About To Try Something: Can Another Tamron Lens Replace Two?

This post is nonsense. Solving an issue of my own creation and imagination.

I am not looking for anything new focal length wise. A refinement or a potential consolidation of existing options. Want to see if Tamron can take the place of two lenses… again. A part of my quest to carry as few lenses as possible in my main kit.

May make sense. May not.

May succeed. May not.

I recently wrote a post about how gear is not the main thing.

I still stand by this.

But here comes Tamron again. They had gotten me before. I bought into their f/2.8 zoom lens trio and was quite happy with it.

Then Tamron did the thing. They released the 35-150mm f/2-2.8.

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

Though a bit salty at first the decision to switch was an easy one.

Two lenses (w/ the 17-28mm f/2.8) to go with two bodies covering 17mm to 150mm. No lens switching.
f/2 available at 35mm.
Great lens performance across the entire range.

So the Tamron 35-150mm replaced their 28-75mm and 70-180mm lenses.

Two lenses instead of one.

On paper anyway. What actually happened was that I used the 35-150mm all of the time…

…and never used the 17-28mm. For work anyway. Why? As much as I like it 28mm is still a bit wide innit’? 28mm is not a focal length to be used for humans. Portraits of humans that you like anyway. Great for playing around.

But 28mm at the long end meant it was not used often even then. On the rare occasion that I brought it out at an event it only came out for one or two pics…

…and then it went back into the camera bag.

For wide pics I have so many tools readily available to me. A phone would do in a pinch often times.

Used a instathreadface darling camera that I carried in my pocket for detail pics at one wedding instead of arming my second camera with the 17-28mm and carrying it around.

So… I am no longer looking for a second event or portrait zoom lens. The 35-150mm has me covered. For the rare, quick wider work I have other options. So what I am now looking for is the perfect… small-ish daily carry camera/zoom pairing? now that I have bailed on the full frame compact thing.

As much as I like the 28-75mm f/2.8, version I or II, I could not make sense of another 28-75mm f/2.8 so that was out. It reached too far into the long end of the focal range at 75mm and was considerably larger than the 17-28mm.

A lens that was perfect on paper due to its focal length was the Sony 16-35mm f/2.8.

It went right up to the 35mm focal length, but courtesy of its size, weight, and price that was a no.

Then in the background there had been a string of interesting lens releases.

Most recently the Sony 24-50mm f/2.8.

I took a hard look at this lens. Reasonably priced for what it was at just over a $1,000. The 50mm part was fine. But 24mm was problematic at the wide end giving up 7mm to the 17mm.

SIGMA released an interesting 28-70mm f/2.8.

It got the size right and carries a reasonable price. But the focal length range does not make any sense for my purposes.

Then a lens came back on to my radar that I had dismissed years ago.

The Tamron 20-40mm f/2.8 Di III VXD.

Released in 2022 my first thought was… but I have the 17-28mm.

But another lens I like made me think again about the long end of the focal range. The Sony FE 40mm f/2.5 G.

I have taken a lot of photos with and spilled a lot of virtual ink about this lens. The biggest surprise for me was how effective it was at taking photos of people.

Distortion and background are such that this makes for a lens that can be used for more than just capturing scenes. But this lens finds itself stuck in the camera bag for a completely different reason. My goal with the A7C/40mm combination was to create a small full frame lens set up. But what I ended up with was a set up that was small for full frame. And an older and less expensive set up took its place.

With this I finally admitted defeat. No full frame camera will meet my compact camera needs. The Leica Q ,the A7C, the S9 or the SIGMA fp (Both lacking a mechanical shutter and EVF and one missing a hotshoe). And that is ok.

So… what if I leaned into this and went with a small zoom instead?

Now the Tamron 20-40mm starts to make sense. The best of both the 17-28mm and 40mm lenses.

Matches the 40mm on the long end.
- Long enough to be used for portraits and a bit of subject isolation in a pinch.
Only loses 3mm to the 17-28mm on the wide end.
- Wide enough for walkabout video work and environmental pics.
Nearly matches the f/2.5 aperture of the 40mm.
Smaller than the already pretty small 17-28mm.
Weather sealed.
While not “compact” small and light enough to carry about without much trouble.
- I could see myself using it and a flash as a three piece photo session go/travel kit.