Review and test results of the Tamron SP 35mm f/1 lens.8 Di USD VC

Tamron, the second largest third party lens manufacturer, has decided to follow Sigma’s lead and change the brand image and perception: become a full fledged competitor rather than a “budget alternative to the “native” lenses”. Parallels with actions of Sigma are obvious: deep redesign of exterior, allocation of novelties in separate series in case of Tamron – “new SP-line” , docking station console for self-alignment of compatible lenses in the range, entering segments where products of the company were not present earlier.

Tamron SP 35mm f/1.8 Di USD VC

The first “swallows” were announced September 2, 2015 Tamron SP 35mm f/1.8 Di USD VC and Tamron SP 45mm f/1.8 Di USD VC. According to the company’s marketing specialists, the new items are “the brightest of the wide-angle models equipped with optical stabilizer”. This isn’t the first time Tamron has used a stabilizer in the positioning of its new products: in early 2012, the Tamron 24-70mm f/2.The 8 Di VC USD was the “first 24-70mm stabilized lens,” with the excellent Tamron SP 15-30/2 hitting the shelves in 2015.8 Di VC USD, announced as “the widest-angle stabilized zoom.

To add, the company has never seriously played the constant focal length autofocus lens market and in the “pre-autofocus era” the Adaptall lineup was dominated by variable focal length models . Fixes with autofocus were more of an exception:

Two versions of the Tamron SP 300/2 were produced between 1992 and 2006.8 LD

The excellent Tamron SP 90/2 has been making history since 1996.8 mascro the fifth version of the model is announced this year

From 1999 to 2007 produced the Tamron AF 14mm f/2.8 SP Aspherical

In 2009, the APS-C macro lens added to the lineup, the Tamron AF 60mm f/2.0 SP Di-II Macro

Specifications

Optical scheme

Focal length:35 mm

Angle of view diagonal : 63.4 degrees

Optical construction: 10 elements in 9 groups, including 2 aspherical, 1 XLD and 1 LD element

Aperture range: f/1.8 – f/16

Number of aperture blades: 9, rounded

Autofocus actuator: Ultrasonic USD motor

Minimum focus distance: 20 cm

Maximum magnification: 0.4x

Light filter diameter: 67 mm

Dimensions: 80.5*81 mm

Weight: 480 grams

Available options: Canon EF Nikon F Sony A Sony version without optical image stabilizer

Setup

Tamron SP 35mm f/1 kit.8 Di USD VC is not much different from what you’re used to. Buyer gets:

Lens

Front and rear covers

Tamron HF012 hood

Warranty card

Add to the package: a 5-year warranty and the chance to use a special version of the SILKYPIX RAW converter – Developer Studio 4 for free.0 for Tamron.

Back cover

Front cover

Updates in the package: new box design the front cap is clearly the same as the excellent Sigma caps: with a central grip, deep and comfortable the back cover differs from the usual in shape and size: larger covers the mount mount completely, for which the walls are made double layer , the design is unexpectedly “smooth.

I liked the back cover: not sure if the protection of the body mount edges is needed however, it won’t be superfluous , fresh design is welcome.

Tamron HF012 petal hood is made of high quality plastic, modest in size, attaches firmly to the lens, inside is just grooved plastic.

The lens is offered for a hefty $600, so the lack of a storage case in the kit is unfortunate. For one thing, a price-comparable Canon EF 35/2 IS USM is sold even without a hood, but on the other, wouldn’t it be better to use the Sigma Art 35mm f/1.4?

Photo by David Kovaluk

Lyrical digression: there were times when a quality storage and carrying case was perceived as proper and mandatory. Take a look at Tamron products of old thanks to Photos by David Kovaluk for sharing the photos.

Manufacture and construction

Design of the Tamron SP 35/1.I liked the 8 Di USD VC: the lens looks thoughtful and attractive. Proponents of “professional austerity” might complain about the silver plastic ring on the lens mount, but I prefer to get away from the impersonality. The plastic is quality, the texture is nice, the matte smooth surface looks modern.

Back element and mount

High quality in terms of workmanship and materials, as good as the SP 24-70/2.8 VC and SP 15-30/2.8 VC, the manufacturer claims that the Tamron SP 35/1.8 Di USD VC not only has a metal mount, but also a metal chassis. Dust and moisture protection are present. The lens is pleasantly weighty, sturdy and reliably assembled, no tolerances.

The controls are a distance window, manual focus ring and two switches: autofocus and image stabilizer.

The manual focus ring takes up the whole front part of the lens body, it is well-damped, comfortable, wide 29mm, 26 of which are covered with a ribbed rubber , it fits like a glove, stroke is smooth and the force is even and comfortable. Does not rotate in autofocus mode. The ring travel is generous: 190 degrees is enough for comfortable manual focusing.

Moving the front element

The lens doesn’t change face dimensions when zooming or focusing, the front element doesn’t rotate, and using filters is uncomplicated and recommended. The front element moves forward by almost a centimeter when focusing to the MDF, but this does not affect the use of filters: it does not cross the outer border of the lens.

Switches are comfortably sized, conveniently located. Tamron SP 35/1.8 Di USD VC has no complaints about the quality of materials and workmanship and has an attractive design. Top-notch ergonomics: the lens is well thought out and easy to use.

Geometric distortions

Tamron SP 35/1.8 Di USD VC steadily controls geometric aberration: 1.3% barrel distortion is not record low, but in comparison with competitors and peers it looks very good. Distortion pattern is correct, easily corrected in post-processing if necessary. At distances close to the minimum focusing distance, the hero of the review improves performance, giving a “barrel of 0.6 – 0.7%.

Distortion at normal distances

Distortion at distances close to the MDF

Resolution and sharpness

A test specimen of the Tamron SP 35/1.8 Di USD VC performed smoothly and confidently, showing enviable results, not inferior to competitors and classmates.

Sharpness at center vs. aperture according to Reikan Focal

No complaints about the center throughout the entire aperture range: Even at fully open, the result is already in the “very good” range starting with f/2.8 – “excellent”.

Edges and corners are expectedly different in the f/1 range.8 – f/2.8, but not criminally so: at f/1.8 the difference is noticeable, but already at f/2.2 Not as noticeable, from f/2.8, the lens gives you a sharp picture from edge-to-edge.The hero of the review deserves nothing but praise based on the results.

Chromatic aberrations

Tamron SP 35/1.8 Di USD VC copes brilliantly with lateral chromatic aberrations: the conditionally comfortable level of 0.06% is not exceeded throughout the entire range of focal lengths, the width of CA does not reach 1.5 pixels. Outstanding results.The hero of this review is also confident in controlling spherical aberrations: there is no aberration shift when changing the aperture value.

CA at a fully open aperture of f/1.8

There are some problems with spherochromaticism inherent in quite a few fast lenses: the out-of-focus area tinting at fully open aperture is comparable to the competition, but in order to reliably get rid of the frame of green and crimson blobs behind the focus plane in front of it you need to close the aperture to f/4.0.

The situation is worsened by the hero of the review to the so-called purple fringing: violet halos in the zone of sharp contrasts. I should add that the “fault is floating”: in difficult situations the hero of the review performs most often without errors, but from time to time he stuns with unexpectedly failing results.

Purple fringing on contrast transitions cropped frame at 200% magnification

Contrast transitions, cropped f/1 frame.8 with a magnification of 200%

Vignetting

Behavior of the Tamron SP 35/1.8 Di USD VC is to be expected: at open apertures the vignetting is present in large measure, the intensity of the effect diminishes as the aperture is widened.

At full open, the frame corners differ from the center by more than 2 notches, the conditionally comfortable level below 1 notch is reached at f/2.8.

Compared to its competitors the subject of this review deserves nothing but praise: the results are not only good, but often better than those of its classmates. Excellent result!

Autofocus

Tamron SP 35mm f/1 autofocus actuator.8 Di VC USD uses a ring ultrasonic motor. The autofocus is almost silent. Speed lower than expected: a tribute to the 190 degree travel of the manual focus ring and the enviable, for a wide-angle lens, minimum focus distance of 20 cm magnification of 0.4x adds a plus to the prize of the review . It takes just over a second to cover the whole distance.

Reikan Focal offers a correction of +10

The test specimen required in-camera adjustments because of the slight front focus on my camera. The absence of focus-switching contributes to the speed and uncomplicated action, however, I had to disagree with the suggestions of Reikan Focal: the program reacted differently to successive runs and advised correction in the range from +6 to +10. Amendment at +3 was in fact sufficient, which was confirmed when testing the DataColor Spyder Lenscal. The lens hit the bull’s-eye with precision after correcting.

Front focus

Everything is fine after correcting

Number of autofocus blunders is average for a fast lens. Reikan Focal estimates repeatability and stability of phase focusing at 99% and more with “excellent” rating starting from 98% . It’s worth noting the lack of significant difference in different testing methods – 99.2% when refocusing from infinity and 99.0% when refocusing from the minimum distance.

Contrast autofocus is thoughtful, subjectively the process seems slow due to multi-tracking. Reikan Focal estimates repeatability at a confident 98.1%.

Phase AF is stable refocusing from infinity

Stability of phase auto-focus out-of-focus by MDF

Contrast AF stability

For the fans of videography: the hero of the review tends to noticeably change the angle of view when you change the focus distance Focus Breathing .

Image, stabilizer, backlight

Color rendering is OK and close to neutral – “Sigma yellow, Tamron blue” doesn’t really apply to the hero of the review. Nice that neutrality is not accompanied by dullness and flatness of the picture. Contrast is good already at full open.

Background blur f/1.8

Sun in the corner of the frame f/1.8

Stabilizer. For me, acceptable results are achieved at shutter speeds as slow as half a second 1/4 to 1/6 , which gives about 3 steps gain. Outstanding results for a wide angle lens. An invaluable advantage of the stabilizer will be for fans of video.

Conclusion

I would like to draw three conclusions: general, specific and price conclusions

Overall. Tamron SP 35/1.8 Di USD VC was enjoyable, but without the “wow effect”: a decent lens that confidently performed the test tasks. Lens is objectively good.

In particular. The protagonist of this review does not lose out to big-name competitors at all, has excellent sharpness, confident control over vignetting and low geometric distortion. Attractive design, excellent workmanship, effective optical stabilizer, low side effects, small MDF and accurate color reproduction add to the pluses. On the downside, spherochromatism, not quite confident in backlight, and some slowness in autofocus.

Conclusion three: the price point. It seems to me that the company has not quite guessed with the price. Apparently, Tamron’s marketing specialists decided to “eat away” Sigma’s market share: the subject of this review is one third cheaper than Sigma Art 35/1.4 DG HSM 600 vs. 900 dollars , compensating 2/3 step aperture ratio image stabilizer. However, in the case of Canon at the time of writing the review Tamron SP 35/1.8 Di USD VC is 50 dollars more expensive than Canon EF 35mm f/2 USM IS price according to bhphotovideo and the difference in aperture ratio might not be enough to tip the scales in favor of the “non-native” lens.

“Stabilized” Nikon 35mm is not on the market, but neither is the Nikon AF-S Nikkor 35/1.The 8G ED $525 , and the Nikon AF Nikkor 35/2D $385 sell for less. Tamron SP 35/1.8 Di USD VC does not lose out at all to either competitor from Canon or Nikon, but it is psychologically difficult to justify the price higher than its “native” counterparts, and the “WOW-effect” from getting acquainted with the lens would definitely be present at the price of $400 – $450 for a novelty.

I would like to thank the Tamron representative in America for providing me with a sample of the lens for testing.