In addition to their new Tamron 70-200mm F2.8 G2 lens, the company also announced a brand new 10-24mm F/3.5-4.5, an ultrawide lens designed specifically for crop sensor cameras. It has a ton of major improvements over the old version of this lens, and it looks to be a great addition to the Tamron lineup.
We had a chance to take a look at the Tamron 10-24mm F/3.5-4.5 on the show floor at WPPI 2017, so here we are with some initial impressions!
Tech Specs
Model | B023 |
---|---|
Focal Length | 10-24mm |
Maximum Aperture | F/3.5-4.5 |
Angle of View (diagonal) | 108°44′-60°2′ (for APS-C format) |
Optical Construction | 16 elements in 11 groups |
Minimum Object Distance | 0.24m (9.4 in) |
Maximum Magnification Ratio | 1:5.3 |
Filter Size | Φ77mm |
Maximum Diameter | Φ83.6mm |
Length* | 84.6mm (3.3 in) Canon 82.1mm (3.2 in) Nikon |
Weight | 440g (15.5 oz) Canon 440g (15.5 oz) Nikon |
Aperture Blades | 7 (circular diaphragm) |
Minimum Aperture | F/22-29 |
Image Stabilization Performance | 4 Stops (CIPA Standards Compliant) For Canon: EOS-80D is used Nikon: D7200 is used |
Standard Accessories | Front Cap, Lens hood |
Compatible Mounts | Canon, Nikon |
Ergonomics
Starting off with the obvious design changes, the Tamron 10-24mm is the first new Tamron lens to feature Tamron’s new ‘standard non-SP’ lens design. In reality, it still looks very similar to the SP line, just with slightly different materials and a thinner Tamron silver brand ring at the base of the lens.
As far as the size of the lens goes, we found it to fit well in the hand and have a good weight to balance out whatever Canon or Nikon APS-C camera you may have it mounted to, like the 80D pictured in the images. The zoom ring is in a good natural spot on the lens to make zooming quick and easy, and in our testing, we found the mechanism to offer enough resistance to keep us happy, while still allowing us to zoom and recompose quickly.
Build Quality
As we noted in the section above, this lens is designed to look very similar to the SP line of lenses. But some aspects are noticeably different, like the thinner brand ring and the exterior which doesn’t quite have the same feel as the SP lenses do.
The lens has two switches on the body, one being a standard AF/ MF switch and the other bring a VC On/ VC Off switch for controlling the stabilization motor inside the lens. The focus ring on the lens is smaller than we would like, to be honest. In fact, the zoom ring is about twice the size of the focus ring, and if anything we would prefer that ratio be reversed. That said, the focus ring is totally functional and works well, its just a bit smaller than we would prefer.
Autofocus
The autofocus performance of the Tamron 10-24mm was incredibly good inside the WPPI showroom. We were able to easily achieve focus from point to point at various focal lengths with not even one hiccup.
AF performance on ultrawide lenses isn’t generally a top priority, but it was no doubt nice to find that the lens was able to perform well in the showroom, giving us confidence that it should be able to handle real world scenarios well.
Image Quality
We were not able to shoot any image samples with the lens, but Tamron does have some officials samples which you can look at below. We will have our own images coming when we get the lens in for review.
First Impressions
Ok, so our overall first impressions on this lens are that it looks to be an incredible bargain and value for those using Canon or Nikon APS-C based cameras looking for a solid ultrawide angle lens for landscapes, architecture, and other similar purposes.
Full thoughts and impressions will be coming in a full review at a later time. But as for now, we have seen nothing from this lens that would lead us to think anything other than it is a quality budget ultrawide lens.
Stay tuned for our full review.