Tamron surprised a lot of folks last week when they announced their first fast prime lenses as they rebranded their flagship SP lens line. Since then, I've had a chance to shoot with both the SP 35mm F/1.8 VC and the SP 45mm F/1.8 VC lenses in a variety of different situations.
Overall, I've found the lenses to be rather impressive, especially when you consider the $600 price tag. That puts it right at the same price point as the Nikon 35mm F/1.8 (which lacks image stabilization) and the Canon 35mm F/2 IS, which is a little bit slower and lacks the close-focusing capabilities of the new Tamrons.
I wasn't sure how much the close-focusing functionality would add to the experience of using each lens, but I found myself using it a lot more than I expected. Maybe even a little too much, but that's to be expected when something is new and novel. When I switched back to my standard 50mm lens, though, I did notice that I wasn't able to focus as close as I would have liked in some situations. It didn't take me long to get spoiled.
In terms of sharpness, I was most impressed with how both lenses performed wide open. Of course things get a bit sharper as you stop down a little, but even at the pixel level, images seemed plenty sharp to my eye, assuming that I got the focus right. They have also done a very solid job of mitigating vignetting, at least to my eye, which is used to dark corners and edges.
The new look for Tamron's SP lenses includes a unique new font specifically for the flagship line
While there's a lot to like right out of the blocks, there are also a few issues I noticed during shooting. I noticed a bit of chromatic aberration creeping into areas you might expect to find purple or green fringing. In the sample images, if you look in the very high-contrast edges, you'll likely see it for yourself. The problem is slightly emphasized when shooting wide open. It's easily corrected and not entirely unexpected, but worth noting.
Focusing is generally quick, but when the lens has to cover a wide range, it can be a bit sluggish. For instance, if you're focusing out at the horizon for a landscape and then try to quickly switch and capture something close to you, the lag might be noticeable. Overall, though, the focusing movements are very smooth. I have a feeling the focusing time has something to do with the internal element structure required to enable the close focusing.
I'm used to the 35mm focal length, but I was curious how the 45mm length would feel when I'm already so used to 50mm. Honestly, the 45mm feels very much like a 50, and while I enjoyed both lenses a lot, carrying both did feel fairly redundant.
We'll have hard numbers for you once the lenses make their way through our test lab, but so far, so good for Tamron.
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