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It debuted in the summer of 2020, and has a solid build quality and a
reasonable price point, similar to the rest of Tamron’s recent lens
offerings.
But how does the image quality stack up? Let’s find out.
Recent Tamron lenses
Tamron has been on a roll with its Sony E-mount lens releases lately.
The recently released 70-180mm f/2.8 completed Tamron’s holy trinity of fast zooms (the others being the Tamron 17-28mm f/2.8 and the Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8).
All three of these lenses have been massively popular due to their
solid builds, compact sizes, and affordable prices relative to their
Sony
G Master equivalents. Additionally, Tamron has released a handful
of other fast prime lenses, including the Tamron 35mm f/2.8.
Tamron 28-200mm specs
The Tamron 28-200mm is a full-frame autofocus lens for Sony E-mount
cameras. While it can be used with Sony APS-C cameras, it is best used
with a full-frame camera. All sample images in this post were taken with the Sony a7R III.
Focal Length: 28 to 200mm
Maximum Aperture: f/2.8 to f/5.6
Minimum Aperture: f/16 to f/32
Angle of View: 75° 23′ to 12° 21′
Minimum Focus Distance: 7.5″ (19.05 cm)
Optical Design: 18 Elements in 14 Groups
Diaphragm Blades: 7, Rounded
Image Stabilization: No
Filter Size: 67 mm (Front)
Dimensions (ø x L): 2.91 x 4.6″ (74 x 116.8 mm)
Weight: 1.27 lb (575.5 g)
Pros
Small and lightweight
Variable aperture lenses are often looked down upon by photographers,
because you can’t retain a fast f-stop when you zoom in. This means
shooting at 200mm on the 28-200mm will force you to shoot at f/5.6,
making it much more difficult to shoot in low lighting. However, variable aperture lenses are generally much smaller and weigh less compared to zoom lenses with constant apertures.
Indeed, the Tamron 28-200mm is incredibly small and light given its focal range. This makes it a great lens for travel or landscape photographers who work with ample light and don’t mind sacrificing a fast aperture at all focal lengths.
Simple and easy to use
Like many recent Tamron lenses, the 28-200mm is very straightforward,
with a single physical switch to lock the lens and keep it from sliding
out when not in use.
Other than that, it’s an intuitive plug and play lens that works
exceptionally well with Sony E-mount cameras. All autofocus features,
including face detection and eye autofocus (for both people and
animals), were fast and accurate; the lens performs well on Sony
cameras.
Moisture resistant
The build quality is solid without adding lots of weight. The Tamron
28-200mm is moisture-resistant for use in wet conditions, and also has a
fluorine coating on the front lens element to prevent dust and dirt
build-up.
Speaking of the front lens element, the filter size is 67mm, exactly
the same as the three lenses in the Tamron holy trinity. This makes it
easy to interchange filters such as polarizers and ND filters among these lenses if you buy into the full Tamron lens system.
Sony a7R III | Tamron 28-200mm | 1/160 sec | f/11 | ISO 200
Five- or six-year extended warranty
This is a bonus that comes with all Tamron lenses. If you register
the Tamron 28-200mm lens within two months of purchasing it, you get an
extended six-year warranty if you are in the USA, or a five-year
warranty if you are in Europe.
Compared to Sony’s one-year warranty, this is a pretty big advantage when going with a Tamron lens.
Great image quality
So with all of the great points about this lens, how is the image quality?
It’s surprisingly good for a variable-aperture lens. Bokeh
or lens blur is soft and pleasing, especially at longer focal lengths.
Image sharpness is phenomenal, although admittedly not as crisp as a
prime lens. And chromatic aberration, or color fringing, which often plagues all-in-one zoom lenses, is not a problem on this lens.
Similarly, 4K video shot with this lens also boasts great image quality, which leads us to the next section of the article.
Sony a7R III | Tamron 28-200mm | 1/100 sec | f/4.5 | ISO 1600
Cons
No image stabilization
Unfortunately, none of Tamron’s recent Sony E-mount lenses come with
image stabilization. This feature is likely withheld to keep lenses
smaller and more affordable, but it means that the Tamron 28-200mm is
not an optimal lens for video or shooting handheld in low light.
If you use the lens with a camera that has in-body image stabilization
(IBIS), this can help make up for the lack of lens-based image
stabilization. But in my experience, it’s always best to have a camera
with IBIS and a lens with image stabilization.
On the plus side, this lens is lightweight enough that you could use
it on a gimbal for video work, as long as you can balance it out when
shooting at longer focal lengths.
Variable aperture
While the Tamron 28-200mm does give you a fast f/2.8 aperture when
shooting on the wide end, the more you zoom in, the slower the aperture
gets.
This may not be a big deal-breaker if you tend to shoot in scenarios
with tons of natural or artificial lighting. However, if you shoot a lot
in low light, the variable aperture might bother you.
Comparison to the Sony 24-240mm
The most direct competitor to the Tamron 28-200mm is the long-standing Sony 24-240mm f/3.5-6.3 lens.
This Sony lens is very close in size to the Tamron, although it is
slightly heavier, coming in at 780 g (1.72 lb) compared to 575 g (1.27
lb).
However,
the Sony 24-240mm does offer slightly more range than the Tamron, plus
it has OSS, or optical image stabilization. The OSS comes in handy if
you shoot video, or like to have extra support when shooting handheld.
The Sony lens does cost more, at $1,085 USD, but it has been out for so
long that used versions of the lens can be had for prices similar to
that of the Tamron.
If you value the extra range and OSS, the Sony may be the better
all-in-one lens for you. However, it is quite a bit heavier than the
Tamron and also has a significantly shorter warranty.
Sample image gallery
Sony a7R III | Tamron 28-200mm | 1/60 sec | f/6.3 | ISO 1250
Sony a7R III | Tamron 28-200mm | 1/125 sec | f/5.6 | ISO 2500
Sony a7R III | Tamron 28-200mm | 1/160 sec | f/4.5 | ISO 2500
Sony a7R III | Tamron 28-200mm | 1/80 sec | f/4.5 | ISO 2000
Sony a7R III | Tamron 28-200mm | 1/250 sec | f/4.5 | ISO 2000
Sony a7R III | Tamron 28-200mm | 1/125 sec | f/7.1 | ISO 1000
Sony a7R III | Tamron 28-200mm | 1/320 sec | f/5.6 | ISO 1250
Saturday, September 12, 2020
How to Make a Bubble Portrait using Photoshop CS3
Tags: : Photoshop, Photography for beginners, Photograph
Dan McGinty (see his work onFlickr)- one of our wonderfulForummembers
– submitted this tutorial on how to create a bubble portrait using
Photoshop CS3. Got a tip or tutorial to share? Post it in thetutorials sectionof our forum.
Upon request I am posting a step by step how to on a recent photo I
posted in the share section. I wanted to try something different so I
thought of fish eye effects, Well I decided to do the opposite. More of a
bubble effect and I loved it for this photo.
Program Used: Photoshop CS3
Difficulty: Easy to Average
Things You Need: A photograph!
Ok, Well here it goes. I will post screen shots along with directions.
Step 1: Open your Image in Photoshop:
Step 2: Draw a box around the part that you would
like to put in the bubble.(Hold Shift to keep the rectangle tool as a
box.) Remember that you will be losing your corners.
Step 3: deselect the part you have cropped (Apple-d). Then go to filter: Distort: Spherize… Keep it at 100%
Step 4: Now you will have your square image with a
sphere effect to the whole center. Select the circle tool now. Start in
one corner and drag to the other corner while holding shift to get a
perfect circle selecting your sphere.
Then, select:inverse. (selecting all the areas that aren’t in the sphere.)
Step 5: Add a layer. You will still have the area
from step 4 selected. Then grab the paint bucket and whatever color
you’d like to use and pour it into the space selected!
And now you have completed your Portrait in a bubble!!! Easy right?
Adobe has developed many Photoshop apps, but none are as popular as
the desktop version (Photoshop CC). That said, maybe it’s time for this
to change, at least for one of Adobe’s apps: Photoshop Express.
In this article, I’ll tell you five reasons why I recommend you give Photoshop Express a try.
1. It’s free
Unlike the desktop version of Photoshop, you don’t need a Creative Cloud subscription in order to use Photoshop Express.
You can download the app for free, and you’ll get access to all the features and updates.
You do have to create an Adobe account, though (one that also allows you to use a limited version of Lightroom Mobile).
2. It’s social
A very important thing for a photo editing app is the social aspect. You want to snap and share photos with ease.
Adobe took this into account when designing the cropping tool. With
Photoshop Express, you can crop your images using the array of
predetermined sizes for Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Etsy, and most other major social networks.
For example: When cropping for Facebook, you can choose from the Page
Cover, the Event Cover, the Profile Cover, the Profile, or the Ad.
Of course, you can then share your photo directly from the app. From there, you can also add a watermark, send the image to Creative Cloud if you are a subscriber, send the image to a printer, and more.
3. You control size and compression
Unlike many other editing apps, Photoshop Express lets you choose the size and quality of your file before saving or sharing it.
You can set a default JPEG Quality and a default Image Size in the Preferences of the app. To set this up, tap on the menu (in the top-left corner). Then go to Preferences and then Save Options.
You can also change size and quality in the final stage of your
saving or sharing process. Before you choose the destination of your
image, click on the settings below the thumbnail (so you can modify
them).
4. You can work with RAW files
A RAW
file is like a digital negative. It saves the information from the shot
prior to processing; that way, you have much more to work with when
you’re editing, and the quality will be superior.
Of course, this means that the file size will be bigger, so keep an
eye on your storage space. If you have a camera, you probably know that
each brand has its own RAW files. For example, Canon uses CRW/CR2/CR3,
while Nikon uses NEF/NRW. A standard and open-source RAW format is a DNG file, which is what you get if you shoot using Lightroom Mobile.
On
the left, you can see how a RAW file is clearly marked in the gallery.
That one was shot using the camera from Lightroom Mobile. On the right,
you see the post-processed version of that file (edited using Photoshop
Express).
5. You can do all your post-processing
Last but not least, the editing capabilities of Photoshop Express are
top-notch. After all, the app was created by a company that has been
leading the post-processing market for decades.
That said, Photoshop Express won’t reach the level of editing that
you can do with the desktop version of Photoshop. That’s why there are
three apps.
However, if you consider that Photoshop Express is free and won’t
take up all your phone storage space, it’s actually very good.
Snapshot made with a Redmi Note 8, later post-processed in Photoshop Express.
Also,
Photoshop Express includes many presets for looks, effects, stickers,
frames, etc. That way, you can do some serious post-processing, or you
can just create fun posts for your social media feed.
With so many editing apps on the market, it’s difficult to make a
choice; sometimes you end up downloading a different app for each
purpose.
However, Photoshop Express has proven to be an all-purpose and well-rounded app.
And if you have an iPhone, you’ll get some additional features.
Share in the comments if you decide to try Photoshop Express, and let me know what you think.
Tuesday, September 8, 2020
5 Quick Reasons to Use the Nifty Fifty for Landscape Photography
Tags: 50mm, Prime Lens, Focus, Photography for beginners
The 50mm prime lens, commonly known as the Nifty Fifty,
is a lens that even inexperienced photographers have likely heard of.
Most of us know it for its outstanding qualities; it’s an inexpensive,
high-quality, prime lens that is in plenty of photographers’ bags around
the world and is one of the most popular lenses of all time.
What we might not think of a Nifty Fifty as, however, is a
lens normally used for landscape photography. The field of view is
tight, and the lens doesn’t possess a focal length wide enough to
usually be considered proper for this sort of work.
But I have. For four years, the 50mm f/1.8 has been my workhorse for
portfolio building (which is primarily nature and landscape), and even
though I’m branching off with other lenses, I can’t stress the
usefulness of the Nifty Fifty. And I’m not alone.
My primary reasoning for using the 50mm instead of going out and buying a proper wide-angle lens such as a 35mm or even wider?
Cost.
I was diving back into photography, and I was on an extremely tight
budget. After buying my camera, spending $500 on a lens simply wasn’t an
option. It didn’t take long for me to hear my fellow photographers sing
the praises of this wonderful lens: cheap, fast, and sharp. Right up my
alley.
There are no tricks or immaculate revelations here, and you won’t
likely become famous for taking only landscape shots with 50mm lenses.
But there are a few reasons why shooting landscapes with a 50mm lens can
produce great results.
Giving it a try can only improve your photography and make you a better observer of the world around you.
Focus on what’s important
We think of landscapes as sprawling, wide shots that include many
elements in one frame, but do they have to be that way? Can we not
capture the beauty of the area around us in a tighter package? The
rolling hills and an interesting tree in an outdoor scene are more than
enough to create a photo that provokes thought.
The
Nifty Fifty makes it easier to focus on whatever is most important in
your photo, while still capturing enough around the subject to lend the
shot scope.
Shooting at this focal length forces us to focus on the most
important parts of what we’re seeing around us. Trimming the fat, as
they say. In doing this, we’re also training ourselves psychologically
to do the same in all of our shots.
Quality
Landscapes usually require very good sharpness, and 50mm prime lenses
excel at that. No extra moving parts normally required for zooms makes
for a crisper, sharper result. As with most lenses, the Nifty Fifty
sweet spot isn’t wide open, but more in the f/4 to f/5.6 range. And
narrower apertures will still yield excellent results.
The 50mm prime allows you to capture very sharp images.
Take your time
Since the 50mm is a prime lens,
you’ll get an added benefit (or detriment, depending on how much you
care for walking): The single focal length means you can’t just shoot
from anywhere. Instead, you’ll need to move around to find the best
angle and distance. This automatically forces you to think about your
shot a bit more, which is always a good thing.
A 50mm lens allows you to think differently about the landscape or subject you’re framing and to make more creative choices.
With a zoom, you’d adjust focal length without even thinking until
the scene is framed in a way that looks good. But what if that isn’t the
best angle or distance? The Nifty Fifty will give you the incentive to
take a chance and try something different, whether it be an angle, a
distance, or a perspective.
No wide angle…or can there be?
Of course, there can! The 50mm gives you a gentle push into playing around with some panoramic shots. Three, four, five, or more shots can be stitched into a flattering wide-angle composite, sometimes with even more dramatic results than a single wide-angle shot.
By stitching together shots, we can create a panorama that gives us the wide field of view we’re looking for.
Lightweight is king
If you’re serious about landscape photography, you’re probably
already lugging around a considerable amount of gear. Camera bodies,
other lenses (you don’t go out with just one lens, do you?), tripods;
the list goes on.
The last thing you need is more heavy lenses when you’re out and
about, right? Do you know what the Canon 50mm f/1.8 weighs? 4.6 ounces
(130 g). It’s short, sweet, and light to boot.
At the end of the day, all lenses and focal lengths have advantages
and disadvantages, and the case can certainly be made for using wider
glass. But, as a teaching tool, the 50mm prime lens is a great option
for your landscape photography; it will make you think a bit differently
about your photos and easily provide you with clear, sharp images.
Dan McGinty (see his work on 
