Tamron 15-30mm f/2.8 VC Gets First Test

[moreorless]

Certainly an interesting lens, I ended up going with the 16-35mm VR for my D800 rather than the 14-24mm due to the stabilisation, range and easier filter systems with the former. If this Tamron really does perform well it would certainly be tempting although the filter issue would still be there, a bit less range but the 16-35mm isn't great above 30mm anyway and for me its the 28mmish range that's more important.

 

[quiquae]

Am I the only person who was not impressed by the foreground bokeh on that page of text image? The back bokeh looked better.

 

[moreorless]

Am I the only person who was not impressed by the foreground bokeh on that page of text image? The back bokeh looked better.

Probably not a big issue on many shots for a lens like this though as the subject will need to be pretty close to push parts of the image out of focus.

 

[StudentOfLight]

This is a cool lens 8) However it also continues the trend of bigger (and heavier) ='better' ? ???

It appears to be an optically well-corrected, f/2.8, Ultra-Wide-Angle Zoom with IS. Could we realistically expect anything other than heavy?

 

[mrsfotografie]

One of the best things that I saw in this video was the microcontrast on that page of text. If you have watched his video on the Zeiss Otus 85, you will find that this text compares very nicely to the what the Otus did in similar situations, where he contrasted it with the 85L II. That microcontrast could mean some serious pop in shots taken for, say, wedding photography (that, to me, is one of the potentially most exciting applications for this lens).

Really? I actively avoid rectilinear ultrawides for people photography because of the egg-head phenomenon you get at the edges of the frame. That's why I like the fisheye for that - keeps people's heads round. In fact, when I have shot rectilinear, I've often added a massive amount of barrel distortion in post just for this reason.

In that sense I've found the native 'moustache' distortion of the Samyang 14mm to be very beneficial when there are people at the edge of the frame. Doing a lens correction on that one quite significantly stretches the edges (and makes it less 'wide' too). Natively it's relatively forgiving for people at the edges of the frame so for stuff that doesn't necessarily have to be too rectilinear I leave the lens correction off.