Photography News 75 WEB

First test

PRICE: £399

TAMRON.EU Tamron 20mm f/2.8 Di III OSD M1:2 One of a suite of small, light Sony-fit wide-angle primes, this Tamron lens promises great sharpness and close focusing

SPECS › Price £399 › In the box Tamron 20mm f/2.8 Di III OSDM1:2 › Format 35mm full frame, Sony FE › Mount/s Sony E › Construction 10 elements in 9 groups › Special lens elements One LD (LowDispersion) › Coatings BBAR (Broad Band Anti-Reflection) › Filter size 67mm › Aperture range f/2.8-22 › Diaphragm 7 blades › Autofocus Yes (with Optimized Silent Drive) › Manual focus Yes › Internal focus No › Minimum focus 11cm › Focus limiter No › Maximummagnification 0.5x › Distance scale No › Depth-of-field scale No › Image stabilizer No › Weather-sealed Yes › Other key features Non-linear manual focus › Dimensions 64x73mm › Weight 220g › Contact tamron.eu

This ultra wide-angle prime for Sony bodies is designed to be small, light and share features with others in the range for seamless handling. 20mm is a good choice for landscapes and interiors, but its minimum focus distance makes it handy for wide-angle close ups, too. We tested one on a Sony A7 III. At 220g, and 64mm long, there’s not a lot of the 20mm f/2.8 Di III OSD M1:2; but it’s well built, with dust and moisture seals, and a metal mount. It’s by no means a small lens, but it’s travel friendly. No complaints there. The barrel is plastic and it has no AF/MF or focus limiter buttons, and no focusing or depth-of-field info. Most won’t miss the latter, but not having a physical AF/MF button means you need to switch to manual using menus

– not as quick as a button. A focus limiter, while not vital, would have fitted in with the close-up functions. The only input on the barrel is the manual focus ring, which falls nicely under the fingers as you cradle the camera. It’s well grooved and turns smoothly, and I found manual adjustments could be made with good precision, especially working with the A7 III’s focus peaking or magnified view. It’s not a mechanical ring, so feels less connected than one of those, but it’s something I got used to quickly. It’s also a non-linear mechanism, so adjustment depends on speed of rotation, not amount of turn. A fast turn pushes focus from near to far in about four twists; slow turns takes much longer, so are more accurate.

The close focusing is very handy. ‘M1:2’ translates to half life-size reproduction at the closest setting of 11cm, which is only about 1.5cm from the end of the lens. It’s not true macro, but still provides great detail. AF performance is adequate, if a little hesitant, and not very fast. Comparing it to Sony’s own 12-24mm f/4 GM, it’s noticeably slower, and even more so against the 24-70mm f/2.8 GM. That said, both are considerably more expensive. Aside from the delay, I didn’t have any problems focusing and it worked well with the A7 III’s eye and face detect options, locking on to subjects well, even at f/2.8. The lens has an Optimized Silent Drive, but while there’s no whirring or grinding from the mechanism, it still clicks as it focuses. Image sharpness is where the lens excels. It’s very sharp in the centre at f/2.8 and appeared to hit a peak there at f/4. Edge-to-edge sharpness was best at f/5.6, though it’s still very good up to f/11, and doesn’t fall off much at the smaller apertures. There’s obvious vignetting wide open, but it’s gone after f/5.6, and little sign of flare or fringing. One problem area is distortion. There’s lots of barrel distortion which is especially obvious shooting interiors. You can correct this in the camera, but that’s at the expense of effective focal length as the image is processed and cropped to remove it. KS

In our testing the 20mm f/2.8 Di III performed very well in terms of image sharpness. You can expect to use it wide open without worry, while it’s sharpest at f/4. Centre-to- edge sharpness is best at f/5.6.

F/2.8

ABOVE The 20mm f/2.8 lends itself to landscape and interior work, but make sure you use it with Sony’s Lens Comp function switched on to combat the notable barrel distortion

F/4

F/5.6

Verdict This is a good lens for the right photographer. F/2.8 isn’t massively bright, but it’s useful in low light, and is an improvement on that offered by kit zooms. Sony has just announced a 20mm f/1.8 G but it’s £950 so you are paying for speed, although there’s the Samyang AF 18mm f/2.8 FE or AF 14mm f/2.8 as competition. Either way its sharpness and close focusing stands out, and despite themixedAF and barrel distortion, it’s unlikely to disappoint for under £400.

F/8

F/11

PROS Size, weight, price, minimum focus, sharpness CONS AF not fast or silent, barrel distortion

F/16

F/22

Our thanks to Hire a Camera for the loan of the Sony A7R III used in this review hireacamera.com

90 Photography News | Issue 75

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