Whenever you buy a camera, be it DSLR or Mirrorless, a kit lens almost always seems like a safe bet to begin with, given the price and combo offers that come with it. But it doesn’t take long to realize that things that start to matter when it comes to differentiating your work depend a lot on a good lens.
50 mm 1.8 Prime lenses has been the first go-to lens purchase, a no-brainer, because of its most value for money proposition.
What about a good, fast Zoom lens?
For a full-frame buyer, there are standard lens options available whose quality is well established, but for an APS-C buyer, buying a full-frame lens may not be possible majorly due to the price bracket the lenses fall into. If one can afford or buys an APS-C camera with a good, fast full-frame lens, say a wild-life photographer or a sports one, it more than serves its purpose.
It’s the rest of us who are not primarily into wild-life or sports, nor have the budget or inclination to go for a bigger setup, that a compact, light-weight, fast zoom lens becomes a dream lens after acquiring a nifty fifty.
In the Sony APS-C Mirrorless world of alpha 6000 series of cameras, only recently good, fast lens options fulfilling the above-mentioned requirement have been made available from the manufacturers.
One is the Sony 16-55mm 2.8 launched last year, other is the Tamron 17-70mm 2.8 lens launched this year on Jan 2021 at a very sweet price point of 67,500 INR.
We at the camera universe took it for a spin at Sinhagadh, Pune along with A6500 and tried to find the answer.
It is the first high-speed zoom lens for mirrorless cameras with APS-C size sensors with a focal length of 17-70mm that has a 25.5-105mm full-frame equivalent focal length.
It is fairly small and lightweight for a fast 2.8 lens. It boasts of VC (vibration compensation), equivalent to the IS (image stabilization) of the Canon system and OSS (optical steady shot) of the Sony system.
The lens is well built, has a moisture-resistant construction with fluorine coating which should enable it to sustain fairly rugged and reasonable use.
The filter size of 67mm is the same as the Tamron series of full-frame mirrorless lenses. Zeiss Batis series of lenses also have a singular 67mm filter size except for the 18mm wide-angle. It helps in streamlining the ND and Pola filters in the camera bag.
The RXD (Rapid xTra silent stepping motor) drive unit is exceptionally quiet and perfect for video use. It is compatible with many of the features that Sony builds into its cameras, including Fast Hybrid AF and Eye AF.
Optical performance-wise, its optical construction features 16 elements in 12 groups and generated beautiful bokeh and Sharp images.
At just 525 gm, with a VC mechanism built-in, it’s a great lens for a compact mirrorless APS-C A6000 series of Sony e mount cameras.
In my usage throughout the day, it more than justified the claims made for the lens. The minimum focusing distance or Minimum Object distance as they call it has been icing on the cake for me and these are the small pleasant surprises that make for a big impact overall in the experience that you have.
When I bought my A6500, I got an 18-105mm f4 lens as my versatile zoom lens option that fulfilled most of my needs within my budget. but if today I have to buy a lens, I’d recommend the Tamron 17-70mm 2.8.
The value for money proposition is on point for this lens.
Feel free to download the Raw images to have a look at your convenience.
Also, don’t forget to watch the full experience video on our youtube channel.
