New Lens First Look – The Tamron Z 35-100mm F/2.8

Alright, let’s talk about the Tamron 35-100mm f/2.8 Di III VXD for the Nikon Z mount. Honestly, when you first pick this thing up, the biggest shocker is the size. If you’ve ever lugged around a traditional 70-200mm f/2.8 brick, or even a hefty 35-150mm, this little guy feels like an absolute featherweight. Weighing in at just under 585 grams and sitting at roughly twelve centimetres long, it balances beautifully on mid-sized full-frame bodies like my Nikon ZF and Z6ii. It actually handles a lot more like a standard 28-75mm zoom, which means your wrists aren’t going to hate you after a full day of shooting street or travel photos.

“Focal Range And Bokeh”

The focal range itself is a bit unconventional but totally brilliant if you’re a portrait, wedding or documentary shooter. Dropping the usual 24mm wide end might scare off some landscape folks, but starting at 35mm gives you a great environmental frame, and zooming into 100mm lets you get that beautiful compression for headshots. Because it maintains a constant f/2.8 aperture all the way through, separating your subject from a messy background is incredibly easy. The out-of-focus rendering looks super clean and pleasant, though you might notice a tiny bit of cat’s-eye shaping to the bokeh balls right at the outer edges of your frame when you’re shooting wide open.

“The Other Bits”

Optically, the first impressions are seriously impressive (samples will be coming very soon, as I want to use it in real-use situations, as these say more about a lens than any test chart). Images are tack-sharp right in the centre at f/2.8, no matter where you are in the zoom range. The skin textures look natural rather than brutally clinical, which is exactly what you want for people shots. Now, if you look really closely at the corners at f/2.8, they do lack a little bit of that bite, but stopping down to f/5.6 or f/8 clears that right up. There is also a bit of noticeable vignetting when you’re wide open, but it’s nothing a quick click in Lightroom won’t fix.

Autofocus is driven by Tamron’s VXD linear motor, and it is ridiculously snappy and dead silent. It locks onto eyes instantly and stays glued to moving subjects like dogs or kids without any dramatic hunting. Video shooters will love that the focus breathing is minimal, and the barrel barely extends at all when you zoom, so it won’t throw a gimbal off balance. Plus, they threw in a USB-C port right on the side so you can customize the focus rings and buttons directly through their app without needing a separate console. At around nine hundred bucks, it feels like a total steal for anyone who wants a premium, lightweight portrait workflow without breaking the bank or their back.

“Conclusion”

I’ve been looking for the right zoom lens for weddings or portraits (even walking around). As most of you will know by now, I shoot weddings, events and portraits almost exclusively with F/1.4 prime lenses, and the Nikon Z24-70mm F/4 (which I have traded for this Tamron) was rarely used, not because it was no good (it’s a Nikon “S” line superior optics lens), but because F/4 can be a struggle in lower light when you are not using a flash (you need to keep your shutter speed high and your ISO super-low!).

As I mentioned above, some people might worry about losing the 24mm, however wide angle photography for people tends to look like it was taken with a mobile phone, so I rarely shoot wider than 35mm. If I am doing architecture photography I have a variety of wide lenses, from the 11mm F/2.8 fisheye, the 14mm F/2.8 ultra wide distortion free prime and the 16-30mm F/2.8 zoom lens. I am covered! 

I intend to use the 35-100mm much more than I ever did the 24-70. That extra reach (which of course is 150mm in DX mode) along with the F/2.8 fixed aperture are very beneficial to my everyday and (most importantly) work photography.

My full lens and lighting set-up can be found here, and as you will see, they are all wide-aperture professional grade work lenses now, and my Viltrox 85mm F/1.8 has gone.

No doubt over the coming weeks and months you’ll see plenty of images from this lens. Stay tuned for more.

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My name is Mark G Adams and I run Photography By Mark G Adams. I am a professional photographer from South Wales, shooting weddings, events and portraits as well as running meets and workshops. For fun I like to shoot landscapes, wildlife and occasionally do street photography. Enjoy my website as I share my knowledge learned over decades of working and having fun in photography – This Is My Personal Website
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Nikon Recipes for the Z system can be found here.
You can find a complete list of my gear here.
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