If you are a content creator, travel is one of the most popular subjects around! Maybe you’re a vlogger, telling the stories of your solo adventures. Or, maybe you’re traveling with family or friends and taking just a few photos here and there. Maybe you’re hopping on planes and trains every week, or maybe you’re climbing mountains, or visiting a new country. Simply put, the category of travel is enormous! So, picking out the best travel lenses can be a challenge.
Thankfully, we can start this article with some very good news: Thanks to modern technology, most lenses today are excellent in terms of image quality! Optical designs have advanced significantly in the last decade or so, and this means you can expect sharp results from any of these Tamron travel lenses that we are about to recommend.
However, finding the best lens for travel photography, or the best lens for travel vlogging, is much more than just sharpness, of course. The type of subjects you like to capture, and the format of content you are creating, will play a very important role in your decision when it comes to both the lens and the camera itself. So, let’s dive in!
Things To Look For In The Best Travel Lenses
For both cameras and lenses, there are a few things that are very important for anyone who travels. Portability is very important, (more on that below) and thankfully there are many compact, lightweight cameras to choose from today. Both Sony and Fuji have very extensive APSC sensor camera systems, with camera bodies that range from beginner to professional. Thanks to the smaller size of the sensor on such cameras, both the bodies and the lenses are travel-ready.
Of course, full-frame cameras, which used to be extremely large and heavy, are also getting significantly better for travel photography, too! In this article, we will include lenses for both full-frame and APSC sensor cameras.
Now, let’s consider what might be important to you as a travel photographer, videographer, or content creator.
Focal Length And Zoom Range
First and foremost, what subjects do you photograph? If you love sweeping views of dramatic landscapes and cityscapes, then you’ll want a very different lens compared to someone who is looking for, say, a portrait lens, or a telephoto wildlife lens.
Also, different cameras have different size sensors, and this means that lens focal length numbers can give a very different look depending on the sensor you are using. Our best advice is to always start by looking at the sample images that are taken with a lens you are considering, and see if the angle of view is what you have in mind. There are wide-angle lenses and ultra-wide-angle lenses, and there are telephoto and super-telephoto lenses. Plus, of course, there are mid-range lenses, and even some lenses (as you can see above) that offer a little bit of everything!
As we proceed. We’ll try to mention different types of subjects that you might capture with certain types of travel lenses.
Portability
Whether you’re embarking on a long journey around the globe, or you are simply going on a quick family getaway, the second-most important aspect of a great travel lens is its portability. The reasons are pretty obvious: you’re going to be carrying your camera around for long periods of time, and you’re going to have a lot of other things to carry, too!
In the past, the most portable lenses were often a significant compromise in image quality and/or physical durability. However, that has not been the case for quite a few years now, especially thanks to the advanced optical formulas, and materials, that are used in many lenses today.
Durability
The other aspect of physical quality is, of course, durability. You might not be out in a blizzard or a sand storm, however, in my own experience, the general wear-and-tear of travel is significantly greater than almost every other type of photography!
For this reason, the best travel lenses (and cameras) are ones that aren’t just portable, but also durable and ready to stand the test of time. Also, once again, in my own personal experience, I am a big fan of the latest lens designs such as the Tamron 17-50mm f/4 and many others, that have a metal mount, but also use “composite” plastic in some of their barrel elements. Such modern plastics do an excellent job of absorbing the shocks and bumps of regular travel, possibly even more so than the all-metal lenses of yesteryear!
Image Quality
None of the things we’ve discussed so far will matter if the images you create are soft or dull looking, of course. A huge part of travel is, of course, seeing beautiful sights. Whether you are capturing vibrant colors, intricate details, or simply the look on someone’s face, it is both the camera and the lens that can give you the best opportunity to do justice to your subjects.
As we mentioned above, thankfully, most modern lenses are composed of optics that deliver excellent clarity, allowing you to capture dynamic scenes, (highlights and shadows) saturated colors, and sharp details.
Value / Price / Budget for Travel Lenses
Last but not least, virtually everyone has a budget that they would like to stay within. After all, money saved on camera gear is extra that you can put towards your travel! 10 times out of 10, I would rather afford to visit an amazing, bucket list destination with a modest, affordable camera & lens, than be stuck at home with exotic, expensive gear, wouldn’t you?
With that being said, four of the five lenses we will recommend today are priced well under $1,000, and the fifth lens is just barely over the $1K mark. And yet all of them are very high-performance, high-quality lenses, delivering exceptional images.
With that being said, let’s dive in!
Tamron 28-200mm f/2.8-5.6 Di III RXD
If you’re looking for an excellent all-around lens that can do almost everything, the Tamron 28-200mm is one of the very few that we dare give the title “dream lens.” Why? Because not only does it offer an excellent zoom range that is perfect for many different types of photography, but also, its aperture is very fast (f/2.8) at 28mm, making it excellent for all types of low-light photography.
Made for full-frame mirrorless sensor cameras, it is the only super-zoom to achieve such an impressive zoom ratio while also achieving f/2.8 at its wide (28mm) end! So, if you are the type of content creator who might be having fun at a festival or fair one day, and photographing a meteor shower in a National Park wilderness another day, the Tamron 28-200mm f/2.8-5.6 is an excellent choice.
(Read Our In-Depth Tamron 28-200mm review here!)
Tamron 18-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Di III-A VC VXD
For those who are looking for a travel lens with even more zoom range, you must look to an APSC sensor camera, and the Tamron 18-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Di III-A VC VXD lens. No other modern zoom lens offers this same level of versatility, as the angle of view is equivalent to a full-frame 28-450mm lens!
Perfect for travel photographers and travel vloggers who want to capture lots of extremely distant details, whether it is a wildlife safari or simply distant mountains or cityscapes.
Travel Lenses | Tamron 20-40mm f/2.8
If you are a vlogger, then of course your priority is not a mid-range zoom lens, it is a perfect wide-angle lens. Since you’re hand-holding your camera at arms’ length, maybe even on a gimbal stabilizer, most wide-angle lenses will be much too big and heavy for vlogging. This is why we were pretty excited by the release of the Tamron 20-40mm f/2.8 Di III VXD; it weighs a mere 12.9 oz (365g) and yet offers the perfect zoom range for both vlogging and general photography.
Although its zoom range is limited compared to our previous two recommendations for travel lenses, this full-frame 20-40mm lens is a perfect choice for anyone in search of the most portable travel options, whether the subject is yourself, or a dramatic landscape/nightscape, or general candid journalism.
Tamron 11-20mm f/2.8 Di III-A RXD
Of course, if you’re looking for the most portable options to take with you on a quick getaway or an epic adventure, once again our recommendations turn to lenses made for APSC sensors. One of the best examples of offering exotic focal lengths in an extremely compact package is the Tamron 11-20mm f/2.8, which weighs in at just 11.8 oz (335g) yet delivers stunning imagery.
The 11-20mm focal range is equivalent to a full-frame 16-35mm angle of view, which, again, are normally very large, heavy, and expensive lenses. With its constant f/2.8 aperture, the Tamron 11-20mm is an excellent choice for both daytime scenery and nightscapes, cityscapes, or even astro-landscape photography.
Travel Lenses | Tamron 50-400mm f/4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD
On the opposite side of things, what if you want maximum versatility, but in the telephoto range? Most super-telephoto lenses that reach 400mm and beyond usually have a limited wide end, starting at 100mm or 150mm. The Tamron 50-400mm, then, is highly unique, with its zoom range that is capable of capturing a normal view or a super-telephoto view without changing lenses!
Not just perfect for capturing near and distant views of epic scenery, we also really like the Tamron 50-400mm for many other types of subjects, from candid street photography, festivals, or of course, wildlife.
Conclusion | The Best Travel Lenses Vary for Different Photographers
If you love to travel, then you probably already know which types of subjects you really want to see and capture. Whether it is people, animals, scenery, or maybe all of the above, lens choice is extremely important! Thankfully, the options in recent years just keep getting better and better. We have taken each of the aforementioned lenses on quite a few exciting adventures over the past year or two, and have been delighted with the results! We believe that you’ll be truly impressed as well.
