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Tamron 18-200mm VC Di III on NEX-7

Quentin_Bargate

Well-known member
thanks for the kind comments :)

The ever impressive Tamron 18-200mm continues to impress me:



Some perpective correction applied

 

kit laughlin

Subscriber Member
Quentin, to me your images look perfectly sharp; any sharper and they would look fake, but I acknowledge this is a matter of taste. What is the distortion like on the wide end—always a problem with every zoom, let alone superzoom, I have used.
 

roweraay

New member
I will be picking up my NEX7 on Monday and still debating about which lens should I get first....general purpose photography, video etc being what I would be looking to do.

Should I get the Zeiss 24/1.8 first or should it be the Tamron 18-200 or the Sony 18-200 ? Or should I get the Zeiss and pair it with the 18-55 kit and have that tide me over for a while, until the dust settles, and then get one of these super-zooms ? I have an upcoming trip (going to a seminar where I might shoot some video etc) to Arizona and thus hope to use this quite a bit.

A while back, I had a NEX5 along with the 18-55 and 16mm kit lenses and the LA-EA1 adapter, all of whom were gotten rid of, within a month or so of purchase, and now that some of the issues I had with the NEX system have been resolved (built-in EVF, availability of focus peaking etc), I am getting back into the NEX arena.

Or should I just get the LA-EA2 adapter and simply use my existing A-mount lenses (24-70ZA, 85ZA, 135ZA, 50/2.8 Macro, 70-300G etc) with it, supplemented with the 24/1.8 ?

Any thoughts appreciated. Thanks.
 

Quentin_Bargate

Well-known member
Michiel, Kit, both thanks - and yes there is some distortion, but not as bad as with some superzooms - in Phososhop lens correction, say around 2%. For example, I have corrected (for distortion and perspective) the Bishop's square shot above. To be honest it not the best lens if you want absolutely accurate architecural shots with a lot of messing around, but then is the NEX even the right camera for such work?

And Roweraay, If you have a trip coming up, the Tamron is more versatile than the Zeiss, but the Zeiss is a tad sharper and is faster. Personally I'd get the Tamron. I think the Tamron and the Sony 18-200 lenses are quite similar in trmms of sharpness but the /Tamron is usefully lighter and smaller - and comes in black! I have the LA-EA1 converter which is significantly smaller and lighter and is fine with SSM lenses like the 24-70, which is will autofocus with.

We are all different: for me the NEX-7 plus Tamron 18-200 makes a lot more sense as a travel kit than the NEX plus LA-EA2 and hunking great A mounts lenses.
 

roweraay

New member
Quentin, thanks for the feedback. Yes, getting the Tamron (or the Sony equivalent) makes better sense than going with a prime.....especially as an all-purpose first lens. As you pointed out, the silver color of the Sony is a big turn-off, and the Tamron thankfully comes in black. The size/weight difference is also significant between the two similarly specced products.

If I don't have any last minute change of mind (when I actually handle the lenses in person), I will be going with the Tamron (in black of course !), when I pick up the camera tomorrow. I have asked them to put aside the Tamron (black version), the Sony 18-200 and the Zeiss 24/1.8, intending to pickup one of them tomorrow.
 

roweraay

New member
Quentin, BTW, your pictures (both the camera with the lens mounted, and also the great pictures taken with the combo) are what tipped me over into seriously looking at the Tamron. I was all set to get the Sony, actually, prior to seeing this thread.

Thanks !
 

roweraay

New member
Got my NEX7 today and after a lot of hemming and hawing between the Sony 18-200, the Tamron 18-200 and the Zeiss 24/1.8, I finally came home with the Tamron. The Tamron is definitely a great lens and is clearly a better match (color-wise and size-wise) for the petite NEX7, than the Sony 18-200.

However, the Zeiss 24/1.8 is something that I cannot get out of my mind, since it seemed to be custom made for the camera !

I know that I will get the Zeiss and a super-zoom eventually, and it is just a matter of picking one of them up as my first lens, which in turn would be used during my upcoming trip. I just might go back to the store and swap the Tamron with the Zeiss tomorrow, if I don't change my mind again. :eek:
 

Rawfa

Active member
That lens doesn´t look as big as I thought it would. I´ve recently shot the Carnival here in Brazil with a manual 70-300m and ended up with my share of out of focus photos...the fact that I was in the middle of over 1000 people moving fast didn´t help. This lens would have been perfect for such an event. I can also see my self using it for wild life up to a certain extent. One thing that I really like about my 70-300mm that neither this nor the Sony 18-200mm have is the minimum focusing distance...as I can get REALLY close (though it´s nothing a raynox won´t be able to fix).
 

roweraay

New member
With len's which are SSM
Joe
With all lenses that have a built-in motor, which includes the SSM and SAM of Sony, the HSM of Sigma and also the Tamron lenses with a built-in motor.

The difference here is that the LA-EA1 will Autofocus with Contrast-Detect AF, which is of course slower than the Phase Detect AF used by a typical DSLR.

The LA-EA2 will autofocus with ALL lenses made for the A-mount, including ALL 3rd party A-mount lenses like from Sigma, Tamron, Tokina etc. The LA-EA2 will autofocus with Phase-Detect AF, like a typical DSLR. But since it has a mirror in the light path, it will divert some of that ight to the AF sensors, just like the other SLT cameras.

Then there are other considerations too. When shooting video, the ones that do it via the LA-EA2, would use Phase Detect AF and also have the aperture stopped down to f/3.5 (or the lens's largest aperture if it is smaller than f/3.5) etc, unless you shoot using the manual mode....while the LA-EA1 (in lenses with built-in motors) will behave exactly like it behaves when shooting video with the NEX7.

Thus there are pluses and downsides with either option.
 

Steve Fines

Member
Question; Does the Tamron support Sweep Panorama?

Michiel
Hey,

I don't own this lens, but have been thinking of getting one.

Reading other forums it seems that some percentage of people have found this lens not to work with the panorama on the nex7. For example this thread on dpr:

Tamron 18-200mm E-mount Pano & Blurred image is to be solved: Sony NEX Talk Forum: Digital Photography Review

I'm not sure if Sony would see this as a big enough deal to fix it in a firmware update, as I'm pretty sure there is no way for the end user to update the firmware on a lens except through the camera, which would have to be done by Sony.
 
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