Superzoom lenses sound like the answer to a travel photographer’s prayers – or even anyone’s prayers. They offer a huge all-in-one zoom range that means you don’t have to carry lots of lenses or waste time swapping them and missing shots. What could go wrong? Well, I can tell you.
First, superzoom lenses are big. There’s really no getting around this. It’s a consequence of offering long focal lengths up to 200mm, 240mm or more. A superzoom lens will always be big and heavy. This is their single biggest issue, and it’s hiding in plain sight. With a superzoom lens you are always carrying a big, heavy lens, whether you need that extended focal range or not.
There’s another issue. Superzoom lenses invariably have a variable maximum aperture. This means they are usable enough at shorter focal lengths, but the more you zoom in, the more restricted the maximum aperture becomes. Right when you need more light to allow faster shutter speeds (with those longer focal lengths), you actually get less.
That’s not the worst of it. All of the superzoom lenses I’ve tested for both DSLR and mirrorless cameras get progressively softer and weaker at longer focal lengths, with a rapid fall-off in both resolution and contrast, to the extent that you will quite probably not be happy with the image quality at full zoom, right at the extended focal range you thought the lens would be useful for.
Enter the Tamron 28-200mm f/2.8-5.6 Di III RXD. This is not an expensive lens – I bought mine in a sale for around £540 in the UK. It doesn’t have optical stabilization, but the camera I bought it for – a Sony A7 III – has IBIS. Well, IBIS of a sort (sorry, Sony). It doesn’t have the biggest focal range. 28mm is not particularly wide, and 200mm is not particularly long. It does have a somewhat better than usual maximum aperture range of f/2.8-5.6, and a 200mm f/5.6 is quite usable on a camera with decent high-ISO performance.
What it does have is image quality. Not just at shorter focal lengths but right up to 200mm. It’s not just ‘acceptable’, but really sharp. For a superzoom lens, this is exceptional. It’s the first superzoom lens I’ve got my hands on which I would genuinely use at all focal lengths and be genuinely happy with.
It’s as simple as that.
So if you look at the specs, this is a very ordinary lens with some obvious compromises, notably in focal range. But what Tamron has done is stick to a more modest focal range where it can actually perform properly across its full range. Yes, it would be useful if it went wider than 28mm, or longer than 200mm, but I would absolutely not swap that for what it does – which is to produce proper image quality across its full range of focal lengths and apertures.
Most superzoom lenses promise the earth and don’t deliver. This one promises less and delivers on all of it. Thank you, Tamron. This lens won’t go far enough or wide enough to suit everyone, but it certainly suits me.
- Tamron 28-200mm F/2.8-5.6 Di III RXD prices: $799 at B&H | £679 at Wex