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Tamron 35-150mm F2-2.8 Di III VXD Hands-on Review: A versatile zoom lens with excellent performance across the board
posted Wednesday, January 26, 2022 at 4:00 PM EDT
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Tamron 35-150mm F2-2.8 VXD Hands-on Review
The Tamron 35-150mm F2-2.8 Di III VXD lens is a very impressive zoom lens for full-frame Sony E-mount cameras. The lens has a maximum aperture of F2.0 at 35mm, which gradually slows down to a still-fast F2.8. Given its focal length range and speed, the lens is well-suited to many different types of photographs. Given the lens's impressive autofocus performance and good zoom range, it works for portraiture, events, landscapes, and even action. It's sort of a do-it-all type zoom lens, albeit with a faster aperture and different focal length range than more standard zooms, such as a 24-105mm F4 or a 24-200mm F3.5-6.3.
The new Tamron 35-150mm F2-2.8 isn't Tamron's first 35-150mm zoom lens. The company released a 35-150mm F2.8-4 zoom for DSLR cameras a few years back. By switching to a mirrorless lens mount, the E-mount, the lens can achieve a faster aperture with the same focal length range. There is a downside to a fast lens like this, though. It ends up being heavy. The Tamron 35-150mm F2-2.8 weighs 1,165 grams (41.1 oz.), which is quite heavy when mounted to a Sony Alpha-series camera. On the A7R IV I used, the lens ended up feeling slightly front-heavy.
In exchange for the weight, you get fantastic quality across the board. The lens has great build quality, and it feels excellent and robust in the hands. The image quality is even more impressive. The lens has a lot of glass, 21 elements across 15 groups. The lens includes a trio of molded glass aspherical elements and four LD lens elements. The lens is very sharp across the focal length range and when shooting wide open. Bokeh is also very nice, delivering a pleasing, soft out-of-focus rendition.
There's much more to discuss in detail with the Tamron 35-150mm F2-2.8 lens, including its autofocus performance and additional image quality analysis. Head to our Tamron 35-150mm F2-2.8 Di III VXD Hands-on Review to read all about it. You can also download full-resolution RAW and JPEG images in our Gallery.
