dunna] Yeah, oh yeah.
- So just watch those ice features above you.
They're not fully formed, but I mean,
you can kind of start to see them. They're pretty cool.
(gentle upbeat music)
- So we made it to the cave,
made it over the slightly sketchy parts,
and these things are really cool.
So they're not quite fully formed yet.
They get quite a bit bigger.
From what we can tell,
it looks like the water dripping from the top of the cave
doesn't freeze into like, icicles
coming from the top of the cave.
It drips down and then like, instantly freezes
when it hits the bottom of the cave.
And so then you get these like, pillars.
They're really cool.
They're nearly perfectly cylindrical with some cool
kinda shapes and stuff going on in certain places.
(music continues)
Well, this has been quite the adventure,
a very cool trek to a very cool place.
I would love to see these formations once they're kind of
more fully built up, but even just as they are,
they're so cool to see something like this
that I've never seen in my entire life.
So we're going to snag some photos,
maybe have a quick little break, and then we got to try
and make it back before the sun goes down.
Thanks for coming along.
See you later.
(music continues)
All right.
Hopefully you enjoyed that as much as I did.
Falling thigh deep in the snow over and over again
definitely made me feel like a kid again.
But coming back to the Tamron 28-75 F2.8 G2,
I was really happy with how it performed
while I was out there.
It's a little bit lighter and a little bit shorter
than the previous version,
but not by any significant amount.
That being said,
it is a nice small lens for a mid-range zoom.
So it was great for this kind of activity
where you don't want to be carrying too much around.
And, like a lot of the Tamron lenses,
we've got a 67 millimeter thread on the front as well.
So it's a smaller barrel than the 24-70
competitors from Sigma and Sony.
I have mentioned this about the previous version,
but I did find myself slightly limited by the focal length.
I typically carry a 24-70,
and I don't know exactly what it is,
but 24 millimeters seems to be
just right in a bunch of situations,
where 28 millimeters is just barely too tight.
And as for the long end, I don't really even notice
the extra five millimeters compared to a 24-70.
And if you're thinking,
"well, it's only four millimeters difference on the wide end
compared to five millimeters on the long end,"
try to think of it in percentages
instead of those specific numbers.
28 millimeters is about 16% more than 24,
75 is only about 7% more than 70.
But those handful of situations
where it was just too tight a side,
this zoom range is super handy
and will cover you most of the time.
Hence why they call it
a "normal zoom" or a "mid-range zoom."
Tamron has improved the build quality on this lens,
opting for some new, less plastic-y materials,
more similar to the 35-150.
The zoom and focus rings have a better texture
and a more rubbery, grippy feel,
as well as just a better feeling motion to them too.
The one problem that I ran into for the focus ring
is that it's very close to the mount.
So for my follow focus rig on my motion control slider,
I couldn't quite get it in the right place
to make it work properly.
We've also got a brand new custom button on this lens
that we didn't have on the previous model.
And you can customize what it does using the USBC port
and the Tamron lens utility software.
I have a whole video going over that
that you can check out after this, but personally,
I think that some of the things
that you can do with it are very exciting,
like pre-planned focus pulls
or changing your focus ring into an aperture ring.
This lens is also weather sealed
at several points, including the USBC port,
and I definitely put that to the test.
This thing got absolutely covered in snow,
and it didn't even flinch.
The one thing that I did notice
when I was inside the cave, which was quite humid,
the front element fogged up really easily.
I did bust out my 16-35 G Master a couple of times
when I was in the cave to shoot some photos,
and it didn't seem to have as many issues with the fogging.
Not a situation I would find myself in regularly,
but just something to note.
In terms of the image quality,
this is definitely a step up from the previous model.
The general color and contrast
has a really nice, pleasing look to it.
The sharpness feels great in both the center
and the edges at any focal length that I shot at.
I did run into a little bit of chromatic aberration,
but it was only in really extreme cases,
and generally only got strong
when I started to push the edit.
The images look great wide
for some more landscape type shots,
and they also look great at the long end
for some more portrait type shots.
So we've got a nice, consistent, great looking image.
I am really happy to see Tamron
going the extra mile on this.
I think the image quality really stands up
to the competitors in this category now,
instead of just being the budget option.
It's now the budget option that performs
just as well as the higher priced competitors.
As far as the auto focus,
we have a whole new focus system in this,
it's the VXD instead of the RXD
that we saw in the first model.
In my experience, the auto focus
hit the target most of the time.
Eye auto focus, subject tracking,
and face tracking work pretty darn well.
And with only a few exceptions
where it did a little bit of hunting,
it was pretty darn smooth.
Overall, I'm really happy with the value that you get
out of this lens and the quality that it produces.
It truly competes with the Sigma and Sony 24-70
competitors now at a much more affordable price.
And it's right on par, price wise, with the Sigma 28-70.
Like I said at the start,
Tamron didn't need to make this lens.
They already had the budget
mid-range zoom category pretty well covered,
but they've stepped it up in pretty much
every way with this new version, and I think a lot of people
are going to be really happy about that.
If you're in the market for a mid-range zoom
that gives you the most bang for your buck,
you're definitely going to want to keep this on your radar.
But as always, I want to know
what you think about this lens.
So make sure to leave a comment down below,
and on your way down there,
hit that like and subscribe button,
hit the bell notifications
so you don't miss out on future videos.
Huge thank you to DUER for sponsoring this video.
Make sure to go check them out
at the link in the description.
Thank you for watching, and I'll see you next time.
(upbeat music)