LensTip.com

The following chart presents a comparison between basic parameters of the Tamron 70-180 mm f/2.8 Di III VC VXD G2, its predecessor, the classic Leica R, and two other Sony FE version 70-200 mm models. It's obvious that both Tamrons are here the smallest, physically the lightest, and they come with the smallest filter diameter. The new Tamron additionally impresses with its minimum focusing distance.

In the photo below the Tamron 70-180 mm f/2.8 G2 is positioned next to the Tamron 28-75 mm f/2.8 Di III VXD G2, and the Sigma A 35 mm f/1.4 DG HSM.

The tested lens starts with a metal mount with contacts and a 32.5 x 23 mm frame. Inside the frame you find a rear element of the lens, 31 mm in diameter. The element doesn't move and is situated about 1 cm deep under that frame. The tube around it is properly blackened, well-matted, and ribbed. From this side everything looks very well indeed.

Please Support Us If you enjoy our reviews and articles, and you want us to continue our work please, support our website by donating through PayPal. The funds are going to be used for paying our editorial team, renting servers, and equipping our testing studio; only that way we will be able to continue providing you interesting content for free.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - advertisement - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The proper body of the lens is covered by black plastics; it starts with a smooth ring that doesn't move with a silver stripe, a marker, making an alignment with a camera easier, its serial number, and information that the lens was produced in Japan.

The ring increases its diameter very quickly and already on its enlargened part you find an USB-C port that allows you to connect the lens to a computer, allot different functions to its buttons, correct the autofocus, or just upgrade the newest version of software with the help of the Tamron Lens Utility program

A manual focus ring is the next part – it is 17 mm wide, completely covered by ribbing, but without any distance or/and DOF scale. The ring, a focus-by-wire construction, moves smoothly and is properly damped. Even if you turn it fast, running through the whole distance range needsa turn through an angle of about 180 degrees. When you turn it slowly you can even reach about 480 deg. Both these values allow you very precise settings.

Further on you see an immobile part of the barrel with the logo of the company, parameters of the lens, the filter diameter amounting to 67 mm, the name of the model (A063), and information that the instrument was designed in Japan. On the left side there is a round, programmable button and a stabilization mode control switch.

A zoom ring, 54 mm wide, most of its surface covered by rubber ribs, is the next part of the lens. It comes with focal length markings at 70, 100, 135, and 180 mm.

After moving this ring from the 70 to the 180 mm focal length the lens gets longer by 28 mm as a uniform plastic tube, ending with the front element system, is pulled out.

The front element, 60 mm in diameter, is surrounded by a non-rotating flter thread, 67 mm in diameter, and a hood mount.

When it comes to the optical construction you deal here with 20 elements positioned in 15 groups. The producers weren't skimpy when it comes to special glass elements. Inside you can find three LD (low dispersion) elements, three aspherical ones and one made of XLD (extra low dispersion) glass. Inside the construction there is also a round aperture with nine blades that can be closed down to the value of f/22 at the maximum. It's worth adding that the construction of the Tamron is moisture-resistant and the lens features a hydrophobic fluorine coating that is supposed to protect the outer part of its front element from oil residue of fingerprints.

Buyers get in the box with the lens: both caps, and a petal-type hood.

Image stabilization

The producer declares that the Tamron's 70-180 mm f/2.8 G2 is equipped with the optical VC5 stabilization unit. In order to check its efficiency we took several dozen photos at the 180 mm focal length for every exposure time ranging from 1/250 to 1/5 of a second with the stabilization switched on and off. Then we determined the percentage of fuzzy photos at every exposure time. It is presented as the exposure time function graph below (expressed in EV and 0 EV is the equivalent of 1/200 of a second).

As you see, the maximum distance between both curves reaches near 3.3 EV and we estimate the efficiency of the tested lens’s stabilization module to be as good as that. The result is sensible, not giving you any reason for being speechless with delight, because the best lenses of this class can have results of 4 EV and more, but also being nothing to carp about.