Tamron has just announced a new 10-24mm lens, and we are more than a little bit excited! The new Tamron 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5 Di II VC HLD lens adds some significant new features that revamp the company’s existing 10-24mm lens.

But before we hit the new features, let’s get the basics out of the way first. The lens will come in Nikon and Canon mounts for their respective companies’ APS-C sensor DSLR cameras. It is likely that the lens will also be fine to be used on the Canon EOS M mount cameras with the use of the Canon Mount Adapter EF-EOS M.

With the approximate 1.5x crop factor applied, the lens has the equivalent field of view to a 15-36mm lens on a full frame sensor view it. Besides landscape photographers, wideangle zoom lenses have found a new lease on life amongst videographers, and more specifically vloggers. And this lens’s most notable new feature will have a huge appeal for the video community.

Tamron has added its Vibration Control (VC) optical stabilisation. This will be a major plus for Canon and Nikon users, who obviously have no built-in sensor based stabilisation in their DSLR cameras. Tamron’s VC has a good reputation for being one of the best in the business, so we’re looking forward to seeing just how steady it is for both stills and video.

Although Tamron hasn’t gone as far as to say the lens is weatherproof, they do claim it is ‘mositure resistant’. So a bit of drizzle shouldn’t stop you from going out and shooting. The front lens element is even coated with fluorine to ensure that water and oil just roll off of the surface of the lens.

Interestingly it is the first lens to use Tamron’s new High/Low Torque Modulated Drive Motor (HLD). There was little detail on what exactly this does, but it would seem that it has been developed to move around weighty lens elements quickly and smoothly. Presumably it switches the torque depending the speed and precision needed to make a particular adjustment.

Another neat feature is full time AF override. Simply turn the focus ring and the lens can be manually focused, even when shooting in an AF mode.

Finally, the lens is also compatible with Tamron’s Tap-in Console. This device allows the lens to be attached via a USB connection, then certain parameters of the AF and VC adjusted by the user. It can also be used to update the firmware of the lens.

Tamron 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5 Di II VC HLD lens: Optical Construction

It has been a few years since the previous incarnation if the 10-24mm lens was released, and during that time the manufacturing processes for lens elements has improved significantly. The new 10-24mm lens consists of 16 elements in 11 groups. There is one low dispersion lens element, one XLD (Extra Low Dispersion) glass element , moulded glass aspherical element, and a single hybrid aspherical lens. This new lens array, combined with Tamron’s BBAR (Broad-Band Anti-Reflection) coating should help to keep optical distortions, chromatic abberation, flare and ghosting to an absolute minimum.

Tamron 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5 Di II VC HLD lens: Technical Specification

Focal Length: 10-24mm
Equivalent Focal Length: 15-36mm
Angle of view: 108°44‘- 60°2‘ (for APS-C format)

Mounts: Nikon F (DX) Canon EF (EF-S)
Groups: 11
Elements: 16

Aperture: f/3.5-4.5 to f/22-29
Aperture Blades: 7 (circular)

Min. Focus Distance: 0.24m
Image Stabilisation: 4EV (under CIPA test conditions)

Filter size:77mm
Diameter: 83.6mm
Length: 84.6mm (Canon) 82.1mm (Nikon)

Weight: 440g (Canon and Nikon)

Tamron 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5 Di II VC HLD lens: Availability

There is currently no word on price, however the lens is expected to be available at the end of March 2017

For more information see Tamron UK’s website