Tamron lenses
Tamron lenses
Tamron lenses
________________________________________________
Introduction
Tamron makes high quality, very good, competitively priced Dsrl and Milc camera lenses. Tamron also makes other industrial optical products and CCTV lenses. Sony has a share in Tamron Co. What is very good that Tamron doesn’t do bad lenses, and all Tamron products are competitively priced. Tamron’s interesting x-glass enables to make bright lenses with smaller size, and weight, and keeping extremely good optical performance. The Vc(vibration control) feauture of many lenses are very useful in low light situations, where most pictures would come out blurred from the camera. Some practice is although needed, because some time is needed for the vibration control to set the picture, other case we can make even more blurred pictures. In bright sunlight perhaps better to use high shutter speeds, instead of stabilizer.
Meaning of lens name abbreviations
Sp – super performance
Di Digital (Digitally integrated)
Di II – Digital for Aps-C sized sensors only
Di III – Digital for Mirrorless cameras
xr – Extra refractive glass
Ld – Low dispersion
Xld – Extra low dispersion
IF – Internal focusing
Vc – Vibration compensation
USD – Ultrasonic silent drive
PZD – Piezonic drive
ZL – Zoom lock, prevent the zoom creeping during transportation
Newest/upcoming Tamron lenses
Tamron 150-600mm f/5-6.3
The revolutionary new Tamron 150-600mm f/5-6.3-Di Vc USD telephoto lens already makes a huge turmoil in the market. Sigma zooms price drops right after the announcement. The new lens is optically very nice, and has a very interesting 600mm focal length, and also competitively priced. Why is this lens very interesting? No lens at this price(1000-1200 USD/EUR) were available with 600mm focal length. If someone wants to have a lens with 600mm focal length until now, would pay incredible amounts of money for the Canon or Nikon prducts. The 600mm focal length is really make a difference compare to 400 or 500mm focal length lenses in bird and wildlife photography.
Tamron 16-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Pzd
Tamron makes the already very good compact superzoom lens even better, with a wider range. This range is really a do-it-everything-in-one-lens solution, you can live this lens on your camera body, if you don’t want to change lenses all the time. For people with multiple lenses, perhaps serve as a travel zoom, where lighter weight is preferred. Advanced photographers usually omit this category completely, because you cannot have everything: high optical performance, cheap price, small size and weight in one package. Although I love the idea not changing lenses all the time, the telephoto end is not what I hope for. So no free lunch I need at least two lenses. You can read the review of the Tamron 16-300mm lens here. The Tamron 16-300mm is a very versatile lens, with decent optical performance at the whole zoom range, 300mm end included. For sharp corners at wide angle setting must stop down a bit.
Best Tamron lenses
Which is the best Tamron lens ?
I would say the 90mm Macro (it has two versions), after the 17-50mm non Vc or the 28-75 for Full frame, and the 180mm macro, and the Full frame 24-70 vc, and 70-200mm f/2.8 is also very nice. Tamron super zoom lenses are also arguably best on the market, at least optically. The new coming 150-600mm is also very interesting.
________________________________________
Current Tamron lenses
Tamron ultra wide angle lens
Tamron 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5
Nikon(with AF motor), Canon, Sony, Pentax
______________________________________
Bright Tamron zoom lenses
Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8
One of my all time favourite lens. This lens is superb optically, has f/2.8 aperture at all range, light and compact for this brightness. Also very good against flare. This lens is a very sharp lens, much sharper than many Canon “L” zooms. This focal length is the most useful for common photography. Apart from wildlife photography, where I mostly use long focal lengths from 280-560mm, I mostly use the wide end of the Tamron 17-50 lens, for general photography. This lens gives a very good quality general usage range. Only thing is lacking perhaps the ultra wide angle and telephoto range. Compare to consumer or kit zooms the constant f/2.8 aperture at the whole zoom range is a big added bonus. At 50mm f/2.8 the lens capable of making nice portraits with nice bokeh(background blur).
Tamron 17 50 f/2.8 review
Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 Vc
This lens is the stabilized version of the fantastic 17-50mm lens. Although seems in the laboratory the older lens has much better figures, especially for corner performance, I find the new lens is also very capable, giving essentially the same quality pictures for most people at screen size. The new lens is a little bit bigger and heavier, but the vc(vibration control) feauture helps to make sharp pictures of still objects in low light, which is not possible with the original lens without a tripod.
Tamron 24-70mm f/2.8 Vc Usd
The new Tamron 24-70mm is a Full frame lens with excellent optical performance. This lens is better than the Canon 24-70 f/2.8 Mk I lens, only possible the new Mk II Canon is better but at much higher price. None of this Canons has image stabilization though.
Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8
The Tamron 28-75mm lens is essentially the same lens for Full frame cameras, like the Tamron 17-50 lens for smaller sensored cameras. In several ways the 28-75mm is even better. This lens is capable to make excellent pictures.
__________________________________________________
Tamron all-in-one zoom lenses
The lenses started with focal length 18mm I suggest for Aps-c sized cameras like Canon Digital rebels, and Nikon 3xxx,5xxx.7xx cameras. The lenses with focal length started with 28mm I suggest for Full frame cameras, because the 28mm is not really useful range in Aps-C sensor sized cameras. The newest Tamron superzoom is on the way with a 16-300mm focal length range.
Tamron 18-270mm f/3.5-6.3 PZD
Tamron 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6
Tamron 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6
Tamron 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 vc usd
___________________________________________________
Tamron Macro lenses
Tamron 60mm f/2 Macro
Tamron 90mm f/2.8 Macro
The 90mm macro lens is a fantastic lens. This lens is very compact, light and optically on par or better than the Canon 100mm f/2.8 macro or Nikon 105mm macro lenses. This lens is very sharp, and much cheaper than the Canon or Nikon lenses, but it is micromotor focused instead of USM. The lens has a new upgraded version with USD ultrasonic motor and vibration compensation.
Nikon(built-in-AF-motor), Canon, Sony, Pentax
Tamron 90mm f/2.8 Macro
Tamron 90mm f/2.8 Di VC USD Macro
Nikon, Canon, Sony
Tamron 180mm f/3.5 Macro
The Tamron 180mm f/3.5 Macro is a very good Macro lens. The longer focal length allows longer working distance, which is preferred for Macro photography. The bokeh is also much better.
Available mounts: Nikon, Canon, Sony
_____________________________________________________
Tamron telephoto lenses
The Tamron 70-200 lenses are more of a “pro” range, while the 70-300 lenses are consumer grade lenses. The 70-200 lenses are much bigger, heavier lenses with better build quality meant for heavy usage. The consumer grade products give very good optical quality at a very competitive price compare to native Canon and Nikon products. The Vc versions are interesting for example in video recording as well, because of the stabilized image, which is a big advantage for video recording.
Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8
The Tamron 70-200mm lenses are optically very good, just there is one problem: is the concurrence. The native Canon 70-200mm lenses are also superb, and the autofocus of the Canons are much better. In Nikon land the difference in bigger in price and harder to find cheaper copies on the used market.
Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 Di Vc Usd
The new Tamron 70-200 mm f/2.8 Di Vc Usd has at least two advantages over the predecessor model: the ring-type silent USD focusing motor and the stabilizer which comes in handy for landscapes.
Tamron 70-300mm f/4-5.6
The Tamron 70-300mm is a cheaper budget decent lens with decent performance but nothing to rave about.
Tamron 70-300mm f/4-5.6 Di Vc Usd
Tamron 70- 300 f/4-5.6 vc review
Tamron 55-200mm f/3.5-5.6
Canon, Sony
Tamron 200-500mm f/5-6.3
The newer Tamron 150-600 Vc lens is clearly better than this lens. Only can be interesting if you find used and you are on a tight budget. The Tamron 200-500mm is not a must have lens. Optical performance is not bad but just not a best buy like the Canon 400 f/5.6 or the new Tamron 150-600mm.
Older Tamron lenses
Tamron 200-400 f/5.6
Tamron 500mm f/8 mirror lens
Mirror lenses usually a cheap alternatives of the usually very expensive “normal” slr lenses. The bokeh of the mirror lenses are several cases not so beautiful as the bokeh of slr lenses, sometimes double contour can appear.