# First Impressions: New Tamron 35mm f1.8 & 6D



## Ivan Muller (Mar 16, 2016)

After having read our friend Dustin Abbott's Tamron review and also a few others on the net, I decided to take the plunge and ordered myself a Tamron SP 35mm f1.8 Di VC USD lens ( sheesh what a mouthful!) 

This is my first non Canon lens in a decade. I burnt my fingers on a sigma zoom many years ago and decided to stick with Canon...but with our declining currency, prices have skyrocketed this year and my 'dream lens' the Canon EF 35mm f2 IS has become quite a bit more pricey than I am comfortable to pay. I happened to notice one of our big local suppliers had a sale on the 35mm Tamron at about 60% of the price of the Canon & Tamrons normal price...so I took the plunge without ever having had the lens in my hand....something I promised myself I will never do...

Here are my first impressions:

1. Big and heavy

2. Feels solid and very quiet... bonus is the included lens hood

3. Definite slight hesitation before focus confirmation

4. Outer AF points on my 6D is useless and results in totally out of focus images ( even with Canon lenses the outer AF points are iffy, but with the Tamron its much worse)

5. Center focus point is the only usable AF point but at least its very accurate in good light. I haven't tested very poor light yet.

5. Lens is very sharp even wide open...I have tended to ignore the max apertures on my lenses because I just dont shoot that way but its almost like a whole new world of possibilities opening up being able to shoot at f1.8

6. Lots of CA and colour fringing wide open but it does become less noticeable as I stop down

7. Fortunately I can remove almost all of the CA and colour fringing in LR

8. LR already has a profile for the lens that takes care of the shading , distortion and CA

10. Focus was off and I had to micro adjust focus, and now it focuses perfectly and accurately

11. F11 is also still sharp enough for me 

So I will probably keep it. i'm very impressed with sharpness in the center and even out to the corners although I still want to shoot a few tests to check centering etc etc. Roger Cicala from Lens Rentals also noticed very good copy to copy variation. I have returned quite a few Canon zooms in the past because I just couldn't get a good copy, so I am glad that it would seem I got a good copy for a change!

Below a shot of my two dogs playing on the lawn. Exposure 100iso 1/3000sec and f1.8 centre point AF on 6D.

Processed in LR and Viveza. LR Tamron lens profile activated and sharpened etc as per my normal post processing routine.

( We are experiencing the worst drought in 30 years- although we have had good rains the past few days - and that's why my lawn looks the way it does! )

and yes that is a boxer with a tail ...its illegal to dock tails in my part of the world...


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## Ivan Muller (Mar 16, 2016)

....another image made with the 35mm f1.8 Tamron. 

Exposure 1/125 sec @ f1.8 100iso & 6D. Center Af point aimed at the chest. All CA and fringing removed via LR 'de fringing' sliders...


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