As you know I am not a big fan of super zooms, however, the Sony 18-200mm drew my attention when it arrived as part of a rental package with the FS100. I was tempted to leave it in the box, except for the sake of curiosity, not expecting much, I mounted it and was totally surprised, in a good way! AF performance was very fast and accurate, totally unexpected, let’s face it, the lens is very slow which usually means sluggish AF. But not in this case, I tried the same indoors and it still didn’t disappoint.
Time to put it on the Nex 5n and see if it performs as well as it did on the FS100. And since Tamron just released the E mount 18-200mm I thought it might be a good idea to do a quick AF speed comparison before I shell out $$$ for my first universal zoom lens! more after the break
Specifications: Sony 18-200mm F3.5-6.3 Tamron 18-200mm F3.5-6.3
Lens groups/elements: Sony 13/15, Tamron 13/17
Minimum focus distance: Sony 1.0′ (30.48 cm) Tamron 1.64′ (0.5 m)
Angle of view: Sony 76° – 8° , Tamron 76° – 8°
Diaphragm Blades: Sony 7, Tamron 7
Dimensions (DxL): Sony Approx. 3.0 x 4.0″ (7.62 x 10.16 cm) , Tamron Approx. 2.7 x 4.0″ (6.86 x 10.16 cm)
Weight: Sony 18.5 oz (524 g) Tamron 16.2 oz (459 g)
Both lenses feature optical image stabilization.
The Tamron is a little smaller, lighter and has two additional lens elements. The built quality of both lenses is excellent, featuring stylish metal bodies, the Tamron in premium black (which I prefer, also available in silver/grey) and the Sony in titanium grey. The built quality of both lenses is much better then the usual superplastic 50x superzooms.
I repeated the focus test a couple of times and the results were always the same: There is no clear winner, both lenses focus very fast and precise, however I prefer the Sony for its slower transition between two objects, this is totally personal of course, it just looks a bit more “human” to my eye. The Tamron has a much snappier transition, which some of you might prefer.
If you are looking for a universal zoom you can’t go wrong with either one!
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thanks for the test !
now i wonder which one is worse…
they’re both slow, especially the sony, which is quite surprising.
most users claim it’s faster than the Tammy. maybe there’s a difference when shooting stills.
the sony is also bulkier and doesn’t seem to fit the nex size concept.
on the other hand the Tammy has this green cast indoors.
you got me thinking again if i should buy any of these lenses. thank you
agree, very sharp and impressive lens
I have the Sony 18-200 and testet it’s sharpness (with stills) against many Canon zooms and primes. I’m impressed with this lens. Much better than Canon 18-135, and even better sharpness than some wideangle primes, like the Sony NEX 2,8/16mm.
I prefer the Sony
Thanks, presume then its automatic.
MaggieW
is the price of these two lenses are same…which one then?
don’t worry, misprint, there is no such setting on the 5n
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Hi again, I have taken the plunge and purchased a Tamron as the budget would not extend to the Sony one. Now I have it in my hands I find that the enclosed leaflet says “Enable image blur correction with the camera settings” I have looked in both the camera settings and the manual index and can’t find a reference to this anywhere. Can you help again.
Hey Martin, the quality is quite good and there is no visible advantage going with A mount lenses, unless you plan to buy the A77 or A65 down the road. If you take that route, get the LA EA2 for Af, much better then the La EA1
Do you have any opinion on the quality of these two super zooms compared to a super zoom for the Sony Alpha A-mount in the same price range? I am considering buying a LA-EA1 adapter anyway, and was wondering if my choices for a super zoom might be better on the Sony Alpha A-mount platform instead?
yup, enable DMF (DirectManualFocus) in the menu and you can override af with the Tamron and the Sony
With autofocus is there manual override, ie can you override by turning the focus ring while in autofocus?
Thanks Mike for comment 13. What a really useful top tip.
exactly, I like the slow focus transition for beauty and fashion, but for most regular shoots in good light with enough contrast, the Tamron snaps into focus, one more thing to consider, re focus hunting, the Tamron “pumps” meaning it focuses back and forth rather quickly before nailing it, very annoying during video, the Sony is much smoother, doesn’t do that pumping thing
@mike, okay, glad you noticed that. So a conclusion I could draw from this is that if you wanted a more gradual focus speed which would be good for certain types of video, the Sony would be better, but for photos and regular video, the Tamron is the winner? just wanting to get things straight.
play around, give it a try, click on curves, click the pull down menu next to RGB, it will display the individual channels
Thanks for that. As a senior I’m getting a little long in the tooth so can’t be faffing about to much. So may go for the Sony. I assume you mean the curves tool in photoShop. Can’t see any channels in the curves tool. !
thanks for swinging by, Jason! glad you find it useful
look at the channels in curves, you will find blue, green and red and you can correct it by changing the green or red channel, can be tricky and a hassle, I admit. if color consistency is a concern, perhaps Sony lenses are best
Great test, and thanks for sharing
Jay
I have a Nex 5n and am looking to buy either a Sony or Tamron 18-200. Glad to see some comparisons between the two. Slightly concerned about the green colour (I’m English) cast. Not sure where to correct this in curves though. And still don’t know which to go for. Price over here is about £150 different between the two (about 225 USD). Await more comments.
True, I didn’t mention it since I was only testing focus speed, but the Tamron does have a green color cast and it is not WB related. Easy to correct by changing the green channel in curves, though it can be bit annoying.
hey Matthew, you are right of course, however, for my type of work (fashion/beauty) I do prefer the slower focus transition of the Sony but aside from that, I totally see the advantage of the snappier focus on the Tamron. I repeated that particular move a couple of times and the Sony was slower every time.
hey Samy, thanks for the tip, interesting, I will definitely look into this
Is it my imagination or is there a major color difference between the two with Tamron producing a green color cast on everything? Was white balance fixed? Is it just a white balance problem? Also, the AF difference seems completely negligible, neither seems faster to me. I’d be more concerned about the color issue.
So upon looking at the video the outside focus really just looks identical, but on the inside shot the advantage is obviously to Tamron. It takes the Sony 3-4 seconds to find focus, and it does so in obvious hunting “steps”, when looking at the Tamron it is a smooth transition, a tad faster (2-3 seconds), and there is no hunting.
Am I the only one seeing this?
Make sure to test the Sweep Panorama function with the Tamron. Even at 18mm and the stabilizer turned off, you will not get consistent results. However the stabilization is much much better on the Tamron. Test it out!
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