Tamron 28-200 F/2.8-5.6 Di III RXD for Sony Mirrorless Full Frame/APS-C E-Mount, Model Number: AFA071S700, Black

Great all in one lens. Can easily replace several lenses for ease of travel. Is it a studio quality lens? No. Does it take photos sharp enough with enough speed in one package. Yes. If you only want to travel with one lens, and not break the bank, this is an excellent choice.

The Tamron 28-200mm f/2.8-5.6 Di III RXD is a fantastic all-in-one zoom lens that has become a staple in my camera bag. Its versatility, image quality, and affordability make it a great choice for photographers of all levels.The 28-200mm focal length range covers a wide variety of shooting scenarios, from landscapes to portraits and wildlife. The f/2.8 maximum aperture at the wide end allows for beautiful bokeh and low-light shooting. Despite its impressive zoom range, the lens is surprisingly compact and lightweight, making it easy to carry around. The built-in image stabilization helps to reduce camera shake, especially at longer focal lengths.Compared to other lenses with similar focal lengths, the Tamron 28-200mm offers excellent value for money.The lens produces sharp, detailed images across the entire zoom range. The colors are vibrant, and the contrast is excellent. The autofocus is fast and accurate, even in low-light conditions. It's great for capturing fast-moving subjects. The lens feels well-constructed and durable. It's weather-sealed, making it suitable for outdoor shooting in various conditions.Overall, the Tamron 28-200mm f/2.8-5.6 Di III RXD is a highly recommended lens that offers exceptional value and versatility. It's a great choice for anyone looking for a single lens that can handle a wide range of shooting scenarios.

This lens was weirdly nostalgic for me. When I bought my very first brand new 35 mm SLR back in 1996, I had a strangely similar lens to this, a first generation Vivitar 28 to 200 3.5 to 5.6 in Nikon F mount. At $99, I felt really lucky to find a clearance deal on that lens, but I still had to save my lawnmowing money for a couple weeks. My friends who were more serious about photography were aghast that I dared show up with such an embarrassing piece of glass and plastic. Of course, I was shooting mostly Tri-X and 800 ISO Kodak print film, so it’s not like anything I was printing was sharp enough to show the defects in that lens anyway. But still, decades later I remembered the stigma of such a ridiculous lens. So imagine how I felt in 2023 when I saw the advice of a Sony user group to pick a lens for my niece’s wedding after stepping up from an APS body with awful timing. Head to head against the 28-75 2.8, you actually only lose one stop at the long end. This lens is still only f/4.0 at 75 mm, and it’s barely larger than the shorter fixed aperture lens. It’s like you basically get a free extra 2.8x zoom on top of the same volume and performance as the flagship mid zoom lens, and it really is free because versus that lens there is almost zero price or weight penalty.I took this lens to Alaska and back and only felt in need to take it off when I needed wider or longer, the Laowa 15 at one end and the even more awesome Tamron 150 to 500 at the other end. I really have no complaints to offer about the performance of this lens in all of that travel so far. Pretty good for kayaking too.

Love that lens. It is not perfect but it is very good at what it has been designed for, i.e., give you a lot of flexibility for the money in a light package. It stays on my a7r almost all the time. It suffers from CA wideopen but nothing that cannot be corrected in post. I compared it to the Tamron 28-75mm f2.8 G2 that I had and sold because I could not find a significant advantage or image quality difference except maybe at 28mm f2.8. That said, 2 full stops of more light may be an argument for the G2.

Overall, this is a fine all-around lens, especially if you’re traveling, a beginner and/or on a budget. With that said, the auto focus capabilities leave much to be desired.I’ve been using this Tamron lens on an a7iii for the past 15 months or so. It was a long overdue replacement to the kit lens and an old telephoto a-mount lens I was using. The 28-200mm focal range covers a large area and is very appealing. The lens is not overly heavy or large, making it great for traveling. For many photographers, this can be a decent all-around lens, limiting how many lenses you have to carry. It is an upgrade from the kit lens in most areas.I primarily shoot landscapes and storms. When I first used this lens, I thought I was doing something wrong. The auto focus was very slow, sometimes not able to focus at all. After several months of use and research, I’ve accepted that it’s just not very good with auto focus. I’ve tried every focusing mode imaginable and upgraded firmware. Maybe the a7iii body is part of the limitation, but I think it’s largely the lens itself.When I’m storm chasing, I need a quick and accurate focus, especially when there’s a tornado. These phenomena rarely last longer than a few minutes, so every second counts. It seems like auto focus with this lens is good with close or “obvious” subjects, but I cannot get it to consistently lock in on clouds and other distant objects, even when zoomed in and on a tripod.On the bright side, I was pleasantly surprised at how this lens performed for the April 2024 solar eclipse. With a filter, zoomed in to 200mm (NO teleconverter), manual focus and using the a7iii, I had low expectations. I was able to capture multiple solar prominences and had shots that I’m proud of, after some modest editing.I definitely have mixed feelings on this lens. It does outperform the kit lens with clarity. The extra reach is great, but the auto focus is no better than the kit lens. For the first few months of use, I forced myself to stick to this lens to get comfortable with it and the focusing still disappoints me.I later upgraded to the 16-35mm GMii lens and that lens is in a whole different league. For most landscapes and storm chasing, I need the wider angles anyway. The native 16-35mm rarely leaves my camera, outside of portrait shoots. I’m just disappointed that if there’s a tornado on the horizon, I can’t switch to the Tamron lens to zoom in with any confidence. I recently had another storm chase with a tornado last week and I needed the extra zoom. Auto focus wouldn’t work with this lens and I quickly snapped to manual focus, but due to time constraints, I was shooting handheld and didn’t get the best focus before the tornado dissipated.Honestly, prior to the eclipse, I was ready to give this lens away. I was surprised at how this lens handled that event, even at 200mm with a filter. That performance won me back, but then recent tornado events reminded me about how bad this lens can be with auto focus.I am planning on upgrading camera bodies in 2025, probably the a7Rv, so I am curious to see how this lens handles in that case. I’ll update this review once that happens and I’ve had some time to play with it.

The product was described quite accurately and the delivery was timely!