Tamron’s 28-75 f/2.8 G2 Lens. Completely Customizable! What does that mean?

Hi, this is Jay P. Morgan. Today on The Slanted Lens we are here in Santa Monica. We’ve got Tamron’s new 28-75mm. This is a G2 version. It’s about three years since the first version of this lens came out on the market. It was an incredible lens. People have bought it because it’s just a great mainstay. It’s that e-mount, excellent price point and f/2.8. But this lens, I think, is probably a little faster with the autofocus and maybe a little bit sharper. So let’s take a look at it and see exactly what we got.

We met a gentleman out here that comes out and feeds the pigeons every day at the same time. And we gave him a little bit of money to help him feed his pigeons. But he says it’s his calling in life. So we’ll take a few pictures of him. Then we’ll get out there and see what else we got. But let’s take a look at that 28-75 f/2.8 G2. So let’s get started and see what we can do.

So this is a standard zoom. This is kind of the all-around walk around lens at a 28-75mm. Which I do love the fact that it’s a 28-75mm because it gives you just a little tighter look. And I love that about it. But it is in the trinity. This is kind of the normal walk-around lens. But it’s a slightly longer lens. A little closer to a portrait lens, which I like that about it, but it is in that category. It’s just a great lens. It’s probably a first lens most people buy after a 50 millimeter or the kit lens that came with their camera.

So it does have the 67 millimeter and most all the lenses in this E-Series from Tamron have that 67 millimeter. It just makes it easy to swap the filters and to work out from one filter set. If you’re using any kind of gradations for sun going down, polarizers and that it’s all 67 millimeter.

So this lens is very sharp and the corners at f/2.8 are sharper than the first generation. So if you look at this image, look at the corners, it’s just extremely sharp in those corners all the way out at f/2.8. Certainly by the time you get down to f/4 or f/5.6 this lens is very sharp. That’s probably one of the main kind of upgrades with this lens. And I think that makes it worthwhile, is the sharpness. It’s slightly sharper than the first generation. Also the autofocus is very fast. I think those two things in my mind make this lens worth stepping up to.

So this lens has a 7.1 inch minimum focus distance. Which gives you a 1:2.7 macro reproduction. So it’s going to give you some macro capabilities. It’s just so close on that 28 millimeters. You can get it within, I mean 7.1 inches is from the sensor. So basically the lens hood is on top of her feet when I get that close. So I get on her eyes right here. I’m super close to her face when I get those shots of her face. It just gives me, really it gets me really tight. So it does give you a macro capability. I mean it’s not a lot. I wouldn’t consider it a go-to macro lens. But I don’t know, that’s pretty good when I get in this close to her eyes.

So I’m looking at the auto focus here as I’m shooting and it is very quick. I’m going from far to close. It jumps back and forth. I mean really, the auto focus on the first lens was very good, that first generation. This is even faster. It’s got that VXD linear motor mechanism. So it’s the faster autofocus and it jumps back and forth. That’s one of the reasons why I think this lens is superior to the first one. It’s slightly faster in that autofocus mode.

One of the things I’m loving about the new direction with these lenses from Tamron is the ability, they have an USB-C port, so you can plug this in. And with their program you can go and program all of the different functions on this lens. If you want to change these from focus to focus to the front you can do that. You can change the direction that it focuses. It just gives you a lot of options. You have the button right here which gives you the ability to change that to whatever you’d like it to be. That makes this lens so you can make it compatible to how you like to work. And I think that is really the genius of this new series. Sharp, fast autofocus and you can really program it to do what you want to do. I love that!

Another thing about this lens is they are very small and lightweight. And that is because they’ve taken all of the mechanisms there, like your autofocus, is in the menus of the camera. Some people love that. Some people don’t. But I’ve found that it’s a very simple workflow for me to hit the FN button on the back. I can change the focus very quickly and I don’t have to worry about it on the lens. It’s just one less thing on the lens. That makes the lens smaller, the glass smaller. It just makes it a lot easier for you to get a small, compact, lightweight lens. It’s a step up from the first generation I think, because of the autofocus being slightly faster and because of the sharpness at f/2.8 all around. I mean as you go to f/4 and f/5.6 it’s very sharp. But at f/2.8 you get edge to edge sharpness with this lens.

So who is this lens for? This lens is about for every single person who shoots because it is in that trifecta of zoom lenses. If you want a fast zoom that’s f/2.8 throughout its going to give you the ability to go from wide to a telephoto, more of a portrait lens, then this lens is really for you. I love the fact that it has faster autofocus and is sharper in the corners. I also love the fact that it gives you the ability to customize the lens. I think this is an excellent lens and a great upgrade and I think a direction that Tamron is taking with the ability to customize their lenses that makes this really worthwhile. So I hope you enjoyed this. So get out there and take some pictures. Leave us some comments. Let us know what you think. So keep those cameras rollin’ and keep on clickin’.

When we actually got into villages, this tiny little village of about, I don’t know, 25 people, where we had the motorized canoes come in. The first time they’d ever seen westerners. Everything was crazy. We had all our gear and we have to load it into these three canoes. We load all these cases in and we load our personal bags. And me and the guys, you know, we’ve traveled a lot like we’re used to this. But we all just had our backpacking packs, you know, with our tents and our hammocks and our sleeping bags and so on. We start heading in up river and for a day and a half straight it just downpours. I mean, it just downpours and there is not a single dry article of clothing. Not a single dry pair of shoes, nothing. But every single piece of equipment in the cases, as we’re literally pouring water out of the canoes like draining the canoes the whole time, equipment stayed perfectly dry and safe. Cameras didn’t go down, nothing. So if it wasn’t for the SKB cases there’s absolutely no way we would have been able to make that show by the time we got into the Amazon.