A day at Christianshavn with Tamron 28-200 f2.8-5.6 and Sony a7RIV

I love new gear!

In the bginning of june we were in Christianshavn where I was the first in Denmark to shoot pictures with Tamron’s brand new 28-200mm “all in one zoom” also called Tamron 28-200mm F/2.8-5.6 Di III RXD. Do I have to say it was a super cool day?

The new zoom is great. It starts at 28mm and f2.8 and ends at 200mm f5.6 which is quite impressive. In fact, it’s the first all-in-one zoom in the world that starts at f2.8 and that is pretty cool.

In the past, “all in one zooms” was something where you strongly compromised on quality. Either it was lenses where you started at f4 or more, or where the image quality had deteriorated. There have been a few “all in one zooms” where the quality was in order, but then they also cost a fortune. I am thinking here, among others, of the Canon’s 35-350mm. The Tamron 28-200mm f2.8-5.6 for Sony E-mount costs just under 7000,- including vat, which I think is very reasonable, seeing what you get.

All images here in the blog post are shot with tamron 28-200mm f2.8-5.6 on a Sony a7RIV. All handheld.

Below is  my first video with the new Tamron 28-200mm F/2.8-5.6 Di III RXD. There are more photos and my thoughts about the lens after the video…

Video © 2020 Litemotions

Sony a7RIV – 1/1250 sec – f5.6 – 117mm

General about the lens

The Tamron 28-200mm f2.8-5.6 is a bright, compact and lightweight standard zoom lens for Sony E socket and is the same size as the Tamron 28-75mm f2.8. It has the same auto focus motor “Rapid eXtra-silent stepping Drive, RXD” as the Tamron 70-180mm f2.8 making it silent and ultra fast in focus. This is also the case in video mode. It is built for full-frame, but can also be used on APS-C cameras.

The lens has a very high optical quality and makes a delicious bokeh (background blur). Both in wide shots at 28mm (19cm close-up),  but also on the eg. 135mm and 200mm (80cm).

Tamron 28-200mm f2.8-5.6 supports both Sony’s Eye-AF and DMF (Direct Manual Focus)

It also has a “Lock button” that allows you to lock zoom at 28mm when you have it in a strap over your shoulder. This button also comes from the Tamron 70-180mm f2.8.

The lens has the same finish as Tamron’s others; 17-28mm, 28-75mm and 70-180mm. I.e. the black-grey finish with black rubber as zoom and focus ring and weather navigation .

Aperture change

The only downside to this lens is that it’s not a fixed aperture value. But it’s like a given when you decide. Here are the aperture values you zoom in:

f2.8 from 28mm – f3.2 from 31mm – f3.5 from 45mm – f4.0 from 51mm
f4.5 from 75mm – f5.0 from 110mm – f5.6 from 140mm

Zoom

The Tamron 28-200mm F/2.8-5.6 Di III RXD has a great zoom range. 28mm to the full 200mm as described above. Below you will see an example of 28, 50, 70, 100, 135 and 200. I left out 35mm as it is very close to 28 and the picture below is nicer with an even number of examples. Bear with me.

Sony a7RIV – 1/1000 sec – f5.6 – 200mm

Video with Tamron 28-200mm F/2.8-5.6 Di III RXD

 Yesterday I got a little video shot with the new lens. It was a good experience as I felt at home from video productions with the other Tamron Sony FE lenses.

 I went to Skovshoved Havn to shoot some auto iso, to precisely smooth out the disadvantage of the variable aperture. I was looking forward to that. Most people’s attitude is… “ah it doesn’t have fixed aperture, so it doesn’t work for video”. “It’s unprofessional.” Fortunately, I do not care much about norms, that is why it had to be tested.

Aperture switch in video mode

 This lens does not, as I said, have a fixed aperture. So what do you do if you want to shoot video? Then you can’t zoom during shooting as the aperture changes and this will change the lighting in the recording. That’s why I tried to put it on auto ISO and there I got some smooth ISO changes when I zoomed in. At a shutter time of 1/50s indoors from ISO 100 to ISO 500- It seemed quite impeccable and you could not see the transitions between the ISO values. I also tried it a bit Skowshoved Havn and the result is included in the video below. The video also includes a focus test and an auto ISO test in a controlled environment. Enjoy.