Have you ever dared taking just ONE lens when traveling on vacation? I finally did it! I’ve been wanting to try it for a very long time now until my wish came true! The desire to simplify and travel light has always been a mission for most photographers out there. Problem is, there’s that inner voice in our heads with doubting questions like “You spent thousands of dollars on a plane ticket and hotel rooms and you’re not taking your other lenses? You’ll regret it! ARE YOU CRAZY?!” During our years of traveling, I’ve always brought a minimum of 3 lenses with me while vacationing. One ultra wide angle 17-40mm f4.0 lens for those sweeping landscape shots, a prime 85mm f1.8 lens for portrait photos and a prime 35mm f1.4 lens for those night time shots or general walk-around purpose. Over time, I eventually came to the conclusion that all this weight just bore a hole in my shoulders and possibly gave me some reoccurring lower back problems. Moreover, my process became over complicated and I ended up over-thinking a lot of situations…or even missed some shots / key moments of my kids because I was too busy switching lenses! After experiencing both worlds, truly… less is more! Capturing the special candid moments far outweigh overthinking those perfect glamorous shots and enjoying the moment.
I’ve scoured the internet for many solutions on how to make things lighter and what people commonly carry when they travel. Many things like “travel with a mirrorless camera or lighter 4/3 camera bodies” were the main talk of the town. While I’m sure that made all the sense in the world since they are much lighter than a DSLR, that solution didn’t work for me because I wanted to make do with what I already have, since I not only had to use it for travel, but for my wedding work as well. So rather than spend a lot more money to go buy a new lighter camera body, I went the other route and decided to simplify my lens selection process instead — down to ONE!
If you ask any photographer out there, there is simply NO SUCH THING as a perfect “do-it-all” lens! There is however something that comes close to it — by YOUR OWN standards of course! After all, beauty is in the eye of the beholder! So rather than say “everyone should get what I got”, I would have to say YOU have to get what works best for you! And the best way to do that is to ask yourself “What do I tend to shoot the most when I travel?” Is it people? Is it landscapes? Food? Night scenes? …or perhaps a little bit of everything? For me, I love telling the whole story, so I needed something that did a little bit of everything. Luckily, I found this!
To give things some context and a bit of a disclaimer, I am actually NOT a huge fan of third-party lenses and prefer to stick with original manufacturer brand lenses and in my case, Canon! But unfortunately, the availability of such lens only existed outside my camera’s manufacturer. Moreover, I am also NOT a huge fan of zoom lenses and prefer to stick to the prime lenses as they are often sharper and a heck of a lot better in low light. But clearly, my current methods were not working and it was time for a change! Thus with this change, some sacrifices also must be made! This lens surely DID NOT check every single box in my list, but it did however, checked off the most important ones, and the things that mattered most!
☑︎ 1. Has to be lightweight
☑︎ 2. Has to be small
☑︎ 3. Has to be a decent low-light lens (to avoid bringing a flash, which is extra weight!)
☑︎ 4. Has to be wide enough to capture landscape shots
☑︎ 5. Has to be able to capture some portraits with a decent ‘bokeh’ or blurry background
☑︎ 6. Has to have decent image quality & sharpness
Like I said, there is not one perfect travel lens out there… so of course, as expected it has its flaws, but in all honesty, those are things that every gear nut magnifies and crucifies to the grave because of those shortcomings — sadly. Things like auto focus speed is subpar, zoom barrel is not smooth, no built-in image stabilization, or lens is made of cheap plastic rather than metal. But for me, I tend to look on the plus side more, not to mention, perhaps even turn a negative flaw into a positive one! For example, if people hate this lens because of the cheap plastic build quality, it actually works in your favour, because thanks to this cheap plastic, the weight has been significantly reduced. For me, the first two points listed above (size & weight) are the 2 most important factors for me. Plastic weighs a heck of a lot lighter than metal! I wasn’t expecting perfect optical performance for a plastic build, but as long as the quality of photos were decent, that’s all I really cared about! There will be naysayers that will argue that better quality gear will get you better quality photos, but they often forget that your camera is just a tool — it’s still up to the person to make a photo great!
Now for the cherry on top….(and thanks to aforementioned cheap plastic build)….THE PRICE! Considering that it is a zoom lens that has a constant 2.8 aperture all throughout the zoom, especially when compared to all the other major brand name options out there, unbelievably, this lens just sits under $500 USD from Amazon (TAMRON SP AF28-75mm F2.8 XR Di for Canon A09NII), which makes it a great buy. The best bang for your buck if you ask me! I personally picked up mine in the used market for a mere $200. Surely, at that price point, how can one not consider such solution to traveling light.
My only wish is that I had known about the lens much sooner! I knew it has been available since 2003, but my stubbornness to look at third-party made lenses, cost me the joy of traveling light for the first couple years. But you know what they say — better late than never!
This lens is also quite underrated in my honest opinion. I haven’t found too many detailed reviews out there with a Canon version (mostly Sony version reviews out there), so I figured I’d share some of my thoughts.
I recently came back from a trip to New York City and was able to do a full test drive! If you missed our NYC post, be sure to check it out the link below. ALL the photos in this post was entirely shot with this one single lens!
All I took with me when walking around town is my camera strap with my Canon 5D Mark IV + Tamron 28-75mm f2.8 lens. What a breath of fresh air! I’m dubbing this “the close to perfect travel combo” **IF you’re using a DSLR to travel**! At times, I was able to grab a wide shot of the Rockefeller Center while grabbing a close up of a lady underneath the base of the building eating some good ol’ New York bagel in the very next second! Not a moment missed with the flexibility of a zoom lens like this. And because of that, I just might have a new profound respect for all available zoom lenses out there. They were simply created for a reason! But going back to this particular lens, reiterating the above and going in more detail, here are the reasons why I fell in love with it:
1. The Weight
This guy only weighs just 1.12 lbs! This is practically the same weight as my good ol’ Canon 17-40mm f4.0 L lens. I can actually feel my shoulders after a 12 hour day touring The Big Apple!
2. The Size
Sitting at just 2.87” x 3.62”, you’re not gonna find anything smaller or compact at the same lens class type! Carrying a DSLR is already huge, so having a smaller lens attached to my camera body draws less attention from other people, which is one major advantage! You also don’t end up getting the “creeper” look when taking candid street photos.
3. Low-light capabilities
I was initially worried about not capturing enough indoor or night shots, since I have been used to my f1.4 lense in my bag. But many thanks to the amazing low light capabilities of the Canon 5D Mark IV, I am able to compensate using a higher ISO without being too grainy at the same time. I can push my camera to ISO 5000 (or even 10,000 ISO in some situations) and it looks great! If this lens had anything smaller than f2.8 aperture, I would need a tripod to hold my camera since anything higher than 10,000 ISO will be too grainy and unusable at that point.
Here are a few photos where I had to push my camera to 4000 ISO / 5000 ISO to hand hold my camera in low light conditions. Still turned out pretty danggg sharp!!
4. Wide enough
Being so used to my 17-40mm lens, I was worried on just how wide 28mm will be for me and I realized that all I really have to do is to take a few more steps back to capture the entire scene!
Here is a shot of the statue in front of the Rockefeller Center. If you’ve ever been to New York City, you would know that, this statue is facing a very busy main street! So if I were to back up any further, a yellow taxi cab could run me over! So this lens is plenty wide, considering my limited road space in the scene!
And here’s another shot example taken at the The High Line pathway (probably about 8 feet wide only). So taking this shot at the edge of the path while I include both Mavi and the flags on the top of the scene, I was able to capture the picture, plenty wide!
5. Bokeh
Coming from shooting prime lenses at f1.4 or f1.8 apertures, the f2.8 aperture just might not cut it, but thanks to the 75mm range on the long end, it offers enough compression and when combined with the f2.8 aperture, it shows enough background blur or “bokeh” for those portrait shots. Here’s a sample of a full body image and a half body image at 75mm + f2.8.
6. Quality & Sharpness
Does it have the same resolution and sharpness as a Canon L glass? Of course not! But it’s all about perspective, isn’t it?!? Heck, this lens is plenty sharp! Have a look at the Statue of Liberty shot below…if you zoom in, Lady Liberty herself is smiling with sharpness!
Oh by the way, one VERY IMPORTANT note, this shot was taken from a MOVING boat!! We were on the ferry while sailing by lady liberty herself! Even with movement involved, it was sharp! Taken handheld at 1/80th of a second!
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THE DOWNSIDES:
- Autofocus speed — I knew this lens wouldn’t win any awards for autofocus speed. I mean for the build and price, you just can’t expect that out of the box. It does a decent job when traveling, but I don’t think I can count on it if used on a fast-paced event like sports or even a wedding day!
- Autofocus accuracy — I also knew this lens won’t win any awards for pin-sharp focus. But because I am pairing this lens with my Canon 5D Mark IV, autofocus accuracy is not a big problem, especially if you use the 5D4’s LiveView to shoot and focus….it is that accurate and that sharp when used instead of the viewfinder!
Unfortunately, I will have to point out that if you use this particular lens in any other Canon body that doesn’t have LiveView shooting, it just might fall short with its accuracy. It’s simply one of those caveats that you’re gonna have to get over with. Took me some time, but with all the other pluses this lens brings, I didn’t heavily weigh it down as a downside. - Corner softness and vignetting at f2.8 — This didn’t really come as a surprise as most other lenses at this price range simply can’t deliver full sharpness at wider apertures. And yes, vignetting at f2.8 occurs, but is an easy fix in Lightroom, so you can probably get away fixing it in post in most scenarios. But if corners are super important to your photo, stopping it down to f5.6 aperture pretty much fixes it up for you!
Regardless of what lenses you have or what camera body you have, the whole point of this is just to simplify your travel lifestyle. Trust me, your shoulders and back will thank you for it! Choose ONE lens and ONE camera body that works best for you for the type of photography you do when traveling on vacation. Having to experience this first hand…being minimal when traveling (without sacrificing results) is truly bliss! It’s when we travel lightest that we most become ourselves. Nobody likes carrying heavy bags — it’s a drag… Safe and happy travels everyone! ~Keith
“It is the photographer, not the camera, that is the instrument.”
— Ansel Adams