A Lens That Serves Me Well Even When It Does Not Leave The Bag: Tamron 17-28mm f/2.8 FE.

Preface: Yet another post to distract and remind myself why I need newly released gear like a hole in the head.

Not the first post like this. I wrote a similar post about wide angle lenses available at the time a while ago. I could mark myself safe from the other lenses on the market.

But then 2023 saw quite a few lens releases. A lot of them have been wide angle lenses. My relationship with wide angle lenses is quite strange.

For some reason, with every new wide angle lens release I am convinced that I want them. Any of them that come out. But…

I hardly ever use wide angle lenses.

But with every release, I see sample images and some far flung, deeply rooted part of my brain yells out, “Get me that lens!”.

But fortunately, I now remember a couple of things before I hit that confirm purchase button. (What? Yes. A couple have made it into my virtual cart before I snap out of it.)

1. A quick perusal of my wide angle lens flickr galleries confirms that wide angle photography is not my bag.
   • Sure. There will be a mess of photos right after I purchase a lens. But then it usually tapers off to nothing pretty quickly.
2. Not mentioned until now, but I have an inexpensive manual focus TTArtisans 11mm f/2.8 fisheye lens.
   • I list this lens because Lightroom quickly converts these images to rectilinear with one click of a lens profile. But this is not the lens that really saves me from myself.
3. I currently own an AF rectilinear full frame zoom lens for Sony that meets my needs in a realistic sense. The Tamron 17-28mm f/2.8 Di III RXD.

So those are the lenses that saved me. Saved from what? Welp.

Viltrox AF 20mm f/2.8 Lens (Sony E)

• Why do I want it?
  • $158.
  • Compact.
• But…
  • That focal length and aperture is covered by Tamron.
  • The 17-28mm is not exactly huge.

7artisans Photoelectric 9mm f/5.6 Lens (Sony E)

• Why do I want it?
  • Um… 9mm rectilinear lens.
• But…
  • f/5.6.
  • I have next to no use for a 9mm lens.
  • The TTArtisans 11mm corrected would be close enough for my needs.

Sigma 14mm f/1.4 DG DN Art Lens (Sony E)

• Why do I want it?
  • It is an Art lens.
  • 14mm.
  • f/1.4.
  • Astrophotography.
• But…
  • Costing almost $1,600 and its large size made this the easiest to dismiss.
  • I do not do astrophotography. A fine endeavor. Just not my thing.

Viltrox AF 16mm f/1.8 FE Lens (Sony E)

• Why do I want it?
  • See SIGMA listing above remove the Art reference and dial things down to 16mm and f/1.8.
  • Is over $1,000 less than that SIGMA.
  • Adds a nifty little electronic display screen.
• But…
  • I still do not do astrophotography.

7artisans Photoelectric 15mm f/4 Lens (Sony E)

• Why do I want it?
  • I am a sucker for a 7Artisans lens.
• But…
  • f/4 is slower than the f/2.8 lenses I already have.

For at least a moment I seriously considered each one of these lenses. But yet again, I remembered that…

1. I do not shoot wide that often.
2. When I do I just need to use what I have access to.

Here are my favorite samples from both.

TTArtisan 11mm f/2.8 Lens for Sony E (De-fisheyed in Lightroom)

De-fisheyed (Using the Rokinon 7.5mm fisheye lens profile in Lightroom.) I could not ask any better than that for my use case. And there are other advantages to the 11mm.

• It is a fisheye lens so images left as is provide a different perspective.
• It only costs $215.

Now on to the headliner.

Tamron 17-28mm f/2.8 Di III RXD Lens for Sony E

This was the last of the original Tamron f/2.8 trinity that I purchased.

Now it is the only one left after the other two were traded when Tamron upended my apple cart by releasing the Tamron 35-150mm f/2-2.8 Di III VXD Lens. So I now have a Tamron duo instead of a trio.

Which has been fantastic. Covering 17mm to 150mm (225mm when I use APS-C crop mode) with two lenses has removed the whole “What lenses do I need?” debate.

Even though I do not use it often it is still a fantastic lens. How good I imagine you asking? Welp. I hear tell that the more expensive Nikon 17-28mm f/2.8 is a reskinned Tamon 17-28mm f/2.8.

On to the Tamron 17-28mm f/2.8 photos.

So even though I do not use this lens often, it still serves me well. Just as it served as one lens to simplify my wide lens lineup in the past it also serves as a defense from new lens releases also.

Well done Tamron.

Happy capturing.

-ELW