Optics: The Tamron 70-180mm f2.8 Di III has 19 elements in 14 groups including 6 special dispersion elements and 3 aspherical elements. This is a slightly simpler design than the Sony with 23 elements in 18 groups. Both lenses have fluorine-coating on the front element to repel water, dust, and dirt and make cleaning easier. The Tamron G2 has 23 elements in 17 groups and does not employ fluorine-coating. [+] Longitudinal Chromatic Aberrations or LOCA is a shifting of color present in the out-of-focus areas of an image. Long telephotos can suffer from this effect and it is very hard to remove in post. Happily, the Tamron 70-180 G2 controls this very well. There is a slight gold to blue shift but it is barely noticeable and easily fixed. Another impressive result for the G2. The 70-180mm range is such a versatile setup. Everyone should have a fast telephoto like this and the G2 makes the price more accessible.

It also happens to be very sharp. At the widest -and usually worst- f/2.8 aperture, detail is incredibly refined. This lens performs incredibly well at f/2.8 throughout the entire focal range and is even sharp when focused in the corners, with only some minor vignetting showing up. Stop the lens down and the vignetting goes away and optical performance improves across the rest of the frame. If you like the sharpest of lenses, this Tamron will not disappoint. The focusing is fast and efficient. I had no problem getting fast shots with the Sony A7RV and Tamron 70-180mm G2. This lens has plenty of detail to give, even at wide apertures.If you were already shooting in the “DSLR-era” the outer dimensions (but also the build quality) of this lens will rather remind you of the 70-300mm 4.5-5.6 zooms and not so much of the 70-200mm 2.8 zooms. Autofocus The zoom ring is substantial, taking up a bit more than half the length of the barrel. It's marked at the 70, 100, 135, and 180mm positions, and moves from its shortest to longest position with slightly less than 90 degrees of rotation. To your point, however, many photographers do indeed just throw their camera in 1.5x crop mode, because so many applications these days just don't require 40-60 megapixels. As a wedding photographer, I absolutely don't hesitate to throw even the 30-MP A7IV into 1.5x crop mode. The new Tamron 70-180mm telephoto zoom features a constant aperture of f/2.8 throughout the range, an impressive minimum focus distance of 0.85m throughout the zoom range, an all-new VXD (Voice-coil eXtreme-torque Drive) linear focus motor for quiet and fast AF operation, and a moisture-sealed construction. You could look at this as a strength or weakness, depending on your view. Most buyers of this lens will be looking for something lighter so the construction will align with that.

Compact and lightweight - Despite an impressive zoom range and fast constant aperture the Tamron 70-180mm f/2.8 Di III VXD is compact at just 149mm at the 70mm end. It weighs just 810g. fitting comfortably on any Sony full-frame E mount camera. The lens is quite susceptible to flare when shooting directly into the sun, though, something that is mitigated somewhat by fitting the supplied lens hood. MacroLet’s compare the Tamron 70-180mm f2.8 Di III VC VXD G2 (“Tamron G2” for short) to its predecessor the 70-180mm f2.8 Di III VXD (model A056) (“Tamron G1”) and the Sony FE 70-200mm f2.8 G Master OSS II (“Sony GM II”). As usual I’ve rated the features with a [+] (or [++]), when it’s better than average or even state of the art, a [0] if it’s standard or just average, and [-] if there’s a disadvantage. How close do you have to get for 1:10 magnification e.g. for a very tightly cropped head-shot? At its longest focal length the Tamron III achieves 1:10 at a distance of 1.88m (6.2ft.) while the Sony has a longer reach of 2.14m (7.0ft.) due to its longer focal length. [+] Sell the kit you’re not using to MPB. Trade in for the kit you need to create. Buy used, spend less and get more. Buy. Sell. Trade. Create. How did they play a role especially when they released new lenses in EF, F mount while Sony users were begging for E mount? Unavailability as a reason to switch? Well Canon has now the Sony role so all switch to Canon due to your logic?

While being extremely sharp and well corrected those lenses still have one significant downside: their steep price tag. Altogether that trio doesn’t weight much more than the Batis does, and ends up taking a similar amount of space in my PD Sling as well so… Plus I can mount the Samyang fisheye on that body too, or swap in the 35-100 f4-5.6 and mix things up with the Samyang 75/1.8 for the Sony body. The other 2/3rds of the space in my bag is for the Sony and my wide/UWA lenses. The lens extends by about an extra 3cm when fully zoomed out to 180mm. The focusing ring is much narrower than the zoom ring, making it more difficult to locate in a rush.

Tamron 70-180mm F2.8 VXD Build and Handling

The close-focus point is an impressive 0.85m /33.5 in from the film/sensor plane throughout the entire zoom range when using auto-focus, with a maximum reproduction ratio of 1:4.6.