Studio Tests
The 10-24mm gives generally good, if not outstanding results; distortion is well controlled and central sharpness is high once stopped down F5.6, especially at 10mm. However sharpness wide open is distinctly low, and corners are soft at all settings. Our test sample also showed slight decentering, which was most visible at the 24mm setting with a rather soft right-hand side to the frame.
| Sharpness | Sharpness is generally poor wide open, and examination of the checkerboard crops shows low contrast due to halation effects (quite possibly a result of the slight decentering mentioned above). The lens improves dramatically on stopping down; central sharpness is extremely high at 10mm, but diminishes progressively at longer focal lengths; however the extreme corners remain soft at all settings. As expected for this type of lens, best results are obtained at F5.6-F11, with the optimum aperture being F8. |
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| Chromatic Aberration | Chromatic aberration is kept reasonably low; fringing is visible at all focal lengths, but at levels no worse than those found on typical standard zooms. The CA profile at 10mm is rather complex with significant re-correction towards the corners (resulting in fringing which changes progressively from red/cyan, through green/magenta, to blue/yellow); this may well cause problems for software correction. However at longer focal lengths the pattern changes to red/cyan fringing with a simple linear profile, and therefore straightforward to correct in software. |
| Falloff | We consider falloff to start becoming a potential problem when the corner illumination falls to more than 1 stop below the center. The 10-24mm shows about 2 stops wide open at wideangle (with a slightly asymmetric pattern), but this decreases rapidly on stopping down, settling at 1.3 stops at F8 and smaller apertures. This will rarely be noticeable in real-world use, and usually swamped by natural lighting variations across such a wide field of view. At 13mm and longer, falloff is essentially a non-issue at any aperture. |
| Distortion | Distortion is kept impressively low throughout the range for such a wide angle lens; 1.1% barrel distortion at 10mm, increasing to a maximum of 1.6% at 13mm then decreasing again at longer focal lengths. In context, this is much lower than that usually seen at the wide end of typical standard zooms. |
Macro Focus
| A wide angle zoom is unlikely to be your first port of call for macro work, but this lens doesn’t do too badly anyway. Maximum magnification is 0.2x, achieved at 24mm and a closest focus distance of 24cm, giving a rather tight working distance of just 10cm from the subject to the front of the lens. Image quality is actually pretty good; the image is soft wide open, but stop down to F8 and both central and corner sharpness is high. There’ s noticeable barrel distortion, and a little blue/yellow chromatic aberration. | |
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Macro — 118 x 78 mm coverage Distortion: Moderate barrel Corner softness: Low Focal length: 24mm (36 mm equiv) |
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FX (Full Frame) Coverage
Both the Nikon and Canon mount versions of this lens will mount on full-frame DSLRs; on Nikon cameras (D3, D3X, D700) DX crop mode will be automatically selected (and the camera will therefore shoot at reduced resolution). The lens’s image circle obviously doesn’t fully cover the 35mm full frame format at wideangle, but as is common for this type of lens, the vignetting progressively diminishes on zooming in, and coverage is essentially complete at focal lengths of 15mm and longer. We’re not going to formally test a DX lens on full-frame, but impressions are that the lens would be quite useable in an emergency or for non-critical applications.
| 10mm | 13mm | 15mm | 24mm |
Design
The 10-24mm follows Tamron’s current design idiom of functionality without fripperies; the styling is perhaps best described as ‘plain’. Build is much as we’d expect at this level, with a metal mount and plastic barrel exterior; however (and perhaps dues to its short, stubby form) this lens feels overall more solid and better-finished than the 18-270mm F3.5-6.3 VC we reviewed recently. The barrel is dominated by the zoom ring towards the rear and the focus ring at the front, with a conventional focus-mode selection switch on the side of the lens next to the mount. Size and weight is very much the norm for this class of lens.
On the camera
The lens is short and stubby and, at 406g, reasonably light in weight; this relatively compact size means it will be perfectly at home even on smaller cameras such as the Canon EOS 1000D, Sony Alpha 200, or Nikon D60. With scarcely any extension during zooming, it also maintains its balance during shooting no matter what focal length you’re using. The external controls are all well-positioned, and easy to find and operate with the camera to your eye.
It’s worth pointing out that this lens isn’t terribly compatible with the on-board flashes found on DSLRs; most of these only cover an angle of view equivalent to using an 18mm lens. At wider angles, the flash will give uneven frame coverage with darkening towards the corners, coupled with shadowing from the lens itself in the lower centre of the frame. This is absolutely normal for a wideangle zoom; if you really want to use this lens with flash you’ll need to invest in a suitable external unit.
Autofocus
The 10-24mm features Tamron’s now familiar micro-motor based system for autofocus, at least on Canon and Nikon mounts (we presume Sony and Pentax users will get a ‘screw-drive’ system driven from the camera body). This means that the lens will autofocus on ‘baby’ Nikon bodies, i.e. the D40/D40X/D60 series.
We’ve been critical of Tamron’s AF systems in previous reviews, but that on the 10-24mm does at least feel a bit faster and more responsive than the ones used on either the 18-270mm F3.6-6.3 Di-II VC or the 70-200mm F2.8 Macro. This is at least in part due to the very small travels used for focusing a wideangle over the most commonly-used distance range; infinity to 3ft/1m requires less than 10 degrees rotation of the focus ring. Of course it’s also important to realize that for typical uses of wideangle lenses (e.g. landscapes and interiors) AF speed is not terribly important anyway, as the subject is not exactly going anywhere. Overall this means the AF performance of this lens is quite acceptable in real-world use.
Lens body elements
| The lens comes in versions for Canon, Nikon, Pentax and Sony DSLRs. Our sample was in Nikon F mount. | |
|---|---|
| The filter thread is 77mm. It does not rotate on autofocusing, which should please filter users. A note of warning though; normal 8mm-thick polarisers will vignette significantly with the lens set to 10mm, so you’ll need to use a slim-mount one instead. Click here for an example of this vignetting (upper left quarter of the frame, 10mm F8, standard-type Hoya polariser). | |
| The large petal-type AB001 bayonet-mount hood is provided as standard, and fits positively onto the front of the lens. It’s made of thick black plastic and features ribbed mouldings on the inside to minimize reflections of stray light into the lens. White dots on the outside of the hood aid alignment for mounting.There’s plenty of space between the hood and filter thread to allow easy rotation of polarisers, but… | |
| …this also means that you might struggle to fit the lens into a bag with the hood reversed for storage, as shown here. That hood is fully 10.7cm / 4.2″ in diameter; not exactly a paragon of space-efficiency. | |
| The zoom ring has a 37mm wide ribbed rubber grip, and the action is smooth and precise. It rotates 80 degrees clockwise from wide to, well, less wide; the ‘right’ way for Nikon owners, but opposite to Canon lenses. The lens is physically shortest around the 14mm setting, and the front element extends just 10mm on zooming to 24mm. | |
| The 12mm wide focus ring rotates 90 degrees anticlockwise from infinity to 0.5m, again matching Nikon lenses and opposite to Canons. A basic distance scale is marked in feet and meters. The focus ring travels slightly past the infinity position, and rotates during autofocus.The feel of the focus ring is smooth, but slightly loose. | |
| A large, positive switch on the side of the lens barrel turns the focus mode between auto and manual (and will presumably be absent from Sony and Pentax versions). |
Tamron 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5 Di II VC HLD MTF Charts
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The blue column represents readings from the centre of the picture frame at the various apertures and the green is from the edges. |
CA (Chromatic Aberration) is corrected to an astounding degree at the centre of the image, at all focal lengths. The edges do display some visible CA, although this can be corrected in software. This can clearly be seen in several of the images shot for the review.
Specific image quality issues
As always, our studio tests are backed up by taking hundreds of photographs with the lens across a range of subjects, and examining them in detail. This allows us to confirm our studio observations, and identify any other issues which don’t show up in the tests. The Tamron 10-24mm performed perfectly well in normal use, with no serious vices.
Flare
Control of flare is a critical feature of a superwide lens; with such a broad view of the world, bright light sources will find themselves in the frame on a regular basis. Overall the 10-24mm does pretty well in this regard, retaining contrast well in side- and back-lit conditions, even in the bright, low winter sun.
At its widest settings, the lens gives a signature red arc-shaped flare pattern when bright light sources are placed either in or just outside the frame; this progressively reduces in size and intensity on stopping down. The lens also deals rather well with strongly backlit situations at the long end of the zoom range (and therefore with the sun impinging directly on the front element); the sample below loses some contrast on the right hand side, and there is one small flare spot visible, but overall it’s a pretty good result.
| 10mm F8, sun in corner of frame | 24mm F6.3, strong backlight |
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Chromatic aberration
As we’d expect from a wideangle zoom, the 10-24mm suffers from its fair share of chromatic aberration, although no more than the typical DSLR kit lens. The samples and crops below give an idea of what to expect; at 16mm (around the point where CA is strongest) there’s some fairly obvious red/cyan fringing. At the widest setting of 10mm, the fringing is changes in color across the frame; the selected crop shows a rather abrupt change from green/magenta to blue/yellow fringing in the extreme corners. The crops at the bottom show how effectively Nikon’s in-camera CA correction on the D300 (also present on the D90) removes this fringing; this also gives an idea of how well software correction in post-processing is likely to work.
| 16mm | 10mm |
|---|---|
| F8, Nikon D300 | F11, Nikon D300 |
| 100% crop, upper left | 100% crop, top left corner |
| 100% crop, Nikon D300 JPEG | 100% crop, Nikon D300 JPEG |
Corner Softness
Our studio tests reveal a certain propensity for soft corners, and the samples below illustrate how this looks in practice. The 100% crops come from the three regions outlined in red on the the thumbnail image.
At 10mm, central sharpness is impressively high, and detail continues to hold up well out to the location of the second crop shown below (approximately 55% along the image diagonal). Beyond this sharpness gradually drops towards the extreme corners, which are very soft indeed. The story at 24mm is slightly different; here the centre is not quite as good as at 10mm, and sharpness gradually declines across the frame, with the corners again extremely soft. (Our review sample also showed some asymmetry at 24mm, with the top right corner worst affected, showing extreme softness and ghosting as shown below).
| 10mm | 24mm |
|---|---|
| F8, Nikon D300 | F8, Nikon D300 |
| 100% crop, centre | 100% crop, centre |
| 100% crop, upper right | 100% crop, upper right |
| 100% crop, top right | 100% crop, top right |
Overall this lens may not be the best choice if you demand the extreme corners to be perfectly sharp, but it is also worth bearing in mind that just a slight crop will remove the most obviously soft regions.
Softness wide open
The second clear issue identified in our chart tests is softness wide open. This turns out to be a case of extremely low local contrast due to halation, with fine detail still being recorded. The crops below show this clearly, with two images taken seconds apart with the lens wide open at F3.8, then stopped down to F8. The 100% crop from the centre of the frame looks somewhat ‘hazy’ at F3.8, and the loss of contrast on the underside of the bridge walkways (on the left side of the crop) is very obvious. The 10-24mm is therefore best shot stopped down to at least F5.6 whenever possible; however as it’s the kind of lens you’ll probably be shooting at F8 anyway, this isn’t really a significant problem in actual use. Afflicted images can also be ‘rescued’ to some extent by the application of a broad radius unsharp mask; amount = 10, radius = 50, threshold = 0 or similar. (It’s also quite possible that this is to some extent a sample-specific issue, resulting from the decentering observed in our studio tests.)
Tamron 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5 Di II VC HLD Sample Photos
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Value For Money
The Tamron 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5 Di II VC HLD Lens is priced at £579.99, which compares with the previous version, the Tamron SP 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5 Di II LD AF Aspherical at £419 for Canon, Nikon or Sony A fit, or £377 for Pentax K fit.
There are few exact competitor lenses, but there is the Nikon AF-S 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5 G DX at £729.
The nearest equivalent for most marques are the 12-24mm lenses, for example, the SMC Pentax-DA 12-24mm f/4 ED AL IF (£779), Nikon AF-S 12-24mm f/4 G IF ED DX (£979), Sigma 12-24mm Art DG HSM (£1649) and Sigma 12-24mm f/4.5-5.6 II DG HSM (£649).
Thinking slightly outside the box, there are also the Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM (£499) and the Canon EF 11-24mm f/4L USM (£2699). The latter is, of course, a full frame lens but could be used on a crop sensor.
For more options have a look at the Top 5 Best Tamron lenses or Top 15 Wide-angle Landscape Lenses.
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Tamron 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5 Di II VC HLD Performance
Sharpness at 10mm is centrally outstanding from f/3.5 to f/8. It is excellent at f/11, very good at f/16 and still good even at f/22. Very impressive. At the edges, the result is very good from f/3.5 to f/5.6, excellent at f/8 and f/11, very good at f/16 and fairly soft at f/22.
15mm shows outstanding central sharpness from f/4 to f/8, remaining excellent at f/11, very good at f/16 and good at f/22 down to f/25. The edges are very good from f/4 to f/11, good at f/16 but soft beyond that at f/22 and f/25.
20mm again shows outstanding central sharpness from f/4.5 to f/8, becoming excellent at f/11, very good at f/16, good at f/22 and generally soft at f/29. The edges are good from f/4.5 through to f/16, but soft at f/22 and f/29.
At 24mm the performance shows excellent central sharpness at f/4.5, becoming outstanding at f/5.6 and f/8, very good at f/16, good at f/22 and becoming soft by f/29. The edges are very good from f/4.5 to f/11, good at f/16, soft at f/22 and very soft at f/29.
Sharpness has been concentrated firmly on the centre of the field, with some outstanding results. The edges do lag behind, as do apertures smaller than f/11. The lens performs better at wider apertures, so may be more suitable for low light users, or those interested perhaps in street photography. Using small apertures for maximum depth of field may well lead to soft edges.
Tamron 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5 Di II VC HLD Chromatic Aberration Charts
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Chromatic aberration (CA) is the lens’ inability to focus on the sensor or film all colours of visible light at the same point. Severe chromatic aberration gives a noticeable fringing or a halo effect around sharp edges within the picture. It can be cured in software. |
Flare resistance is excellent and even against the light there is no loss of contrast, nor are there any artefacts visible.
Distortion at 10mm is a fairly obvious -3.35% of barrelling. By 15mm this has changed to near perfect rendering, showing just +0.05% of pincushion. This does increase slightly as we zoom in, with pincushion distortion measuring +1.12% at 20mm and +1.30% at 24mm. It is controlled very well for such a wide zoom lens, which is fortunate as pincushion distortion in a wide-angle lens is not what our eyes expect to see.
There is no complaint regarding the bokeh of the lens. It has a very attractive overall rendering. Likewise the VC system, which easily delivers the promised 4 stop advantage.
Finally, the VC system once again is found to more than live up to its claims. Four stops are claimed, four stops can be expected without any hesitation. This may not be seen to be quite as relevant as in a telephoto lens, but will still be of value in low-light situations where the camera needs to be hand-held.
Tamron 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5 Di II VC HLD Verdict
The Tamron 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5 Di II VC HLD Lens is an excellent lens that can be highly recommended. It is designed with the centre of the field very much in mind, so depending on use, it should be possible to enjoy the outstanding sharpness when the main subject is fairly centrally placed. However, it is still possible to have excellent edge sharpness if the aperture used is chosen with that in mind.
It is an attractive optic, not only for its sharpness and other optical qualities but also for its smart new design ethos, matching nicely with other new Tamron lenses. Add the moisture resistance and a price competitive with its peers and we have a very useful general purpose wide angle zoom capable of very satisfactory results.
Tamron 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5 Di II VC HLD Cons
- High edge CA
- Lower edge sharpness at smaller apertures
Features4/5
Handling5/5
Performance4/5
Value4.5/5
Overall Verdict
Tamron 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5 Di II VC HLD Handling and Features
A wide petal type lens hood is included that bayonets securely onto the lens. This bayonet surrounds a 77mm filter thread. Immediately behind this lies the zoom ring, clearly marked and firm in operation. It is smooth enough, although lacks the silky feel of more expensive optics.
The distance scale is between this ring and the thin manual focus ring, and is housed under a clear plastic window. Distances are marked in feet and metres. Focusing is down to 0.24m (9.4 inches), a maximum magnification of 1:5.3 or 0.19x. The manual focusing ring can be used at any time as there is full manual override of the AF system. The ring is much smoother in operation than the zoom ring. Placement of the manual focus ring is such that the hand has no tendency to nudge it inadvertently when zooming.
Closest to the camera body we find two switches. There is the usual AF/MF switch, plus the on/off switch for the VC (Vibration Compensation) system. A benefit of four stops is claimed. Tamron has managed to include VC in this lens for the first time, and have achieved this whilst hardly changing the size at all compared to the previous model. The instructions advise to turn the VC system off when using a tripod.
Weighing in at a modest 440g for both Canon and Nikon versions, the lens is quite compact. It is moisture resistant, something that has been particularly relevant during this review. There are 7 circular diaphragm blades, designed to improve the bokeh of the lens. This is also a first outing for Tamron’s HLD (High/Low torque modulated drive motor) which is claimed to improve the speed and accuracy of AF. The diaphragm blades are also driven electromagnetically, now in both Canon and Nikon variants. Only certain Nikon bodies will support this.
Optical construction is 16 elements in 11 groups, which include 1 LD (low Dispersion), 1 XLD (Extra Low Dispersion), Aspherical and Hybrid Aspherical elements. Tamron utilise their BBAR (Broad-Band Anti-Reflection) and Fluorine coatings.
The lens is compatible with the Tamron TAP-in console, which enables a USB connection to a PC. This makes firmware upgrades to the lens possible, plus fine adjustments to the AF and VC systems.
In use, the lens proves to be extremely comfortable to use and very efficient. Focusing is fast, the lens is compact and light, balancing very well with the Canon EOS 600D used for this review. 10-24mm is a very useful ultra-wide to wide standard lens, offering a powerful wide angle experience even when the APS-C crop factor is taken into account.
