Anyone use a Tamron 24-135mm f/3.5

[Life in Motion]

I have a chance to trade a gun for this lens from a friend of mine? The only lens i use for portrait work is my 50mm1.8 as of now and I LOVE IT for the low light no flash style of portraits. Just recently have been asked to do several action shots of seniors playing sports to go in collages with their senior pics. Now would this lens be good for this use? also is it going to be fast enough to use as a no flash portrait lens too? I really want to be able to use it for portraits inside at the 30mm range or so when i have groups for studio because my studio is not that long of space and i find me backing up to the wall with my 50mm. Which is not a problem outside!

But I would like to possibly use this for events such as a friends wedding coming up in early december(he really wants me to do it, and i think i may do it for practice just to see if this is anything i would like to work towards doing eventually...even though probably not lol because of all the stress and work involved with weddings and group shots etc...and no do-overs. But it is just a friend who will like whatever pics he can get, so here i go...)! Is this lens going to be fast enough to do some portraits with no flash like the 50mm?


I would like a zoom lens with low light capabilities. so i can go from zooming in on the events action shots such as kisses receptions etc....to no flash up close portraits without having to switch lenses and risk missing any moments happening worth capturing!

ANY ADVICE WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!!!!!

[zona5101]

i think that is the variable fstop lens...f3.5 to f5.6. So 5.6 at 135mm and f3.5 at 24. Outdoors that would probably do ok..but for sports 135 is a little short and if you get towards dust you will need to crank the iso hard to get action stopping shutter speeds. The 24mm range will probably be useful but there are probably better choices. For weddings you will be using flash indoors, no way around that, it's just not going to be fast enough. As a walk around lens it probably is just fine but for specific applications such as sports or wedding you could probably do better.

[Life in Motion]

Originally Posted by zona5101

i think that is the variable fstop lens...f3.5 to f5.6. So 5.6 at 135mm and f3.5 at 24. Outdoors that would probably do ok..but for sports 135 is a little short and if you get towards dust you will need to crank the iso hard to get action stopping shutter speeds. The 24mm range will probably be useful but there are probably better choices. For weddings you will be using flash indoors, no way around that, it's just not going to be fast enough. As a walk around lens it probably is just fine but for specific applications such as sports or wedding you could probably do better.

Thanks for your reply! what do you think would be better. I'm looking online right now....what about the tamron 70-200 mm f/2.8. would 70mm be too long probably for inside wedding shots though? hmm...what would you recommend as a good events camera with zoom?

[zona5101]

for sports the 70-200 f2.8 or look at the sigma 100-300f4...it is big, and heavy but it is very good lens around $1200. The 24-70 f2.8 on the short end. The 24-70 would be good indoors weddings etc. The 100-300 will work as a nice portrait lens if you have the room...it compresses the background nicely and has a shallow depth of field. It would not be all that useful for a wedding.