Wedding Duty: The Only Lens I Needed. Tamron 35-150mm f/2-2.8 Di III VXD.

Lens Test - Tamron 35-150mm f/2-2.8 Di III VXD

For the last wedding I photographed as second shooter I wrote a post where I called the Tamron 35-150mm f/2-2.8 Goldilens. A name I did not make up. Credit goes to Keith Prime. A very accurate description.

I brought a menagerie of gear with me to this wedding. But I learned from the last wedding. There I had brought everything out of the vehicle, but most of it never left the cart I had it in. So this gear sat mostly unused. Now this time around it went mostly unused once again. The only difference is that I learned a little and left most of it in the vehicle. The majority of the photos were taken with the 35-150mm. Had thought I would pair the 35-150mm with the Tamron 17-28mm f/2.8.

But this time just like the last wedding I barely used the 17-28mm. I present to you the only 17-28mm f/2.8 photo in my portfolio from this wedding.

Took this while I was waiting for the groomsmen. I like the photo. But it was not an essential shot for the day.

So back to the 35-150mm f/2-2.8.

It did everything well. And by the end of the evening, I was using it for something that would usually scream fast prime.

I’ll start at the beginning of the day.

Groomsmen

Bridesmaids

Wedding

Reception

I was blown away once again by how versatile this lens is. These are just samples. As demonstrated above it performed well at all focal lengths all day. And all evening. The wedding started at 4pm on the dot which only gave us about an hour of daylight. This next section surprised me. It was taken after the sun went down. Thought I would have instinctively reached for the fast prime, but no. I felt comfortable continuing with the 35-150mm. Was so happy with the initial results I felt no need to change. Teamed with the V1 on camera and remotely it performed flawlessly.

Snow and the Get Away

There it is. The lens did everything asked of it. The focus was fast and accurate. It tracked perfectly. Now I did use another camera and lens that day.

It is always good to have options. May bring a few more pieces of gear in the future, but I will be packing much lighter next time. All I really need is this lens, a recent Sony body, and a V1 flash and that would be it. Learned my lesson last time and bought higher capacity cards so I had plenty of space at the end of the evening. One battery got me through the day. I switched the battery once but it was just a precaution. The battery was low but had not run down. Those three pieces could have easily gotten me through the entire wedding.

This was the case with the last wedding also. Performance wise a far improvement over the first wedding I did in late 2019. There I had the Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 and the Sony 70-200mm f/2.8 G Master. Both were great lenses and I had dubbed the Sony “the precious”. They are the reason I picked up two camera bodies. As far as I am concerned two bodies are now optional. Good to have, but serves more as a backup rather than a necessity. They performed very well but I cannot stress enough how great it is not to have to switch between cameras at all.

And I have not even touched upon the many great features of this lens.

Weather Resistance
AF Hold Button
AF/MF Switch
USB-C Firmware and Configuration Support by Computer of Mobile App
Custom Switch
Zoom Lock Switch

This is far from the most expensive Sony FE lens on the market. But it is sizing up to be the most valuable one so far. I guess that makes it the new precious by default.