It looks like a beautiful lens, with the new Tamron design, lots of controls and at 2/3 the weight of the 12-24 GM. I'm considering picking this up, but I have questions.
I'm most keen on understanding the centre to corner sharpness, but there is little meaningful info on image quality amongst the various creator videos, and not much in the way of written reviews and samples to date. And based on the little info on IQ available, I'm getting mixed messages. Corner sharpness doesn't look very good in videos with test charts (Frost, Peta, Dustin), but I think that's more a drawback of close-distance flat-field chart testing with ultra-wide angle lenses with field curvature like this one. A few other creators have commented the corners are "a little soft but okay", without showing good samples to back up the comments. And Northrup's review shows that the Tamron's corner sharpness is superior to the venerable 12-24 GM, which for me would be all the answer I need to move forward with it. So I have to wonder if Tony's 12-24 sample is any good. Which is the truth on sharpness of this lens?
Has anyone here actually bought or used this lens, and are able to share any experience with it (or samples images)?
chrisd999 wrote:
And Northrup's review shows that the Tamron's corner sharpness is superior to the venerable 12-24 GM, which for me would be all the answer I need to move forward with it. So I have to wonder if Tony's 12-24 sample is any good. Which is the truth on sharpness of this lens?
I too would like to see a detailed comparison and some relevant samples.
But I'm skeptical of a claim of it being sharper than the GM; that's a very tall order.
MikeEvangelist wrote:
I too would like to see a detailed comparison and some relevant samples.
But I'm skeptical of a claim of it being sharper than the GM; that's a very tall order.
Mike, it is pretty darn sharp to the corners even wide open. The problem with any ultrawide is curvature. I don’t own the Sony GM so cannot comment directly. What I can say is if you shoot a three-dimensional image at f2.8 with the Tammy, you can follow the focus curvature “wedge” to the edge of the frame and it’s pretty impressively sharp to the edges. Given how wide it is, by f5.6 DoF it’s essentially sharp corner to corner from about 25 feet to infinity. The corners fall off a little compared to the center, but the reality is they hold nearly as good as my 24-70/2.8 GM ii, a lens that’s probably the best zoom I’ve ever owned... (Edit: This bit of resolution falloff may in fact be more about rectilinear corner-edge pixel stretching than actual resolution loss.) I might put the Tamron half a notch behind the 24-70 GMii overall, but I have no issue believing it can meet or exceed the Sony 12-24 performance, especially given the sample variation claims on that particular lens.
I hope to get out today and shoot a bit. I will try to get a few good examples with the Tammy to share.
Here are some crops from actual type use. I'll give a full frame 12mm shot for the overall, then random crops from other captures. To understand the 20mm corner crop, I included it since it is about the worst this lens gets. Note that ALL images were focused on the main water tower itself.
Full 12mm shot
ILCE-7RM6TAMRON 12-20mm F2.8 A084 E lens12mmf/8.01/200s100 ISO0.0 EV
Center crop from above
Lower RH corner of above
This is the RH edge at f2.8
Here is the worst it gets at f8, 20mm corner
And just for f2.8 reference, center crop at 16mm f2.8
I’ll mostly be using that lens for landscape photography, where I typically stop down to between f/5.6 and f/11. I also plan to use it for astrophotography and photographing the aurora borealis next month.
Recently, however, I took it to Las Vegas to photograph the interiors of several resorts. I’m more interested in how the lens renders the scene as a whole than in closely examining the corners for fine detail. For my purposes, the lens works just splendidly but I understand your mileage may vary.
FYI, some images may have been previously posted in a diff thread.
eriet30 wrote:
I just spent 5 days shooting this lens with my 7r6 I am in love with it.... although I already lost the lens cap in a national park.
I wish it had a Lightroom profile but so far it rivals my 14gm which will go on sale
Well, the Tamron is a great performer alright but the GM 14mm is a faster lens, almost 2-stop faster. So, to be fair you need to stop down the GM lens to f/2.8 to get the two lenses more on even footing.
Thanks all for the excellent feedback (and sample images) on this lens. I picked one up today, and managed to take some test shots, but nothing post-worthy yet. Based on the test shots, I can tell my copy is equally sharp in all 4 corners, so it's a keeper. My first impressions are that it definitely does seem to rival the 12-24 GM (which I no longer own).
AGeoJO wrote:
Well, the Tamron is a great performer alright but the GM 14mm is a faster lens, almost 2-stop faster. So, to be fair you need to stop down the GM lens to f/2.8 to get the two lenses more on even footing.
I was actually planning on buying either the GM 14 or G 16 for dedicated astro due to them being 1-⅔ stops faster than f2.8 lenses. But after getting and testing it, I am literally blown away by how good this Tamron is wide open at f2.8 -- it, at least my copy, doesn't seem to lose anything corner to corner and through the center across the zoom range. I tested it this way specifically to see if I thought it could be pressed into the occasional astro use. And while the Sony G and GM 14,16 and 20 are probably better suited for astro due to their faster apertures, I remain optimistic this Tammy will serve well enough for my occasional use astro -- we will see next time I get up into the mountains.
Jack Flesher wrote:
I was actually planning on buying either the GM 14 or G 16 for dedicated astro due to them being 1-⅔ stops faster than f2.8 lenses. But after getting and testing it, I am literally blown away by how good this Tamron is wide open at f2.8 -- it, at least my copy, doesn't seem to lose anything corner to corner and through the center across the zoom range. I tested it this way specifically to see if I thought it could be pressed into the occasional astro use. And while the Sony G and GM 14,16 and 20 are probably better suited for astro due to their faster apertures, I remain optimistic this Tammy will serve well enough for my occasional use astro -- we will see next time I get up into the mountains.
Ha, like you, I was tempted by te two faster Sony lenses. By the end, similar to your situation, as well, I am sticking to my original plan of relying on the Tamron to pull off what I will require it to do. Actually, I like the additional 2 or 4mm of the Tamron lens for my purpose more than the faster lenses.
AGeoJO wrote:
Ha, like you, I was tempted by te two faster Sony lenses. By the end, similar to your situation, as well, I am sticking to my original plan of relying on the Tamron to pull off what I will require it to do. Actually, I like the additional 2 or 4mm of the Tamron lens for my purpose more than the faster lenses.
Indeed! I am still a bit awed by how much wider 12mm is than 14! Plus having the ability to adjust a superwide composition is pretty convenient too. Not to mention the fact it’s about the same size and weight as the 14 GM.
I took the Tamron 12-20 for a quick spin yesterday, and I'm definitely impressed. I didn't take time to do any controlled shots to demonstrate IQ, but I did take some shots in my typical style, Here is one shot at 20mm and f3.2. There are no distortion or vignetting corrections, only some light exposure, etc edits in LR. There is plenty of sharpness in the focal plane (as much as the 12-24 GM), but I did notice the depth of field across all focal lengths seems more shallow than I expected for the given f-stop, which is maybe explains some comments on soft corners? Corners are plenty sharp enough at f5.6 and f8. Autofocus is accurate, quick and silent. It's a keeper for sure.
Be sure to click on the link for a higher resolution version on flickr.
