Travel snap and portrait by a video creator, AUXOUT with TAMRON 17-50mm F4 (Model A068) in South Korea

Please enjoy the cinematic VLOG and city snap taken byTAMRON wide-angle zoom lens 17-50mm F/4 Di III VXD (Model A068)during the trip in South Korea.

The first photo：Focal length:33mm　Exposure:F4　1/400sec　ISO 100　Camera:Sony α7R V

Creators who like to travel take photos and videos to preserve the memories of the places they visited. Previously, I would focus too much on the quality of my photos and videos, lugging around a lot of camera equipment and working up a sweat while shooting. Looking at the photos and videos I had edited would stir up memories like “that was tough to shoot,” and I realized that at some point, I’d lost sight of the original purpose of traveling.
Around that time, I had the opportunity to use the 17-50mm F4 lens. Thinking that this lens might let me go back to basics and strike a balance between enjoying a trip and preserving the memories in photo and video, my wife and I embarked on a trip to South Korea.

I think the biggest feature of this lens is its 17mm to 50mm focal range that lets you cover wide angles to standard focal lengths with a single lens. At the 17mm wide angle, you can capture exotic landscapes. Around 35mm is greater for snapping interesting moments on the street, while 50mm lets you casually enjoy portrait photography. Although I have different preferences for angles of view for photos and videos, this lens can cover 90% of the view angles needed on my trip.

By limiting the number of lenses you take along, you can use the freed up space in your camera bag to pack other equipment such as a gimbal. In addition, since this lens has an inner zoom mechanism, the center of gravity shifts very little. Once you get it balanced on a gimbal, you can smoothly switch equipment from photo to video without feeling stressed while shooting. In the past, when shooting within a limited time frame, even if I found a shooting spot I had to make compromises, such as only photos or videos here. But on this trip, I was able to shoot in both modes as much as I liked without using up time in between.

As for rendering, I am a fan of the unique imaging performance of TAMRON lenses which is smooth without overly contrasted edges, and I’m pleased to report that this same performance is alive and well in the 17-50mm F4. For photos I use the Sony α7R V, and I really like the high resolving power of this lens which can bring out the potential of the high-resolution camera, while still rendering soft images that are not overly hard. In particular, when editing video I often make adjustments to get a film look, and I feel that TAMRON lenses truly help create that atmosphere.

Since I usually use a lens with a slightly brighter aperture, I was worried about shooting in dark areas or what kind of bokeh it would produce with a F4 constant aperture zoom, but when I actually used it, I realized that those fears were entirely groundless. When shooting video, I often set the shutter speed to around 1/50 or 1/100 to get an appropriate amount of motion blur. If the scene is too bright, you need to use an ND filter to reduce transmission, and when shooting during the day in clear weather, an aperture of around F4 actually makes it easier to shoot. Even when shooting in dark environments, I had no problems whatsoever, in part thanks to the Sony α7R V I used this time, as it features high sensitivity that can produce clear images even at ISO12,800 and higher.

In terms of bokeh, blurring the background to an extremely large degree might be difficult, but for scenarios like this one where I wanted to use the lens casually during a trip, even with portraits there were no problems as I didn’t want to blur the background so strongly that it wasn’t clear where the photo was taken. Depending on the lens, images can appear “busy” when there is not a lot of bokeh, but that rarely happened with the 17-50mm F4, and I think I was able to capture smooth and natural background bokeh.
In addition, when shooting video TAMRON’s dedicated TAMRON Lens Utility^TM software can be used with the 17-50mm F4. When you connect the lens to your smartphone over a USB cable, you can use functions that are useful for video expression, such as A-B focus. While I don’t use these shooting methods every single time, when it does come time to use them, I think it is great that you can do it via a smartphone rather than having to set up special equipment.

This was the first time in a while that I had shot images and video overseas, but even though I have no recollection of the shooting being particularly tough, I was shocked to realize that I had clearly taken more photos than before. I imagine the number of times you click the shutter is proportional to your emotional composure! Of course even for regular day-to-day use, I think this lens is extremely easy to use for those who want to enjoy casual video and still photography. If you want to cover 17-50mm only with prime lenses you would need to carry 20mm, 24mm, 35mm, 40mm and 50mm lenses, and while I would generally say that two lenses is the limit for when you want to take lens with you to shoot casually, this lens lets you do that on its own, making it a great choice when it is difficult to gather multiple lenses, as well as for novice photographers. I strongly encourage you to enjoy still and video photography with the 17-50mm F4.

Happy Shooting.