Fashion portrait by Kazuyuki Omori with TAMRON 70-180mm F2.8 G2 (Model A065) for Sony E-mount

Photo gallery by Japanese photographer Kazuyuki Omori with TAMRON 70-180mm F/2.8 Di III VC VXD G2 (Model A065) for Sony E-mount. Enjoy the fancy fashion portrait.

The first photo：　Focal length:180mm　Exposure:F2.8　1/80sec　ISO 1250　Camera:Sony α1

My name is Kazuyuki Omori, and I work as chief editor for PASHA STYLE, a media outlet dedicated to portraits. My work is based on magazine and website editing, and I also actively create images as a photographer.

As I regularly shoot a lot of images and often under challenging conditions such as low light and limited spaces, I am very interested in this TAMRON 70-180mm F/2.8 Di III VC VXD G2 (Model A065) for Sony E-mount. With the opportunity to try out this lens that piqued my interest ahead of time, I wasted no time putting it to work capturing images.

Not wanting to waste this opportunity, I tried shooting in challenging conditions, and while I feel that the conditions were even tougher than I expected, I hope I can convey my impressions of using this lens through that process.
This time I shot two themes of fashion portrait: an elegant theme shot outdoors during the day, and a cool & dark theme shot in a studio.
Personally, when I am taking fashion portrait, a telephoto range is essential because I want to suppress distortion in the lens as much as possible. And as I want to get a distance from the subject, for these outdoor scenes I made extensive use of the 100-180mm focal range.

My first impression was the good balance when holding the lens. Despite being a 70-180mm medium telephoto zoom, it has just the right size and weight. It also has the kind of high grade feel that will make it a coveted possession, and it was such that I was brimming with excitement about what kind of performance this lens would display before I’d taken the first shot.
The moment I peeked into the viewfinder and half-pressed the shutter, all the while juggling a mix of expectation and anxiety, I was blown away by the autofocus (AF) as it quickly and accurately zeroed in on my subject.
Even under difficult conditions with foreground and background bokeh, I have no complaints about the speed and accuracy at which the AF drive nailed focus points nearly every time. You can comfortably fire off a crisp series of photos. Thanks to its great performance seeing through backlight in addition to front lighting, I could clearly recognize the subject even when looking through the viewfinder, and the AF rarely missed.
When you enter a dark forest, often an autofocus system will be distracted by sunlight filtering through the trees, focusing on a point behind the subject. But that wasn’t a concern when shooting with this lens.
This not only produces consistent quality over the course of a shoot, but it also alleviates some of the psychological burden on the shooter. As a result, you can focus on composing your images and communicating with the subject, and I was impressed by how far this lens was able to improve my shooting efficiency.

Then in the latter half of the shoot, the indoor shooting conditions were extremely harsh, with black clothing, small light sources such as candles and a subject with finely braided hair in a pitch-dark studio. While retaining the overall atmosphere, I was able to keep a sense of resolution while creating the images. When you look at the ISO and shutter speeds of the sample images, it’s not hard to imagine how dark the scene was.

Even in those dark conditions the AF was stable, and I was impressed by how well it recognized the subject’s face and properly activated Eye AF.
Another eye-opening feature of this lens is the impressive VC (Vibration Compensation) mechanism. I was so shocked by how well it performed in properly freezing the action even with the combination of telephoto focal length and a slow shutter speed that I had to double check the shutter speed to be sure.
You can also easily take shots of still objects in the studio without needing to swap lenses. At the 70mm end the MOD (Minimum Object Distance) is just 0.3m (11.8in), producing an astonishing maximum magnification ratio of 1:2.6. With the combination of VC and close-up shooting, I was able to easily take handheld sample shooting-type shots.
If you want to keep shooting in the dark from start to finish without stress, with this single lens you will be able to shoot without hesitation even in somewhat adverse shooting locations.

While these functional benefits of the lens impressed me well enough, I was even more moved when I saw the final images.
The lens renders beautiful bokeh free of distractions. The closer you get to the subject the more the circular bokeh glows, and the high-quality foreground bokeh was truly wonderful in a way that did not interfere with the image. The lens renders dark areas without crushing the blacks, while also capturing catch lights such as candles beautifully. I was impressed by how much I was helped by this performance even under such adverse shooting conditions.

For photographers such as myself who are often using at medium telephoto lens which tends to coincide with adverse shooting conditions in the field, this is definitely one lens I would want to have at hand.

model：Paula（instagram：@pollupaula）

costume designer（studio shot）：SU-CUBE（instagram：@su_cube / twitter：@SUCUBE3）
styling（location shot）：Yuko（instagram：@yukophotography / twitter：@xxxxyxuxkxoxxxx）
hair&make up：Ellie（instagram：@ellie.hair_make / twitter：@ellie_make）

studio：studio jardin’k（instagram：@studio_jardink / twitter @jardin_order）
assistant：Yuko（instagram：@yukophotography / twitter：@xxxxyxuxkxoxxxx）