Photography News Issue 56

Photography News | Issue 56 | photographynews.co.uk

First tests

Specs Tamron 70-210mm f/4 Di VC USD £700 skills (and what we call acceptably sharp) and 210mm is quite a long telephoto, but that said this lens’s VC system performed well and shows a clear benefit. I tested the lens on a Nikon D850 and on this full-frame aperture lenses

Fast have their upsides as well as their downsides and if you want to travel light, the extra glass that such lenses need means that bulk is certainly a negative. This is why lens makers give you options. In Tamron’s range, if you want a fast aperture telezoom, then go for the 70- 200mm f/2.8 Di VC USD G2 currently on sale for £1349, but if you prefer to keep your weight down this new Tamron 70- 210mm f/4 Di VC USD looks to be a fine option. For a start, it is 650g lighter and perhaps more importantly, at £700 it is close to half the price of the f/2.8; so while having a f/2.8 zoom is nice, there is a significant saving to be had. It is also full-frame and APS-C format compatible and sold in Canon and Nikon fittings currently. Tamron has really upped its game in recent years and this new lens shares the good looks, smooth mechanics and cosmetics of the current range. So, there is the champagne coloured rear ring with a lens mount that has a rubber seal to keep moisture out, the lens’s finish is a smooth, lustrous matt black and a 4EV benefit VC (Vibration Compensation) system is fitted to combat camera shake.

DSLR it balances very nicely. The combination’s centre of gravity is close to the camera body so the combination sits very nicely in the hands. You get a very stable combination so handholding at relatively slow shutter speeds, even without VC, is perfectly feasible. Assuming that 1/250sec is the slowest shutter speed for shooting at 210mm without any camera shake defeating technology, the 4EV benefit claimed benefit of Tamron’s VC systemmeans in theory that a shutter speed of 1/15sec is possible for sharp, handheld shooting. To test this I took sets of five handheld shots at 210mm with VC on and off using shutter speeds of 1/10sec, 1/15sec, 1/20sec and 1/40sec, and a control shot at 1/250sec. Images were processed with default unsharp mask and viewed at 100% on screen. At 1/10sec, only a couple of the VC-ed shots were acceptably sharp and good enough for use at small sizes, but none of the non-VC were much use, which is no surprise. Moving up to 1/15sec and 1/20sec proved more successful with three out of five VC shots looking good. At 1/40sec four out of five VC shots were sharp, with only one non-VC shot looking okay. It is worth bearing in mind that we are all different with our handholding

Price

Images Test pictures were shot on a Nikon D850with Raws processed through Lightroomwith default sharpening. The camera was mounted on a Novo Explora T20 carbon fibre tripod and the shutter firedwith a cable remote release. Finally, the lens’s coating does a fine job keeping flare and ghosting minimal and even shots with the sun in frame were flare-free and contrast remained at a high level. WC Autofocus is swift, accurate and barely audible thanks to Tamron’s USD motor and the use of Dual MPU (Micro Processing Unit) technology. Used on the D850, focusing proved accurate in a wide range of lighting types from flat lighting to high contrast situations, with no searching or uncertainty. The lens’s internal AF system means the lens’s overall size remains constant. A sound performance is what you can expect optically too. Actually it’s more than sound and the lens is capable across the focal length range and at most apertures. It is only at the two smallest apertures that diffraction results in softer images, notably at 70mm and 100mm in our test shots, but as a general rule telephoto users concentrate on using apertures at the wider end. At 70mm, sharpness is good from f/4 and while improvement is gained by stopping down it was an impressive start with crisp, contrasty images produced at the centre and towards the edges. For best overall edge to edge sharpness, f/8 is the aperture to use and here you get well resolved, very detailed images. F/16 is capable of decent images too but stopping down further does mean softer images so best avoided. Zooming to 100mm delivers another capable performance especially one or two f/stops down. F/4 gives a decent showing but stopping to f/5.6 brings a significant benefit in sharpness and this is probably the best overall aperture value at this focal length. Further stopping to f/8 and f/11 still gives a decent performance with good sharpness and detail resolution so if you want more depth-of-field that is no problem, but for best sharpness f/5.6 is the value to go for. Of the three focal lengths tested I thought 210mm did best overall. It starts well at a high level at f/4. Fine detail looks good and a little unsharp mask improves the already lovely looking images. Stop down to f/5.6 and the picture, literally, looks even better and that level of quality is maintained at f/8 and f/11 before gradually falling away. It is worth saying that the drop off in image sharpness at f/22 and f/32 was not as significant as with the shorter focal lengths. It’s atypical for longer focal length to outperform shorter ones but that was the case here.

£700

Format Full-frame, APS-C Mount Canon EF, Nikon F Construction

20 elements in 14 groups Special lens elements Three low dispersion elements Coatings Fluorine protective coating on front element Filter size 67mm Aperture range F/4-32 Diaphragm Nine blades Internal focus Yes Focusing Autofocus with USD (Ultrasonic Silent Drive). Full-time manual override Minimum focus 95cm Focus limiter No Maximummagnification 1:3.2 Distance scale Yes, metres and feet Depth-of-field scale No Image stabiliser Vibration compensation Tripod collar Optional collar with Arca Swiss foot Lens hood Supplied Weather-sealed Moisture-resistant construction Dimensions 174x76mm Weight 850g Contact Intro2020.co.uk

70mm

100mm

210mm

F/4

F/5.6

F/8

Verdict

F/11

Tamron’s latest 70-210mm f/4 telezoom has a great deal going for it and if you want a high- quality, compact telezoom at a tempting price, it is a clear contender for your shortlist. It delivers a capable optical performance with the highlight being the 200mm setting which was impressive and handling rates highly, with the smooth AF and VC systems combining well together to deliver quality results.

F/16

F/22

F/32

Pros Price, handling, AF Cons No tripod collar supplied