Most people will be testing this new ultra-wide on the night sky and chasing the Milky Way, but I live in the heart of Melbourne CBD and so instead of stars I decided to capture a few views on the streets. I made a video for YouTube, filled with a tonne of monochrome images from my adventures. It's one of my favie collections.
I was lucky enough to have this lens for a whole month, and got to know it really well. The lens has a tonne of buttons and switches, but mostly all I cared about was how bright it captures when fully wide open, and how sharp the images are. Tamron got it right on this lens.
On the streets of Melbourne I enjoyed the AF performance, and the light weight design. I was expecting something much heavier, given the specs, but somehow Tamron have engineered both light weight and great optics. You will see a LOT written about this lens in the years to come. It's a new high bar for fast and wide.
Later in the year I'll head back to Norway and chase some auroras, so I'll try to grab a loan of the 12-20mm then as well, and see how it compares to my favie 14mm glass. I am excited about that, because 12mm is really sweet in the Arctic with auroras and so far I've not found the perfect lens for me. I think this Tamron might be the one though.
Anyway, I was grateful to tackle a little of Melbourne in the winter light and to have such a wide perspective for that. A big challenge, but a fun one. Shooting wide angle is always hard, because you're juggling a lot more variables with a composition. Things creep into the shot you didn't plan on. You have to cover a lot more ground inside your head. Ultra-wide takes this challenge to another level, compared to just regular wide. And 12mm ultra-wide is the big daddy of ultra-wide!
I'll drop some details and specs below, but this lens gets two thumbs up from me!
– Ewen
Tamron 12-20mm F2.8 for Full Frame
- Sony E-mount and Nikon Z-mount
- Iris Lock
- MF Lock
- Zoom Lock
- Click On/Off
- Two function buttons
- Three custom settings
- AF/MF switch
- USB port for firmware updates
- Hidden away at the rear of the lens is a filter slot for loading in NDs
- The zoom is internal to the case, with 12 diaphragm blades,
- The build quality is very good, the weight and size is very impressive for such a wide AF zoom
- Close focus performance is very impressive by the way, getting within 18cm when shooting wide and 28cm when shooting at 20mm focal length.
- It's very very light and very very quiet. I cannot hear the AF at all.
- The lens cap design is awesome and actually works. Kudos to Tamron for this.
- No stabe
- You can also connect to an app to program the custom function etc.
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