As a wedding photographer, I use my trusty 70-200mm lens for just about every ceremony. It allows me to stand in the back of a ceremony and get intimate close-up images without having to be close to the subject. I have friends who use their 70-200mm lens for ceremonies as well, and others who use it for sports, families, and nature photography. The 70-200mm lens is a great, versatile zoom lens with extremely high-quality glass. It stops down to f 2.8, so is a definite step up from any kit zoom lens.
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Credit: Kylie Nicholson[/caption]
I took the Tamron 70-200mm lens to Santa Monica to test it at sunset. I shoot a lot of sunset/ dusk weddings, so a lens needs to function well in low light. This lens did not disappoint.
I shot north towards the mountains and cliffs of Malibu, and this lens focused quickly and sharply, capturing the details of the mountain ridges while also capturing the gorgeous dusk colors.
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Credit: Kylie Nicholson[/caption]
This image was shot at ISO 1600 (note the lack of grain), and 1/80 shutter speed (note the lack of motion blur), with an 86mm focal length. The image stabilization in this lens is phenomenal. I shot in extremely low light and there is no camera shake (and trust me, I drink a lot of coffee so I’m known to shake from time to time!) Check out how sharp the details of the mountain ridge are, as well as the lights below it. This is shot at f 2.8- this lens is tack-sharp at its widest open in low light. I was impressed.
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Credit: Kylie Nicholson[/caption]
Here’s the same image at full zoom (200mm focal length). Again, check out how sharp the ridge of the mountain is against the background (this was the point of focus). Note that the lights at the bottom of the mountain are less in focus in this image than in the previous one- this is because the image is further zoomed in, and therefore the depth of field (still 2.8 in this photo) is amplified at the higher zoom. In a wedding scenario, this would beautifully blur out the back of uncle bob’s head in the second row while keeping the bride and groom in tack-sharp focus, creating a beautiful image.
These two images again show how the lens handles sunset light, low light, and zoom. Settings were kept constant to focus on the lens itself. Settings: ISO 1600, f 2.8, 1/60 shutter speed.
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Credit: Kylie Nicholson[/caption]
Focal Length: 70mm
Check out the way the light hits the woman in the center’s face. The lens picks up these small light details. It also managed to capture the screen of her cell phone as well as the rest of the scene. Talk about high dynamic range!
Focal Length: 200mm
I love the way the light sits in this photo and how there’s almost some baby bokeh on his left side.
The lens is on the larger size, but it’s completely worth the extra weight to have a regular spot in my camera bag.
Read more of Kylie's blogs here.
