Hey, this is Scott of Photography Banzai. Today we're taking a look at this Tamron 18-200mm lens.
It's an all-in-one. I was curious to see how those would work out.
This specific one is f/3.5 to f/6.3 through the range
with VC. It's very low cost. I bought this used bargain rated at KEH. I wasn't
expecting amazing quality, but it's in decent condition. And.. gonna try it
out today. I took this out with the M50 plus the Fotodiox adapter, which is not
ideal. I thought I had the official one on there, but I had this fotodiox one.
Which has a few quirks with flare and it did disconnect one or two times, but not
a big deal. I do have a lens filter on, which could be part of the problem. But
it also could be the adapter. The main goal here is to have a lens and camera
combo where I can do some of the vlogging stuff plus do some of the
photography stuff. That way.. sometimes.. when I'm not feeling it. Just bring one
camera instead of the two cameras. Usually I've got one for b-roll and I've
got one for taking photos. So in this situation with this setup I can do both
at the same time. But at least for this video I did bring two cameras out so
that I could get actual footage me using this setup.
I did try the Tamron lens out with the 30D and it appears to work just fine. The
autofocus works and also I did some VC tests really quick. Took three photos
with VC on and then with it off. And I can tell from the photos appears to be
working. So that's nice. I'm guessing that the VC is part of the internal function
of the lens, and it doesn't need any information from the camera.
The I.S. is a good combo for
just using the back screen instead of the viewfinder. When I've got
something like this on there it is pretty challenging to do that. These
specific cables that I have are not bad for that, so I still can, but it is more
convenient just to use the back screen sometimes. Here's a quick video clip with
the Viltrox speed booster plus the Tamron and the M50. You can see that it does
not fill a full frame. That lens is just not capable of doing that. Of course
it is an aps-c lens, I was just curious to see what it would look like. And even
with video that does some cropping, still you're not gonna be using this for that use
case really. Unless you want that vignette look, I don't know...
One pet-peeve have of lenses like this with autofocus is that this ring here
for the manual focus actually moves when your auto focusing. It's just a personal
irritation of mine. I mean, you could put your hand on there and accidentally
kind of prevent it from moving when it's auto focusing. I don't know if
that'll do anything bad, but I don't want to find out. But it's in there and
it's just kind of irritating. So something to keep in mind if you're
interested in the lens like this. This focus ring is mechanical, which is nice.
It doesn't have a lot of throw to it, so it's pretty challenging to use but not
too bad. Of course, I still would have preferred something where it does not
move when it's autofocusing.
Give you an idea of what the IS looks like...
Switch it off...
...Tried the different stabilizations in the lens plus the camera.
So I was at 1/60 of a second f/13, ISO 100 at 200 millimeters...
It definitely takes some technique to deal with the vibration control in the
lens because it jumps if you move too far. So you have to be pretty steady even
when it's on.. it's running and all that.
Here's a look at the quality of the background blur
with point source lights, if you want to call it bokeh. It's with
the focus far forward or back and then I cycle the apertures with auto ISO.
And here is what I could get of the aperture itself pretty challenging with
this lens. This is about as close as it gets with focus from here at 18...
That's about as close as it gets with focus at 200...
It's really not a bad setup, usually I like super small equipment...
But with this lens it has a good grip on it. The weight
isn't too bad. It's a pretty light lens considering what it does. My arm is getting
a bit tired, but it still would be regardless with the M50. It's a light camera
but it's still not super light. It's really not a bad combination all
together with the size of it. You can easily hold it out like that. It does get heavy at
times, which I did notice out in the field but not too bad.
Autofocus on this lens is not amazing. It's a little slow, but it seems
decent. Of course, I won't know until I actually get in there and look at the
photos. See how many actually focus where they should have. But so far it's just
adequate... I guess I could say adequate enough.
One thing I noticed already. I've probably been using that camera more
than this one, but the battery is going down quicker on this one. Probably
because of this lens and maybe EF is more power hungry. Plus the VR or VC in
this case a little more power hungry. There is a lock on the lens. It locks it
on 18, and it works nicely even if you're just doing the vlog and stuff the lens
won't shift. But generally at least my copy of it is very stiff with the focus
ring, so I wouldn't expect it to easily come out. But it is nice to have a lock
on there. After browsing through some of the photos and videos the quality looks
ok. I think some of the situations the focus wasn't perfect where it should
have been. But he might have been user error. I was juggling two cameras just
trying to make things work. Overall, I definitely could see using this more in
the future for that stuff. Especially when I've just got the one camera to
deal with. Probably the biggest quirk of this the lenses with this front focus
ring. It does move when it autofocuses so if your hand is touching it that can be
an issue. Depends on how you are holding the camera. if you're doing the vlogging
stuff, just avoid touching this ring while it's moving around doing autofocus.
It seems to be decent enough with autofocus itself. It's pretty slow in some
situations. Of course, this is just the first test with this lens and the M50
combo. I do definitely want to use this more in the future. I might even look to
other lenses that have a same general design where it's got the wide end that I
want plus something longer. Maybe not as long or even longer and depending on
what I'm feeling after using this more. Overall, I think it's good enough to mess
around with. Especially considering the price isn't terrible. That was a first
look at this Tamron B018 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 lens...
EF mount adapted to the M50 mostly, but
also tried it on the other stuff.
Anyways, I'm Scott of Photography Banzai. Hope you enjoyed the video, thanks!