Tamron
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A telephoto lens is ideal for a city walking tour, especially when it’s in one of the country’s most popular tourist destinations. Will Cheung enjoys Cambridge in company with the new Tamron 70-180mm f/2.8 Di III VXD T amron’s holy trinity of fast zoom lenses is complete with the arrival of the 70-180mm f/2.8 Di III
any particular route planned and I was happy to amble, but I thought the Backs would be good in the evening light. Also, who can resist a few shots of the River Cam? And with the current situation, I expected the water to be free of punts – of course a highlight for many visitors – and I was hoping to add some people-free shots to my collection. For my shoot, I was blessed with sunlight diffused by thin cloud, which was perfect for general views, but I knew the city’s streets would mostly be in shade and the light levels lower, so the usefulness of the fast f/2.8 aperture was definitely a benefit. It helped me to keep to fast shutter speeds and so reduced the risk of any camera shake to a minimum. That said, the good balance of the lens, supported by the camera’s in- body image stabiliser, also helped to counteract any potential problems when I preferred to stop down for more depth-of-field. Basically, I was confident my shots were going to be sharp, however I wanted to interpret a scene.
RIGHT King’s College Chapel with the adjacent Gibbs’ Building looking resplendent in the late evening sun. Shot with the Tamron 70-180mm f/2.8 Di III VXD at 138mm and an exposure of 1/320sec at f/14, ISO 200
VXD. It joins the 17-28mm f/2.8 Di III RXD and 28-75mm f/2.8 Di III RXD, offering coverage from 17mm ultra-wide to 180mm telephoto in three compact, lightweight, high- performing zooms – all with a fast constant f/2.8 maximum aperture. Tamron has designed these optics to share the same 67mm accessory thread, which makes life easier with using filters. Picking up the 70-180mm f/2.8 Di III VXD, the instant reaction was pleasant surprise, because it’s so much lighter than a typical fast aperture telezoom, around 500g lighter. On a Sony A7R IV body, the lens balances very well and it is designed to utilise the camera’s key autofocusing features, such as face/ eye detect, as well as benefit from the body’s integral image stabiliser. The pairing was ideal for my evening photo walk around Cambridge city centre. I didn’t have
“The lens balances very well and it is designed toutilise the camera’s key autofocusing features, suchas face/eye detect”
SPECS › Price £1349
› Mount availability Sony E › Optical construction 19 elements in 14 groups › Special elements Includes XLD (eXtra Low Dispersion), LD (Low Dispersion), GM (Glass MoldedAspherical) and hybrid aspherical lens elements › Moisture and dust resistant Yes › Autofocus motor VXD (Voice- coil eXtreme-torque Drive), manual focus override for instant manual focus correction, internal focusing › Aperture range F/2.8 to f/22 › Minimum focus Autofocus 85cm › Minimummanual focus 27cm wide, 85cm tele › Diaphragm Nine blades › Maximummagnification ratio Autofocus: 1:4.6, manual focus (wide): 1:2, manual focus (tele): 1:4.6 › Coatings eBAND (extended Bandwidth andANgular Dependency), BBAR-G2 (Broad- BandAnti-Reflection), fluorine-, oil- and water-repellent coat on front lens element › Filter size 67mm › Zoom lock Yes › Dimensions (dxl) 81x149mm › Weight 810g › Contact tamron.eu/uk
Wide and standard lenses are perfect for capturing more of the environment, but there’s a downside to that, too, and compositions can appear cluttered and messy. For that reason, I prefer telezooms for urban walks that allow cleaner compositions with a natural perspective. It’s easier to pick out and make more of interesting details, too. Less than one quarter of a turn of the smooth-action zoom barrel takes you from the shortest to the longest focal length, so fine-tuning compositions was precise and fast. In use, during zooming, the lens itself grows by just over 3cm, so not much – and there is the option of a zoom lock at the 70mm setting. Autofocusing is handled by Tamron’s innovative VXD (Voice- coil eXtreme-torque Drive), a linear motor designed for this lens, and actually this is the brand’s first lens
ABOVE The River Cam can be very busy throughout the year normally, but in these exceptional times it was a quiet scene until a lone canoeist appeared. Shot from the Garret Hostel Bridge, there’s Clare Bridge in the foreground and King’s College Bridge behind. The Tamron 70-180mm f/2.8 Di III VXD was set at its longest 180mm setting for this shot with an exposure of 1/200sec at f/8, ISO 200
24 Photography News | Issue 78
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