Updated Tamron 35-150/2-2.8 Usage Page

It has been about a year since I purchased the Tamron 35-150/2-2.8.

I’ve been using it with the Z6II, mainly for outdoor location-based assignments, and have updated its equipment discussion page with some further observations and thoughts that I have on this lens after using it.

Hope the information may be useful to anyone looking to get the lens (or trying to find out more about the lens).

Tamron 35-150mm f/2-2.8 VXD for Nikon Z-mount

This was one of the lenses that I had been envious of Sony users for a long time, and when the Z-mount version was announced in September 2023 I was definitely excited and grateful that Tamron had decided on this lens as one of the earlier ports to the Z-mount.

Having this lens would be a great help in solving my problem of having to switch between the 24-120/4S and the 70-200/2.8S during shoots - not that these 2 lens are slouches, and in fact I love using both of the lenses very much, but if I could have one lens that could do the work of both it would make me more efficient and also allow more options for me to include things like prime lenses in my double set-up.

That being said, having had a slightly negative experience being an early adopter (looking at you Z8 strap lugs), I decided to wait a bit for normal user reviews to roll in to see how the lens performs with the Z-mount bodies.

Based on the E-mount version’s reviews and user feedback, the general consensus on the lens has been positive with regards to the sharpness and overall image rendering, and I do not expect much difference between the E-mount and the Z-mount variants regarding the image quality.

Personally the few areas that I had interest or concerns in are:

• How fast and accurate is the autofocus in normal modes and subject detection modes for Z bodies?

• How fast and accurate is the autofocus in pin-point mode?

• How prone is the lens to zoom creeping?

• How weather resistant is the lens? (The exposed USB port seem like a weak spot to me)

After renting the lens for a bit to determine if it could properly act as a replacement for my 24-120/4S and 70-200/2.8S pair for assignments, there are some interesting observations that I encountered:

• The lens boots up slow - even slower than the 24-120/4S. However, it is even way slower when waking up from sleep, so much so that many times I thought I had forgotten to turn on the Z6II I was using it with.

• AF-S, AF-C and subject detection modes on the Z6II were pretty consistent and accurate, so I do not have much issues there with it.

• AF-S pinpoint on the other hand is a slightly different story - perhaps the motor is not properly suited for racking contrast autofocus, but it feels sluggish and does miss focus a little more than I would like (I’d say in the range of 5% or so during my time with it)

• Field curvature seems pretty strong on this lens, so using focus-and-recompose methods (even if it is a slight recompose) tend to make the initial focal plane soft - best to frame first and move the focus point (or use subject detection AF modes) to the intended subject and focus.

• With proper focusing techniques, images are sharp in the focus zone and background blur is generally pleasing. While it lacks the minute detail acuity of the Nikon S-line lenses, the lens resolves detail very well and I think deserves praise for being able to do so given such a wide zoom range.

• While I mentioned that background blur is generally pleasing, specular highlights sometimes show strong signs of onion rings within them.

• The lens hood does feel and look like it can be scratched really easily.

• I still do not like the idea of an exposed USB port.

While I think I might need some time getting used to its quirks (especially the field curvature), I am definitely pleased with the performance of the lens, and can see it being my primary workhorse lens with the 24-120/4S and 70-200/2.8S helping to fill in certain niche use cases.

After returning my rental unit I went on to purchase one copy for myself, and am definitely looking forward to working with the lens and trying out new combinations of set-ups to improve my workflow and quality of work!

Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 Di III VXD G2 for Nikon Z-mount Announced

Tamron has just announced their latest Z-mount lens, the wide-aperture standard 28-75mm f/2.8 Di III VXD G2 lens.

Official press release here in English and Japanese.

According to reports and reviews of the E-mount version, this G2 lens has significant performance and handling improvements over the G1 lens that precedes it. And given that the G1 lens acted as the basis of the current Nikon Z 28-75mm f/2.8 lens, I would expect similar improvements of the new lens over the Nikon version.

With increasing lens prices throughout the board, I thought that it was a very refreshing breather to see this new lens being released in Japan at reasonable prices, similar to the current Nikon Z 28-75/2.8, and not that different from the E-mount version of the G2 lens at launch.

To be honest I was quite surprised about this announcement, since this lens was manufactured by Tamron under licensing agreement with Nikon, even though it would be competing directly with the Nikon Z 28-75/2.8, which is still an active model in the lens lineup.

I think there is no doubt that the Nikon Z 28-75/2.8 is based on the G1 version of the Tamron lens, but when it came in Nikon colors, there were many theories floating around the internet about who was the one actually building the lenses, and similarly predictions about the collaboration and agreement between the two companies started to find their way around too.

I do not think any one except for the parties directly involved in the negotiation and manufacturing processes would know exactly how the Nikon Z 28-75/2.8 was built.

So now that we have the 2 lenses in very similar price brackets, and assuming this G2 lens provides improvements over the Nikon Z lens similar to that in the E-mount camp, image quality and AF performance would definitely favor this new G2 lens, making the current Z 28-75/2.8 a tough sell unless serious sales or cashback campaigns are put in place to move them.

If not for pricing difference, I guess the only reasons one could still consider the Z 28-75/2.8 would be:

• Preference over the Nikon-styled rings and barrel material, over the Tamron-styled rings and barrel material

• Nikon’s SIC lens coating vs Tamron’s BBAR lens coating

• Nikon’s weather sealing vs Tamron’s weather sealing

• Being able to update the lens directly via camera body (Nikon) vs being able to update the lens directly via USB-C (Tamron)

Nevertheless, the launch of this lens also set an important precedence - it shows like Nikon does allow third party lens manufacturers to license lenses even if they are direct competition to Nikon’s own offerings.

This would mean that until now it has been the lens manufacturers who are unwilling to build things in the Z-mount, rather than being restricted by Nikon.

Anyway, time to go back to my previous post to add a little edit in the available standard zoom lenses for the Z-mount.