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Tamron has announced the 16-50mm F2.8 A (Model B091), a fast-aperture standard zoom made specifically for APS-C mirrorless cameras. It comes in four mounts (Sony E, Canon RF, Nikon Z and Fujifilm X) and pairs a constant F2.8 aperture with a body that weighs from just 305g.

On an APS-C camera, the 16–50mm range gives a 24–75mm full-frame equivalent (25.6–80mm on Canon RF), taking you from genuinely wide to short telephoto without swapping lenses. Here’s a closer look at what the Tamron 16-50mm F2.8 brings to everyday photography and video.

A Standard Zoom from a Wide 16mm: Landscapes, Group Shots and More with One Lens

Starting at 16mm (24mm equivalent) gives this lens more width than many everyday zooms, and it makes a real difference. It’s wide enough for expansive scenes such as rolling farmland in the Overberg or a big open sky over the Highveld near Pretoria.

The wide end also comes into its own indoors, where you can’t simply step back. Fitting the whole family into one frame in a

Tamron has unveiled the 20-40mm F/2.8 Di III VXD (Model A062), a fast-aperture standard zoom designed for Nikon Z mount full-frame mirrorless cameras. With a constant F2.8 aperture, a fresh 20–40mm focal range and a body that weighs just 380g, it’s built for photographers and creators who want serious image quality without the bulk usually associated with fast zooms.

Tamron describes the lens as class-leading in compactness and weight among F2.8 standard zooms for full-frame mirrorless cameras (based on Tamron’s own research as of August 2026). Its global launch date is 22 October 2026. Below, we unpack what the Tamron 20-40mm F/2.8 offers and where it fits into a South African photographer’s kit.

Class-Leading Compactness: The Tamron 20-40mm F/2.8 Doesn’t Weigh You Down

Fast standard zooms have traditionally asked for a trade-off: you get the bright aperture, but you also get size and weight that make you think twice about packing the lens. The Tamron 20-40mm F/2.8 tips that balance the

Run your hand over the bark of an old yellowwood and you can feel every ridge and fissure. Capturing that same sense of touch in a photograph is what texture is all about. Every subject has its own surface character, from rough and weathered to smooth and glossy, and when you record it well, your images feel more real and immediate. This guide explains what texture in photography means, the main types and the subjects that show it off, and the shooting and lens choices that help you capture it.

What is texture in photography?

Texture in photography describes how the surface of a subject looks as though it would feel: the cracks and moss on a fallen branch, the velvety softness of a flower petal, the cool gloss of polished metal. Closely related is surface quality, sometimes discussed as photo surface quality, which refers to the overall impression of what a subject is made of, whether stone, glass, fabric or skin. When both are rendered well, a photograph conveys a tactile sense of reality

Point your camera towards the harsh Highveld summer sun and the result can be a frame washed out with haze, dotted with coloured shapes or split between pure white and solid black. If you are new to photography, it is easy to assume something is wrong with your camera. In most cases, though, these effects are not faults at all but natural results of how lenses and sensors handle light. This guide explains what causes lens flare, ghosting and related effects, how to control them and how to use them to your advantage.

A photograph that uses ghosting creatively

Lens flare and other effects that change image quality

The way cameras and lenses handle light can produce effects you did not intend. The most common are:

•        Lens flare, where strong light washes out the image and lowers contrast

•        Ghosting, where rings, ovals or aperture-shaped spots of light appear in the frame

•        Vignetting, where the corners of the image turn darker than the centre

•        Blown-out

Stand at the side of a straight Karoo road and photograph it at eye level, and the result can look surprisingly flat. Crouch low with a wide-angle lens, let the road’s edges race away towards the horizon, and the same scene suddenly has depth and drama. The difference is perspective. Understanding how it works can solve two of the most common complaints in photography: images that look flat and images that lack impact. This guide covers the meaning of perspective, the techniques behind it and how to apply them to different subjects.

What is perspective in photography? The meaning of perspective

What is perspective?

TAMRON 17-50mm F4 (Model A068) Focal length: 17mm　Exposure: F6.3　Shutter Speed: 1/25sec　ISO: 100

The meaning of perspective in photography is the sense of depth and distance created by the relative size and position of objects in the frame, and by their distance from the background. So what is sense of depth? It is the impression that a flat photograph extends back into

Point a camera at something and press record, and you have footage. Decide how that camera moves, where it sits and when it stays still, and you start to have a story. That difference is camera work, and it is what separates video that simply documents a moment from video that makes people feel something. This guide walks through camera work from first principles to more cinematic camera work techniques, with plenty of practical examples along the way. Whether you are filming a family holiday, a promo for a small business or your first short film, the same principles apply, and none of them require expensive gear to get started.

What is camera work? The meaning behind the moves

At its simplest, camera work describes how you position, angle and move the camera while you film. It covers the static shot as much as the sweeping one, because choosing to hold still is as much a decision as choosing to move. Understanding the meaning of camera work starts with recognising that every placement

Few things beat the view from a summit after a long climb, or the small surprises along the way: a patch of flowering fynbos, cloud rolling off an escarpment, the first light striking a sandstone cliff. Smartphones have become remarkably capable, but carrying a camera while hiking gives you something a phone cannot match – the freedom to change lenses and the image quality to do South Africa's mountains justice. This guide covers how to plan your kit, which camera lenses for hiking make sense, and practical tips for photographing the scenes you will meet on the trail.

Why carrying a camera while hiking is worth it

An interchangeable-lens camera records fine detail that a phone tends to smooth over, from the grain of weathered rock to individual grasses on a distant slope. When you want prints or large screens to feel like the real view, that detail matters.

Mountain light also changes quickly. Cloud can sweep in within minutes, and the gap between sunlit rock and a shaded gully can be extreme.

Aspect ratio sounds like a technical footnote, a pair of numbers describing a photo's width and height. In practice, it is one of the quickest ways to change how an image feels. The right shape can make a landscape feel vast, a portrait feel intimate or a pattern feel bold. Many photographers never touch the default setting, so this guide explains what is aspect ratio, which recommended photo aspect ratios suit which subjects, and how to change it.

What is aspect ratio in photography?

Aspect ratio in practice

TAMRON 17-28mm F2.8 (Model A046) | Focal length: 17mm | Exposure: F7.1 | Shutter Speed: 0.4sec | ISO: 100

Aspect ratio describes the relationship between a photo's width and its height, written as width:height – for example, 3:2 or 16:9. It tells you the shape of the frame, not how many pixels it contains or how large it will print. A tiny thumbnail and a wall-sized print can share exactly the same aspect ratio.

Most full-frame and APS-C interchangeable-lens cameras default to 3:2.

Pick up a camera and the possibilities are endless: a braai spread at sunset, waves breaking along the coast, the family dog dozing on the stoep. In photography, everything you point your lens at is called a subject. This guide explains what a subject in photography is, clears up some commonly confused terms and shares practical ways to bring out the best in whatever you photograph, including how to match your lens to the subject.

What is a subject in photography?

What is a subject?

TAMRON 28-75mm F2.8 G2 (Model A063) Focal length: 62mm　Exposure: F5.6　Shutter Speed: 1/125sec　ISO: 200

A subject is anything you photograph. It might be a city skyline, a mountain view, a person, an animal, a plant, a plate of food or a building. Whatever the lens is pointed at becomes the subject of the image.

Choosing a subject, and deciding how to frame it, is one of the main ways a photographer expresses ideas and feelings. Take a strelitzia in a Durban garden: you could fill the frame with its sharp

Photograph the same protea three times: once from above, once at eye level and once from the ground looking up. You will end up with three quite different images, each with its own sense of depth, scale and energy. Camera angles and positions cost nothing, yet they change the story a picture tells. This guide explains the main angles and positions, how they differ from a lens’s field of view, how to combine them with composition and how to apply them to popular subjects.

What are camera angles? The three main types

What are camera angles?

A camera angle is the direction in which the lens is tilted when you take a picture. Pointing it down, holding it level or tilting it up can change the impression of the same subject dramatically. There are several types of angles, but most photography builds on three: high, horizontal and low.

High-angle photography: looking down

High-angle photography means shooting from above with the camera tilted downwards, and it is ideal for showing scale and layout.