Lenses

Review: Tamron 10-24mm F3.5-4.5 Di II VC HLD (Canon EF-S)

Chris Gampat
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06/28/2017
5 Mins read
Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Tamron 10-24mm F3.5-4.5 Di II VC HLD review product images

The Tamron 10-24mm F3.5-4.5 Di II VC HLD is a lens that has been sorely needed for a while: it delivers a wide angle zoom option to APS-C DSLRs while putting in weather sealing, good autofocus performance, light weight, and overall great image quality. It’s a fantastic option for the photographer that has been looking for a way to shoot wide landscapes and cities with their APS-C DSLR while on vacation–or even just for fun. When you consider the weather sealing abilities built into the lens along with the relatively recent major improvements that Tamron has been making to their lenses, there is almost no reason to not consider the Tamron 10-24mm F3.5-4.5 Di II VC HLD lens.

Pros and Cons

Pros

  • Compact
  • Lightweight
  • A lens that feels like it should always stay attached to your camera
  • Fast autofocus
  • Weather sealing
  • Pretty good colors
  • Wide angle coverage that otherwise you’d only get on a full frame DSLR and mirrorless camera
  • 100% focusing accuracy performance with the Canon 77D

Cons

  • Not much honestly. Some folks may complain about fringing, but it only happens in very extreme circumstances.

Gear Used

We tested the Tamron 10-24mm F3.5-4.5 Di II VC HLD with the Canon 77D.

Tech Specs

Specs taken from the Tamron listing page

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

The Tamron 10-24mm F3.5-4.5 Di II VC HLD is a lens that is compact, and really nice in the hands when you’re talking about the ergonomics. Not only is it lightweight but it is also pretty small. The lens is an interesting balance between both metal and rubber. Of course, the rubber has more to do with the zoom and focusing rings. But the metal is incorporated into all the other areas.

When you look at the Tamron 10-24mm F3.5-4.5 Di II VC HLD you’ll find the front filter area to be accommodating to a 77mm filter thread. Then there’s the lens hood.

Turn to the side of the Tamron 10-24mm F3.5-4.5 Di II VC HLD and what you’ll find are two controls. One is for vibration compensation and the other is the AF/MF switch.

Now here’s another really cool part, the Tamron 10-24mm F3.5-4.5 Di II VC HLD. The size of the lens doesn’t tend to change a whole lot when zooming in or out.

Build Quality

The Tamron 10-24mm F3.5-4.5 Di II VC HLD is like all of the company’s other new lenses–it incorporates weather sealing. Where this is most prominent is at the base of the lens where there is a rubber gasket to protect the camera that you’re mounting it onto.

Ease of Use

The Tamron 10-24mm F3.5-4.5 Di II VC HLD is a stupidly simple lens to use. You slap it onto your camera, autofocus, shoot and enjoy the photos. The two switches aren’t accidentally hit at all. The target market for this lens, who tends to be the enthusiast and hobbyist, will have a joy using it. Believe it or not, my favorite times using this lens were when I set the camera to P mode.

You know, P for professional! 😉

Widest angle of view
Most Telephoto angle of view

Autofocus

The Tamron 10-24mm F3.5-4.5 Di II VC HLD’s autofocus performance surely depends on what camera you’re using, but considering that it’s a wide angle lens it’s going to be tough to not able to focus it. In fact, the Canon 77D and the Tamron 10-24mm F3.5-4.5 Di II VC HLD nailed 100% focus accuracy when I used the duo in various lighting conditions.

That’s incredible!

Image Quality

The Tamron 10-24mm F3.5-4.5 Di II VC HLD isn’t just built well, but it also is capable of capturing and delivering great photos. Due to its very close focusing abilities, you’ll be able to get that bokeh that you really like. But you’ll also be able to enjoy great colors, sharpness, etc. Where some folks may complain will have to do with fringing–which will happen in the most extreme situations.

Before you go further, please note the way that I typically test cameras and lenses. My white balances are stuck to 5500K or 3200K; from there I can adjust colors with more consistency when it comes to post-production.

Bokeh

The best way to get any sort of bokeh with the Tamron 10-24mm F3.5-4.5 Di II VC HLD is to zoom all the way in and focus closely. You’ll get bokeh. It’s not bad. But it’s also not spectacular. However, for a wide angle zoom I can’t really complain that much.

Chromatic Aberration

While the Tamron 10-24mm F3.5-4.5 Di II VC HLD keeps the distortion down fairly well (and can be corrected easily in Adobe Lightroom) you’ll find fringing in the most extremely high contrast areas. However, that’s also fixable.

Color Rendition

The Tamron 10-24mm F3.5-4.5 Di II VC HLD renders very saturated and beautiful colors when it comes to photographing full scenes. They’re not as saturated as some Rokinon primes though, so if you’re a landscape shooter then you may want to reach for those.

Sharpness

The Tamron 10-24mm F3.5-4.5 Di II VC HLD exhibits pretty darn good sharpness at f5.6 and up to f7.1. Otherwise, you’re sort of just wasting a good lens.

Extra Image Samples

Conclusions

Likes

  • Compact
  • Weather sealed
  • Good image quality though not the absolute best
  • Fast autofocus
  • Light weight begs the lens to basically be glued to your camera

Dislikes

  • This isn’t exactly an issue with the lens, but I’d love for this lens to come to mirrorless cameras.

The Tamron 10-24mm F3.5-4.5 Di II VC HLD is a very good lens overall for the price point for $499.00. Whatever this lens doesn’t give you right out of the box you’ll be able to fix in post-production. It should be praised for its build quality, light weight, overall pretty decent image quality, fast autofocus performance and compact size. Tamron is filling a niche that has been needed to filled for a while. So overall, kudos to them!

The Tamron 10-24mm F3.5-4.5 Di II VC HLD receives four out of five stars!

accuracy autofocus autofocus speed Bokeh canon canon 77D color rendition ease of use fringing image quality landscapes sharpness Tamron 10-24mm F3.5-4.5 Di II VC HLD weather sealing
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.