I’ve mentioned this before but one of my biggest regrets from when I first started making photographs was getting rid of my Tamron 10-24mm F/3.5-4.5 lens too early.

At the time I didn’t realize what a beast of a budget wide angle it was and I’m not proud of it… but hey, I had bills to pay. Luckily, life is chocked full of second, third, and fourth chances. Fast forward ten years and camera lenses are evolving in terms of quality and devolving in terms of price. Enter the Tamron 17-35mm f/2.8-4 Di OSD.

Wait, what’s this? Could it be that my beloved 10-24mm has somehow found its way back to me in a faster, more modern visage? As it turns out, Tamron’s latest entry into the fast wide-angle zoom market essentially blew my dearly departed old workhorse out of the water in terms of sharpness, contrast and overall wow factor. Let me show you why I fell in love with (and was shocked by) the quality of the Tamron 17-35mm f/2.8-4 Di OSD.

Build Quality

Tamron markets the 17-35mm as the most compact and lightweight ultra-wide-angle zoom lenses in its class as of July 2018. After handling the lens I wholeheartedly agree that this lens is indeed light, freakishly light in fact. I was astonished at just how feathery the box was when it arrived and was nearly worried that the box might be empty.

Luckily, this turned out not to be the case and after cracking open the package I was met with the understated good looks which have been the mantra of most of Tamron’s lens offerings; sleek and attractive matte black with bright white markings and that stylish silver band at the base. Seen here mounted on the Canon 5D MK3.

The lens itself, although admittedly light, doesn’t feel fragile. Both the zoom and focusing rings move smoothly and there is no drift while carrying the camera inverted for extended periods of time. This lens has no image stabilization so the outside of the barrel is extremely barren with only the well placed AF/Manual switch, which works well, populating the exterior.

And of course I have to mention the weather sealing which will play a major role in forming my opinion of this lens…but more on that in just a minute. For now, just know that the 17-35mm f/2.8-4 sports the same visually beefy weather sealing that I’ve come to love and ultimately rely on from Tamron.

The weather sealing or as Tamron puts it “moisture-resistant construction” consists of multiple rubber gaskets placed at the most likely points of enter for moisture and dirt.

Image courtesy of Tamron

Being able to physically see that rear rubber gasket around the lens bayonet always makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

Performance

When reviewing out photography gear, there’s always a barely perceivable yet very real line that I walk between testing the product to its fullest and not breaking things. I treat all my review pieces just as I would my own kit and never put them in mortal danger if it can be avoided. In the case of the Tamron 17-35mm… sometimes it can’t be avoided.

Never purposefully endanger your gear, but life happens.

Generally, I carry protective plastic bags while out in the field just in case I get caught in a sudden downpour. Want to guess who forgot to bring them on this trip? That’s right. Me. So of course the weather would naturally turn extraordinarily bad which left me with no choice but to hope Tamron’s weather-sealing was up to the task. Even though the lens was essentially soaked I observed no performance issues at all both during and after the event. The lens continued to perform beautifully.

The autofocus of the 17-35mm was also a pleasure to use. Focusing was acquired quickly, accurately and most of all, virtually inaudible. This is possibly due to Tamron’s “optimized silent drive” (OSD) AF motor.

The inner workings of Tamron’s OSD. Image courtesy of Tamron.

While I don’t know the technical specifics of the OSD system I can vouch for it’s practical performance in real-time autofocusing when it counts. I was truly impressed with the AF of this lens.

Image Quality

Alright, you’ve waited long enough, let’s talk about what caliber of images you can expect from the Tamron 17-35mm F2.8-4. In a word; extremely impressive. I know that’s two words but this is my review and I’m a grown up. Keep reading.

In terms of contrast, color rendition, sharpness and general out of camera image quality the 17-35mm left me speechless. During some my initial work with the lens I literally checked to make sure my camera was in fact set to RAW image mode. The images coming out of the camera were crisp and significantly contrasted. Colors popped and the sharpness at f/2.8 was fantastic. Here are a couple of RAW files shot with the 17-35mm and 5D MK3.

19mm at F/13
17mm at F/13

As I said, sharpness was superb throughout the entire aperture range but this lens truly is tack sharp at apertures smaller than F/4. Edge softening improves considerably after that as well. Distortion was essentially not an issue even when shooting at the lenses shortest focal length of 17mm. The same goes for chromatic aberrations which where virtually non-evident in my tests.

Here are a few more images made with the Tamron 17-35mm and Canon 5D MK3. This time the photos have been processed.

17mm at F/13
17mm at F/18
17mm at F/13
17mm at F/3.2

Final Thoughts

I often talk about our current times and how wonderful it is to be a photographer when lenses of this standard are so readily available. The performance versus cost of today’s modern lenses is quite literally mind boggling when you think about the options available to us only a few decades ago. Fast wide-angle glass with quiet and accurate autofocus is something to be prized by virtually any photographer.

The Tamron 17-35mm f/2.8-4 is a beast in terms of sharpness and overall image quality. What’s more, you’ve seen first hand that it can handle tough weather conditions and still function beautifully. At the time of this writing the Tamron 17-35mm is available for less than $600 which makes it a bargain work horse for landscape generalists who are looking for a high performing, lightweight, low-light capable and most importantly… cost effective wide angle lens.