Tamron Officially Announces the SP 24-70mm F/2.8 Di VC USD G2

aceflibble said:
smithcon said:
It does have one issue which drives me batty -- if I am shooting it on my tripod and forget to turn the VC switch off, it *destroys* the image.
That's the same with all IS systems, though. It just becomes more apparent when the IS is effectively-implemented, as IS which is capable of correcting stronger motion will result in even more blur and alignment issues when on a tripod.

As we move forward IS is going to be more and more standard for all lenses, so it's a good idea to get into the habit of always turning IS off when using a tripod or when mounting/unmounting the lens, no matter what brand it is.

I don't disagree that that switching the IS off while on a stationary mount is absolutely a necessary habit, and I regard not doing so as completely my error, but I will say that the Tamron, at least my copy, is in a class all by itself. I have a Canon 70-200 IS 2.8L Mk II, a Canon 100-400 IS L Mk II, and a Canon 100 IS 2.8L Macro, (and back in my 7D days, a Canon 17-55 Canon IS) and I have been able to get away with very good results with all of those lenses even when forgetting to disable the IS. My workflow is usually ... mount the camera/lens on the tripod, manually set focus using Liveview 10X, then take a few frames for histogram exposure adjustments. Then I remember to turn off IS if I am lucky before I take my final shots. If I forget with my Canons, I still get pretty nice usable results, sometimes very, very slightly blurred, and sometimes indistinguishable from after I switch the IS off. This allowed me to form my bad habit. But once I got the Tamron, I always get fantastically blurred results -- they are simply not usable at any size. In fact, if I activate the shutter using a remote release on the Tamron while watching the LCD in Liveview, you see that that the lens engages in a single small but noticeable movement, seemingly always from the lower left to the upper right, and then stops. I tried this with my Canon lenses and no movement is apparent.

Now I love the IS on all of my lenses so equipped when I am *not* shooting on a tripod; it was my reason for buying the Tamron over the Canon (I didn't win the Tamron -- that was a typo, I meant to type that I "own" the Tamron). I don't find that the Tamron is in another world IS performance-wise; all of my lenses work quite well there. But the Tamron does stand alone for blur on the tripod.
 
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SecureGSM

2 x 5D IV
Feb 26, 2017
2,360
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I used to get a massive amount of blur shooting with the Tamron 24-70 F2.8 VC handheld and VC activated at shutter speeds faster than 1/70s.
Therefore each time my shutter speed crossed into faster than 1/70s territory, I had to flick the VC switch off. Major inconvenience as in many situations shooting in Av mode I was getting poor keepers rate due to lens VC misbehaviour.
I spoke with Tamron support so many times and was advised that this issue cannot be fixed.
Onion ring bokeh was an another reason why I parted my ways with Tamron products for good.
My Canon 24-70 F2.8 L II serves me well in run and gun situations for now until the final judgement is in for the new Sigma 24-70 Art lens.
 
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Dec 11, 2015
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SecureGSM said:
I used to get a massive amount of blur shooting with the Tamron 24-70 F2.8 VC handheld and VC activated at shutter speeds faster than 1/70s.
Therefore each time my shutter speed crossed into faster than 1/70s territory, I had to flick the VC switch off. Major inconvenience as in many situations shooting in Av mode I was getting poor keepers rate due to lens VC misbehaviour.
I spoke with Tamron support so many times and was advised that this issue cannot be fixed.
Onion ring bokeh was an another reason why I parted my ways with Tamron products for good.
My Canon 24-70 F2.8 L II serves me well in run and gun situations for now until the final judgement is in for the new Sigma 24-70 Art lens.

I don't buy Tamron for one reason - they permanently disable OS in their lenses for Sony A-mount which I was shooting ~5 years ago. I was so pissed when I got an A7r and wasn't able to comfortably shoot my 70-200 (via an adapter) because of this stupid decision. They also charge full price for the crippled A-mount lenses as for EF and Nikon which have OS. Old story, not relevant anymore, but still... :)
 
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The Petapixel review is impressive and my guess is that some shooters will go for this (over Canon) not only on price but on Vibration Compensation, which Canon surprisingly lacks. I am tempted myself as I sometimes miss not having f2.8 in my 24-70 (I have the f4L). However I love the sharpness of my f4L and the macro switch is unbelievably handy.
 
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MrFotoFool said:
The Petapixel review is impressive and my guess is that some shooters will go for this (over Canon) not only on price but on Vibration Compensation, which Canon surprisingly lacks. I am tempted myself as I sometimes miss not having f2.8 in my 24-70 (I have the f4L). However I love the sharpness of my f4L and the macro switch is unbelievably handy.

It's really hard to call this ^ a review. Especially looking at the pictures. Dustin is supposedly working on a review, hopefully he will include a comparison with the new Sigma 24-70.
 
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Took it to lofoten for a week of shooting on my 5dM4:

- Happy with the sharpness, very happy at f 5.6 and above
- Very happy with the build quality
- Very happy with the VC
- Vignetting is in an acceptable range
- Very disappointed with the AF.... Sometimes it's spot on, other times it hunts for ages without looking, even in good light conditions. Not sure If I'm going to bring it back for a new copy or just get the canon 24-70 2.8... I'd love the lens but a crippled AF is a killer criteria.

Does anybody else encouter these problems?
 
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Grimbald said:
Took it to lofoten for a week of shooting on my 5dM4:

- Happy with the sharpness, very happy at f 5.6 and above
- Very happy with the build quality
- Very happy with the VC
- Vignetting is in an acceptable range
- Very disappointed with the AF.... Sometimes it's spot on, other times it hunts for ages without looking, even in good light conditions. Not sure If I'm going to bring it back for a new copy or just get the canon 24-70 2.8... I'd love the lens but a crippled AF is a killer criteria.

Does anybody else encouter these problems?

I just watched a review claiming the same thing with the AF most noted at the 70mm end of the zoom.
 
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Ryananthony said:
Grimbald said:
Took it to lofoten for a week of shooting on my 5dM4:

- Happy with the sharpness, very happy at f 5.6 and above
- Very happy with the build quality
- Very happy with the VC
- Vignetting is in an acceptable range
- Very disappointed with the AF.... Sometimes it's spot on, other times it hunts for ages without looking, even in good light conditions. Not sure If I'm going to bring it back for a new copy or just get the canon 24-70 2.8... I'd love the lens but a crippled AF is a killer criteria.

Does anybody else encouter these problems?

I just watched a review claiming the same thing with the AF most noted at the 70mm end of the zoom.

http://www.canonrumors.com/forum/index.php?topic=33507.msg687871#msg687871
It's consistent if you calibrate and stay at a certain distance. If you move, you need to re-calibrate ;) Most likely it's possible to achieve good AF @ 70mm, but you'll have to run calibration multiple times for different distances. IMO not worth it. I didn't test it @ 50mm but most likely it's going to be the same problem. At 24mm it's great, probably because the DoF is much longer. It's also sharper @ 24mm than 70. At 70mm sharpness is good on a low res body like a 1dx2, but looks "barely ok" on my 5dsr. Returned.
 
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GammyKnee said:
If that's the case, then maybe the dock could help?

That's exactly right. Lack of time is a problem though :) I'm also not sure if I need to calibrate for one camera and it will work for another one "automatically", or should I do it for both cameras (and my time will double).

Anyway, returned the lens and will be getting the Canon 24-70. VC (IS) was truly awesome on the Tamron and I'll be missing it!
 
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SecureGSM

2 x 5D IV
Feb 26, 2017
2,360
1,231
Jopa,

it does not work as such for Sigma Art lenses. it would be slightly detuned on the second camera. tried many times before. it works, sort of but not for all 4 calibration points though. it may work for some distances to your subject and miss for others. much worse on my 5D IV than on 6D.

Sigma 135 Art was the worst. I spend 3+ hours calibrating the lens to my 5D IV and gave up.
I calibrated hundreds of Sigma lenses in my life but this lens was an ultimate nightmare to calibrate. Sold it today. Sigma 50 and 85 Art are up for sale. I cannot be bothered.


Jopa said:
I'm also not sure if I need to calibrate for one camera and it will work for another one "automatically", or should I do it for both cameras (and my time will double).
 
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Dec 11, 2015
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SecureGSM said:
Jopa,

it does not work as such for Sigma Art lenses. it would be slightly detuned on the second camera. tried many times before. it works, sort of but not for all 4 calibration points though. it may work for some distances to your subject and miss for others. much worse on my 5D IV than on 6D.

Sigma 135 Art was the worst. I spend 3+ hours calibrating the lens to my 5D IV and gave up.
I calibrated hundreds of Sigma lenses in my life but this lens was an ultimate nightmare to calibrate. Sold it today. Sigma 50 and 85 Art are up for sale. I cannot be bothered.


Jopa said:
I'm also not sure if I need to calibrate for one camera and it will work for another one "automatically", or should I do it for both cameras (and my time will double).

Sorry to hear this Alex. My 85 Art is more or less ok. The AFMA varies from +5 to +7 depends on distance which is acceptable for me (I keep it on the middle: +6 :) ). The only problem I have is focus shift, but I mostly shoot it wide open, so it's not a huge deal.

I remember you said all your Sigma lenses worked fine on the 6D, so I'm wondering if Sigma is still making the new lenses "AF compatible" with the older Canon cameras? Now when they started making calibration docks, theoretically they can offer some kind of profiles for different cameras. Yes, AFMA would still be required, but just one value, and the profile would take care of the distance inconsistencies (i.e. distributing one AFMA value with a certain ratio across the whole focusing range).

...and of course a mirrorless camera would solve all AF issues once and for all! :)
 
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