Tamron 28-75mm F2.8 Di III RXD - A really long-term review

Introduction

A long time ago I made the switch from a Nikon crop-sensor camera to the Sony system. The Sony A7 III had just come out and with it’s - for the time - miraculous capabilities. A full frame camera shooting 10 frames a second while being tiny compared to the Nikon D850s of the time was just sitting right with me so I made the jump.

And which lenses did I pick up for the system? My first lens was of course the Samyang 24mm F2.8 FE (Check out my thoughts on the lens here). Which arrived a week before the Tamron 28-75mm F2.8 Di III RXD.

The Tamron was -just like the Sony A7 III- basically a miracle: An affordable and sharp and pretty compact F2.8 zoom - unheard of! My guess is that this combination was a real system seller for Sony.

The Tamron 28-75 F2.8 Di III RXD pairs really well with the bigger Sony bodies but is still a small overall package.

But now - in 2025 - the lens has gotten quite old, there is even a successor (The Tamron 28-75mm F2.8 Di III VXD G2), and it begs the question if the lens still holds up in a world of 60 megapixels. Luckily I’ve had the opportunity to have the lens as my companion for more than six years and it has served me on several camera bodies such as the Sony A7 III, A7R IVa, Sony A7C II and the Sony A7R V. I’ve taken way more that 10.000 images with the lens over the years, so I do feel qualified to share my opinion on it, as well as comparing it to my other lenses and other zooms.

So let’s get into it: Is the Tamron 28-75mm F2.8 Di III RXD lens still worth it today?

Build Quality and Design

The Design of the Tamron 28-75mm F2.8 Di III RXD is a matter of taste, I find the lens to be quite pleasing to the eye, however not in the slightest bit exciting, The look pairs well with the Sony cameras as it’s quite utilitarian and functional.

The build quality, and that’s basically something only long-term reviews can answer for you, is also good. But let me explain: The lens is mainly made of plastic with a metal mount and rubber focus and zoom rings. The plastic has shown itself to be very scratch resistant. My copy doesn’t have noticeable marks on it, even tough this is still my go-to lens for travels. The lens hood is made of a different plastic which scratches easier. Probably also because it tends to bump things when hiking. The hood still pops into place perfectly, even after countless removals.

The weather sealing is also something Tamron prides itself on. According to the manufacturer there are seal points throughout the lens as well as a rubber gasket on the metal lens mount. I can confirm the rubber gasket, and also that I have used the lens in any and every weather and haven’t had any problem with water ingress.

One thing of note is that in my copy of the lens the zoom ring loosened itself partly after I left the lens in direct sunlight in 40° Celsius (104F) in Sardinia. This has not impacted the lens performance in any way, it’s just a very mild annoyance, as the rubber isn’t flush to the rest of the body anymore. It doesn’t bother me enough to send it for repairs or actually order a new zoom ring for 10€ and replace it.

So overall build quality: Satisfactory. No complaints for a lens of this price. Could it feel heftier and more premium? Certainly. Is it durable and a solid companion even after years of use? Yes, it is.

Size, Weight and Handling

The Tamron 28-75mm F2.8 Di III RXD is quite small for a fast F2.8 zoom and pairs well with the regular Sony bodies, such as the Sony A7 IV. The Sony A7C, Sony A7C II or Sony A7Cr don’t do as well as the entire setup becomes very front heavy, especially when used for a longer period of time. It’s also not really of use for APS-C cameras such as the Sony A6700: The field of view would be comparable to a 42-112mm zoom, quite the unusual focal length.

The lens also fits right into the lineup of fast Tamron zooms with its overall size as well as the 67mm filter thread, which is shared among the three lenses.

With 550g and a length of 117mm or 4.6” the lens does come with some size and heft. It’s not a lens you just casually throw into your bag. It is quite narrow, measuring only 73mm or 2.9” in diameter. When zooming the lens extend around two centimeters or a little less than an inch. It doesn’t feel like this affects the balance too much, but I’ve never used the lens with a gimbal. When using the lens on a tripod, especially when using a smaller ball head, the lens is heavy enough to pull down the camera in the front to change the framing, so prepare accordingly by aiming a little high before fixing the ball head.

The lens does not have any switches, none for manual focus, none for the missing image stabilization and there is also no aperture ring. This lens doesn’t offer any of the comfort that more expensive lenses offer.

The zoom action in the beginning was quite stiff and has loosened over time – which is expected – but the zoom is now at a point where just a little bit of zoom creep occurs: When carrying the lens on the camera and on a shoulder strap or a mounting point on your backpack the zoom does extend a little bit over time. My copy shifts from around 28mm in its closed position to around the 40mm mark. This is not the end of the world, just kind of annoying. This behavior started after around 5 years of use.

Manual Focus

The manual focus is – as in all newer Sony lenses – a focus by wire system. The focus changes differently when turning the focus ring at different speeds: The faster you turn, the faster the focus changes. I’ve been told this makes repeatable focus pulls in video work difficult.  For photos this was fine for me, as small adjustments were easy and precise. When configured the image magnification automatically opens when turning the focus ring in manual focus, which is nice.

Autofocus

Autofocus for regular work is fine. It’s quick and quite and I haven’t really had any moments where the focus didn’t grab what I wanted it to grab.

The lens can struggle in darker conditions when stopping down. This can cause the lens to hunt for focus, especially in AF-C.

Other focus modes such as tracking, eye-AF and so forth work perfectly fine.

The lens does struggle a bit when it comes to sports with erratic movements, which I do like to shoot. In these intense moments the lens tends to miss focus by very small margins, but it’s usually still a usable image, when desperately needed. I didn’t use the lens much for this purpose as I shoot indoor sports mostly and even a fast F2.8 aperture just isn’t enough in terms of light gathering and more importantly background separation of the subject in question.

Overall autofocus is perfectly fine, except for erratic sports and darker conditions where it can struggle a little bit.

Image Quality

• Sharpness

  The sharpness of the Tamron 28-75mm F2.8 Di III RXD can be summed up pretty easily: The center is always really good, the corners are softer at F2.8.

  A little closer look shows that at 28mm the sharpness is already good in the center, but gradually improves until F5.6. The corners are softer at F2.8 and also gradually get better up to F8.0 although they never really reach the same level of sharpness as the center.

  At 75mm the lens basically behaves the same way: Good center, corners a little weaker. The lens also sharpens up until F5.6.

  The medium range focal length are always a little sharper than the extremes.

  The sharpness differences are noticeable if you look for them, but other than that I didn’t really pay too much attention in the way I shoot. I also don’t really care about perfect corners.

  Overall has to be said that the sharpness throughout the zoom range and throughout the aperture range (apart from F22, where the lens is quite soft) is perfectly usable. There may be sharper options but printing up to DIN A2 sizes is perfectly fine in my experience. I also haven’t printed anything larger.

The sun is just to the left of the frame in the morning. The image is shot around 70mm and slightly cropped and the loss of contrast is mainly due to the edit.

The Out-of-Focus areas easily fall off into the distance and create a quite pleasing look. Even though the background is really busy.

The sun is directly in the frame and didn’t produce much in terms of flaring or ghosting. A nice performance.

Again, the sun is in the frame and didn’t have a negative effect on the image.

This image is shot at 75mm and F2.8 and creates a somewhat shallow depth of field. The bokeh, again, is pretty pleasing, albeit not overly strong/present.

The sun is again directly in the frame without too much ghosting or flaring. The sunstar is pretty unspectacular.

When the sun is in the edge of the frame you can clearly see some flaring and also a loss of contrast which is still present after editing. However in my opinion this is a very pleasing effect as it mirrors the way our eyes work.

The sun is just to the right of the image and does introduce some ghosting and loss of contrast in the right side of the image.

Look at this beautiful… out of foucs transition. It’s quite pleasing. Oh, a cat!

This image is heavily cropped, but still perfectly usable. Sometimes 75mm just isn’t enough. Keep that in mind for a second lens or a different one.

• Chromatic Aberrations

There are some noticeable chromatic aberrations when shooting at close focusing distance and shooting wide open. You can even see it in the images for the close focusing. But other than that there aren’t really any aberrations worthy to talk about.

• Distortion

  The lens isn’t really too distorted, especially when the automatic corrections are turned on. You wont really notice them. However there are some distortions: At 28mm there is some so-called barrel distortion, where lines are bent outward. On the long end there is some pincushion distortion, meaning lines are bent inward. This can be flattering for portraits as is slims down the subject.

  The distortion flips around the 40mm mark, but again, it’s really not noticeable in everyday shooting.

• Flare Resistance

  There can be some flare, especially in wide angle situations. The image can appear quite washed out when the sun is on the edge of the frame, this however gives a quite pleasing gradient in my opinion. It can also be pretty strong when shooting in backlit situations. This is definitely not an area of the lens where it excels. More expensive options should perform significantly better.

This image had it’s corners darkened in post processing, however there is some noticable vignetting when shooting wide open at 28mm. This is especially noticeable when shooting in clrear skies.

My grandma loves this shot, and I have to agree that the bokeh looks quite nice! It’s a nice transition from in-focus to out of focus.

With the sun directly on the edge of the frame this is the worst you can expect from this lens in terms of ghosting and flaring. It’s very pronounced in this circumstance! But in this image it’s quite pretty with the streaks of light coming over the mountain. Notice also the shape of the flaring: It’s not circular when stopping down and can be quite irritating. But this is the worst example and it’s still very pretty.

That’s a sunstart at F16 and around 40mm. Quite meh. Not too distinctive, but also not ugly. Very ok.

This image is taken at F4.0 and 65mm, so the out of focus area is still really smooth at F4.0.

The foreground out of focus areas are pretty pleasing, even at F9.0. However in this instance the foreground is very close and the 50mm focal length creates a pretty strong compression effect.

This is basically the same image as before only with a different point of focus. The unfocussed background still looks pleasing at F9.0, however there is some business, as the background is quite complex.

She did say yes, but also a good example of close focusing at around 45mm and F2.8. The transition is pretty smooth and the bokeh looks pretty pleasing to the eye, even though there is some business from specular highlights.

The sun in the middle of the frame causes some ghosting but no flaring at F9.0 and around 30mm.

An example for the out of focus areas at 75mm and F2.8 when focussing relatively close: The background has some business, the foreground just melts away, as it should.

The sun is just to the right and causes mild ghosting, however most of it is due to the edit.

• Bokeh

  The out-of-focus areas in images are quite ok. They can be busy, especially if stopped down, however in general I’d say they are perfectly serviceable for a zoom of this calibre. They won’t be as pleasing as an 85mm F1.8 or similar, but in my opinion the bokeh is fine: More complex background tend to look a bit busy. This is a very personal opinion, and is always a matter of taste. Take a look at the image gallery above to get a sense for yourself.

• Vignetting

  Vignetting is the darkening of the image corners. It usually can be pretty easily be fixed in post production by lifting the corners.

  The Tamron 28-75mm F2.8 Di III RXD does have pretty strong vignetting, around 28mm it’s more than one stop, maybe even 1,5 stops. When stopping down the vignette gets weaker, around F4.0 or F5.6 it’s barely noticable, F8.0 eliminates it. At the long end the vignette is still present, however significantly weaker: Less than a stop. It also clears up until F5.6.

  Overall vignette is not an issue. I didn’t shoot any test charts, many others have done that before. However the sample images should show that it’s not relevant for normal use.

• Coma

  This is not really a lens for astro photography, as the widest focal length is “only” 28mm and the aperture is “only” F2.8. However if you want to use the Tamron 28-75mm F2.8 Di III RXD for astrophotography, then be aware that in the corners at F2.8 and 28mm the stars might be a bit smeared. So not the best lens, but still usable.

• Closeup image quality

  The Tamron 28-75mm F2.8 Di III RXD can focus really close at 28mm, I’ve decided to show how close with the ultimate and universal measurement in the Sony system: The Sony NP-FZ100 battery. It should give every interested person a good idea as to how close the camera can actually focus.

  I put the battery at a slight angle so you can the the actual area of sharpness and also to show chromatic aberrations, as mentioned above.

  The image quality at close focus is somewhat softer compared to regular shooting distances, however for my taste the images, even at F2.8 are usable. The sharpness drastically increases after F4.0, which also gives you a broader plain of focus.
  Using the lens at close focusing distance at 28mm can give you really cool perspectives, just make sure you select the right apertures or even use focus stacking.

Close-focus at 28mm

The close focusing at 28mm produces quite nice images, however you can see the lateral chromatic abberations in this shot. Stopping down eliminates the effect by F4.0.

The focussing distance is around 19cm or 7.5 inches from the sensor. So from the front if the lens your subjects are only 6,5 cms away. That’s pretty close and can introduce shading.

Close-focus at 75mm

There are again some chromatic abberations visible, but they also go away at 75mm when stopping down to F4.0.

The focusing distance is 39cm from the sensor and roughly 28cm from the end of the lens, so there is more room to work. The magnification is also way lower, as this example shows.

Best Accessoires

Accessorizing the Tamron 28-75mm F2.8 Di III RXD, or any lens for that matter, isn’t really my cup of tea, but I can definitely tell you some handy stuff to use in conjunction with the lens:

• Get yourself a magnetic filter set. These sets usually contain of ND-Filters which allow for a longer exposure and a polarizing filter which lets you cut of glare and reflections in your images. You can GO HARD, go sensible, or you can get the basics. All of these filters will do the same job with one caveat: The more expensive filters usually have less of a color cast (which you can take care of in post processing). When getting a filter I’d also suggest you get the filters in the biggest version you expect a lens filter thread to be. The Tamron 28-75mm F2.8 Di III RXD might have a 67mm filter thread, other lenses have bigger ones. So get yourself 82mm filters and use step up rings to match the size. This way you’ll only need one set of filters.

• I wish for you to use the lens as much as possible and therefor you should have your camera in easy access. The best method for me currently is the Ulanzi Falcam F38 quick release system, which is similar to the more famous Peak Design Camera Capture Clip V3, only cheaper.

• Don’t use UV-Filters to protect your lens… The lens hood protects the front element and modern sensors have their own UV-filters built in.

• Do get a lens cleaning kit! Regular microfibre cloths, such as used for glasses also work to clean the front element of dirt, however a blower or spray help: Zeiss offers a good kit, but cheaper kits work just as well. Just make sure a blower is included - for those pesky little specks of dust.

• On the same note: Get a sensor cleaning kit. And use it fearlessly.

Conclusion and Alternatives

There is only one viable conclusion: The Tamron 28-75mm F2.8 Di III RXD is still worth it today if you can get it significantly cheaper than it’s successor the Tamron 28-75mm F2.8 Di III VXD G2. According to reviews the Tamron 28-75mm F2.8 Di III VXD G2 is built better and sharper throughout the frame. The difference: The Tamron 28-75mm F2.8 Di III RXD usually sells for 2/3 of the price while giving you 95% of the performance.

Your other alternatives in this price range to the Tamron 28-75mm F2.8 Di III RXD are the Sigma 28-70mm F2.8 DG DN which performs a hair better in corner sharpness and worse everywhere else and the Samyang 24-70 F2.8 which reportedly has bad autofocus and is way bigger in size with OK image quality.

If you want to go really small (and slow, and worse in image quality) Sony offers you their Sony 28-60mm F4-5.6 Standard zoom.

A little bigger, better and more expensive variant is the Sony FE 24-50 F2.5G: It’s really small, however the zoom range is quite limited.