Product Review: Tamron 28-300mm
Ian Plant
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In difficult locations, photographers sometimes need an all-purpose zoom lens. In this free video, world renowned outdoor photographer Ian Plant takes you to the Vanuatu volcano and shows you the features of the flexible 28mm-300mm Tamron lens. On the volcano rim, Ian goes wide at 28mm to capture the lava exploding over the landscape and into the sky. He also goes tight at 300mm to capture only the sparking trails of burning lava. The Tamron 28mm-300mm features vibration compensation, which allows Ian to shoot handheld even in the low light of the volcano. When you need to travel light, the versatile Tamron 28mm-300mm lens is ideal.
Hi, I'm Ian Plant and I've traveled half way around the world to the beautiful island nation of Vanuatu to photograph Yasur volcano, one of the most active volcanoes in the world. And when I travel far and I need to travel light, I like to bring along an all-purpose general zoom like a 28 to 300 millimeter that give me a wide range of focal length options and allows me the flexibility I need to get the shots that I want. Here in Vanuatu, I'm working with Tamron's 28 to 300 millimeter lens. This gives me a really versatile zoom range so when I'm up on the volcano rim looking down at the lava as it explodes out of the earth, I can go wide, go out to 28 millimeters, and I can capture more of the landscape including the sky above the lava. Or I can zoom in bit tighter and just do an intimate shot of the lava as it comes out of the ground.
This lens is ideal as an all-purpose travel lens. Not only because of the expansive zoom range, but also because the lens features vibration compensation which allows me to shoot handheld even in low light and still get sharp images. That way, as I'm traveling around the landscape and if a certain feature of the landscape catches my eye or maybe there's some interesting people who are walking by, I can react quickly and capture the action handheld knowing that I'm gonna get good shots. When I'm up shooting the volcano, I'm gonna be working in low light or at night with my camera on a tripod and I'll be using long exposures between eight seconds and 15 seconds long. The reason I wanna do that is, as the magma flies in the air, I want it to streak through the image frame during the long exposure to get a really nice, creative effect.
While doing this, I'm gonna turn the vibration compensation on my lens off because I don't want the lens' gyroscope moving during the long exposure, introducing vibration. The only time I'm gonna use vibration compensation is when I'm shooting handheld. So when you're traveling far and you need to travel light, a versatile all-in-one zoom like a 28 to 300 millimeter lens is the perfect travel lens for your kit. I'm Ian Plant and thanks for watching.
DPreview was not very complementary on this lens (only 7 reviews) and the main issue was image quality at 300 mm and lots of CA (?) at 300 mm. The Photoblogger (www.thephoblographer.com/2014/10/31/review-tamron-28-300mm-f3-5-5-6-di-vc-pzd-canon-ef/) seems to like it a considerably more but they mention Bokeh which is a new term to me. I was a little surprise in the lower than expected price for a Tamron lens. A little clarification would be appreciated. Thank you.