PMA 2010- AlphaMountWorld Show Coverage

February 2010, Carl Garrard (Last Updated 2-23 7:56 am PST)

Well, it's arrived everyone. PMA 2010 officially starts Sunday February 21, at 10am Pacific Time Zone. Press (that means AMW included as well) will get a sneak peak on Saturday, but most of the news should come starting early Sunday. We will be attending PMA and covering the Sony Alpha booth and other related booths as well. We will update our coverage here as soon as we can compile it all and get it uploaded. Most likely the 'big press' will give you all the hot stuff sooner than we can, but I intend on getting a bit different coverage (as well as any big news) up here. Hopefully we can offer some additional and unique coverage more specific to our cause here at AlphaMountWorld.

Tamron SP Di II 60mm F/2 Macro Lens Review

February 2010, Carl Garrard

Tamron's newest macro lens is the new Tamron SP Di 60mm f/2 Macro lens. SP is the designation for Tamron's special performance lens (their professional grade lens). It comes equipped with an internal focus motor, internal focusing design (the lens does not change shape during focusing), and a bright max f/2 aperture rating. Specifically Tamron calls this lens a Di II lens which means that is is optimized optically for digital cameras, and for sensos with an APS-C sized sensor only. However, in my findings during testing this lens on the A900 full frame sensor, some might consider this Tamron to be fully functional for full frame use as well. More on that further in the review. Announced on September 28th, 2009 the Tamron currently sells for about $570.00 in the U.S. Considering this lens could be capable of being a great portrait lens (90mm on APS-C is a great focal length for portrait work), it could be a bargain to some photographers looking for a lens that can do more than its specified task. Lets see how the Tamron performs in testing on our new AMW lens chart, and what my opinion of the overall value of this lens can mean to you.

Tamron SP AF 17-35mm f/2.8-4 Di Lens Review

July 2009, Carl Garrard

Tamron's SP AF 17-35mm f/2.8-f4 Di Lens is a compact and relatively lightweight ultra-wide angle lens that is nearly as versatile on a full frame D/SLR as it is on an APS-C DSLR. This lens is currently priced from $300.00-$450.00 USD and seemingly offers quite a bargain for the price. It is a relatively fast maxiumum aperture lens that has a good specification sheet for both indoor and outdoor work. Mounted on an APS-C Alpha DSLR, it has a 25.5-52.5mm equivalent field of view, and does extra wide duty work for a full frame DSLR. This lens is similar in design to the Konica Minolta 17-35mm lens that has been out of production for quite some time. On the hunt for a bargain ultra-wide with respectable performance for my A900, I decided to purchase this lens and give it a go.

Tamron AF 70-300mm F/4-5.6 Di LD Macro 1:2 Summary Review

June 2009, Carl Garrard

Our review reveals that Tamron's 70-300mm f/4-f/5.6 LD Macro 1:2 Lens is currently one of the most affordable and versatile lenses in its range. It is a highly popular lens and is available in just about every DSLR mount because its features and performance for the price creates a high demand from photographers of many levels of experience. For the Alpha Mount it offers full frame coverage, a 1:2 macro feature, 9 aperture blades, Limited Dispersion Elements (LD) to control aberrations, elements coated for digital optics, and a full 6 year warranty. It has been widely available since spring of 2006.

February, 2009 Carl Garrard

The Tamron 55-200mm f4-5.6 Di II LD Macro is a lens that hasn't quite had its share of fair press yet is a lens I believe that will give you quite a bit for your money in return. For about $150.00 to $200.00 USD new, the Tamron won't break your wallet either. Since money seems to be comparatively thin nowadays for many, I thought it would be nice to review a lens that gives you quite a bang for the buck. I've had this lens for some time now and have taken a vast amount of images through it. It is a lightweight and inexpensive lens with a relatively useful zoom range even when compared to the 70/75-300 budget class lenses. It gives you slightly wider field of view than that class and still maintains a smaller than average minimum focus area to boot of about 1:3.5 (APS-C). It is an APS-C specific lens that subsequently won't work for your full frame film camera or A900 without vignetting in the corners. Other than that it is a relatively simple no frill lens design that I believe is great for beginners or enthusiasts that demand a lightweight lens with decent to very good quality images. The only other real competition for this focal length this lens has is of course the Sony 55-200 variant (with a larger front filter and focusing ring), and the Sigma 55-200. The Tamron can be had for less than either.

Today Tamron announced a forthcoming 18-270mm Di II VC (15x) Zoom Lens, initially available for Canon and Nikon. There's no indication if there will be one available for the Alpha Mount however.

If they do manage to pull off production of this lens without making any horrible compromises, it could be a handy one to have. Further, since Tamron is one of our favorite lens companies, it'd be nice to have this lens as an option if it turns out to be a winner.

Full press release here
http://tamron.com/news/35mm/18270vc.asp

Tamron 90mm Di 2.8 Macro AutoFocus Lens

Review by: C. Garrard

Lens graciously provided by Matt Davids at www.AlphaLensRental.com, thank you Matt!

*Tested on the Sony Alpha A100 and A700

Preamble:

One of the priorities of AlphaMountWorld.com is to bring you real world reviews of products of great quality and value to add to your Alpha system. Also, so that you don't have to shop all over the net or read thousands of reviews to make a final decision. We aim to find the best products for overall value and performance, then review them for you. Of late, we have had our eye on a few macro lenses we feel bring an excellent addition to your kit. While there are many macro lenses available to the Alpha Mount, we have narrowed our favorites to just a handful based on image quality, price, and build. One of these lenses is the Tamron 90mm 2.8 Macro.