If you’re a photographer who travels a lot, choosing the right lenses to bring with you means answering a few questions. What type of shoot will you be on? What subjects will you be photographing? What environments will you be working in? Above all, you want to have reliable, high-quality lenses that are portable, lightweight and durable, and that cover the focal lengths needed to capture the story.
For wide-angle versatility, Tamron’s 17-35mm F/2.8-4 Di OSD (Model A037), designed specifically for full-frame DSLR cameras, should be an essential part of your camera bag. It’s compact and exceptionally lightweight, so it goes wherever you go. It’s also available at a great price, which is remarkable for a lens of this quality. Most of all, its design includes the latest in lens technology and coatings to minimize optical flaws and distortion.
Defining Wide-Angle Photography
What makes this wide-angle zoom stand out from the pack? To understand this, it’s instructive to know what defines a wide-angle lens.
When we look out at a scene—without using a camera—we can generally see a certain amount of the scene without turning our heads left or right. In photography, a lens that has this particular angle of view is considered a “normal” or standard lens. Wide-angle lenses capture a broader angle of view, allowing you to include more in the frame than you’d usually see with the naked eye.
For cameras with full-frame sensors, a wide-angle lens is generally considered any lens that has a wider angle of view than 50mm. A zoom lens like the Tamron 17-35mm F/2.8-4 Di OSD gives you lots of versatility, and that can expand your creative potential. It’s ideal for landscapes, scenics, architecture and even action shots when you want to reveal context as part of your narrative.
When used on a full-frame DSLR, there’s no cropping when shooting stills or video. In other words, using the 17mm wide-angle end of the zoom means it’s always that wide, just like you’d find on an old film SLR. That translates into capturing all the action when shooting sports, even at the edges of the frame. It also means that every detail in shooting a street scene or each member of a group portrait gets in the picture. However, because it’s designed for full-frame, you can also use the Tamron 17-35mm F/2.8-4 Di OSD with an APS-sensor camera, on which it will provide a 35mm equivalent focal length range of approximately 25.5mm-52.5mm.
Adding to the lens’s zoom range versatility, another factor that makes the Tamron 17-35mm F/2.8-4 Di OSD ideal for so many shooting situations is its rugged, durable construction that will perform in almost any environment. And because the front element is coated with a protective fluorine compound that has excellent water- and oil-repellant qualities, it’s a snap to wipe clean. The coating also makes it less vulnerable to the damaging effects of dirt, dust, moisture or oily fingerprints.
Two Methods For Creating Powerful Wide-Angle Images
If you’re looking to maximize how you use a wide-angle lenses like the Tamron 17-35mm F/2.8-4 Di OSD, here are two methods to consider.
Focus On Narrative: The generous field of view of wide-angle lenses are fantastic for creating a narrative, providing a sense of place and helping you craft how you tell a story. How so? Because the lens lets you put your subjects in context. And you can place the subject within the frame in very dynamic ways. With the Tamron 17-35mm F/2.8-4 Di OSD’s minimum object distance of just 11 inches, you can create compositions with strong foreground elements to lead the viewer into the image.
This lens is also exceptionally useful for filmmakers. For example, when it comes to establishing a scene, nothing does it better than a wide shot where everything is in focus. And for street photography and documentary-style shots, the 35mm focal length is arguably the most popular.
Emphasize Formal Elements: Use the Tamron 17-35mm F/2.8-4 Di OSD’s wide-angle perspective to enhance visual elements, such as emphasizing abstract forms and spatial relationships. Look for patterns and shapes for unique compositions that reveal familiar objects in exciting new ways.
To learn more about the Tamron 17-35mm F/2.8-4 Di OSD, visit Tamron’s website at tamron-usa.com/product/lenses/a037.
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