Hi, I’m Keiki Alexander aka ThePandaPhotographer and I’m here today to do my final thoughts on the Tamron SP 90mm F/2.8 Macro 1:1 USD for Sony A-mount systems review
On the Tamron SP 90mm F/2.8 Di macro lens for Sony A-mount bodies. If you were not paying close attention, Tamron has announced a few new lenses for the Sony A-mount.
By time this review has been uploaded here, all 70-200 G2 F/2.8, 85mm F/1.8, 45mm F/1.8 and 35mm F/1.8 will already be on the market but not many photographers
or none have done any result reviews on this model (F017A) for Sony without VC other than myself. This is the third generation that Tamron has now release to the public.
The second generation to this lens is very comparable lens in a lot of ways.
But to compare to another lens that I’d owned the Sony FE 90 Macro,
the Sony FE 90mm is very sharp and is a lens that might be head to head with this
Tamron when it come to price, performance, sharpness, detail, contrast, bokeh and more.
It’s an excellent lens but at the price value at the time of purchase, it was $1200 and now that has drop to $1099
but the Tamron price is coming at a more reasonable price tag of
$649.99 U.S dollars and I find myself drawn to that market.
On the Tamron SP 90mm F/2.8 Di macro lens for Sony A-mount bodies. If you were not paying close attention, Tamron has announced a few new lenses for the Sony A-mount.
By time this review has been uploaded here, all 70-200 G2 F/2.8, 85mm F/1.8, 45mm F/1.8 and 35mm F/1.8 will already be on the market but not many photographers
or none have done any result reviews on this model (F017A) for Sony without VC other than myself. This is the third generation that Tamron has now release to the public.
The second generation to this lens is very comparable lens in a lot of ways.
But to compare to another lens that I’d owned the Sony FE 90 Macro,
the Sony FE 90mm is very sharp and is a lens that might be head to head with this
Tamron when it come to price, performance, sharpness, detail, contrast, bokeh and more.
It’s an excellent lens but at the price value at the time of purchase, it was $1200 and now that has drop to $1099
but the Tamron price is coming at a more reasonable price tag of
$649.99 U.S dollars and I find myself drawn to that market.
So some of you may be asking this very question,
why is Tamron releasing so fast to the market with this third gen (F017A),
well there are many reason why they are releasing at this time but the main reason will be the new design look,
casing and functionally of the new Tamron SP 90mm
but it does share most of its optical traits with a few new coatings.
I think this is a way of standardizing this very excellent lens to their Super performance line. Tamron just announced their new 85mm F1.8 lens with the same SP marketing and design.
Macro lens optically are excellent lenses with some minor fringing at wide open stop and can be fix easy in post.
The excellent feature other than shooting up close with a macro lens is to use a macro lens as a
Portrait lens and some case also use to shoot video in some cases as I said.
So it’s an excellent versatile tool for a lot of photographers.
Macro lenses can be not cheap or not incredibly expensive either.
why is Tamron releasing so fast to the market with this third gen (F017A),
well there are many reason why they are releasing at this time but the main reason will be the new design look,
casing and functionally of the new Tamron SP 90mm
but it does share most of its optical traits with a few new coatings.
I think this is a way of standardizing this very excellent lens to their Super performance line. Tamron just announced their new 85mm F1.8 lens with the same SP marketing and design.
Macro lens optically are excellent lenses with some minor fringing at wide open stop and can be fix easy in post.
The excellent feature other than shooting up close with a macro lens is to use a macro lens as a
Portrait lens and some case also use to shoot video in some cases as I said.
So it’s an excellent versatile tool for a lot of photographers.
Macro lenses can be not cheap or not incredibly expensive either.
Thank you Miki Ishikura for Modeling for this review in New York City in Dumbo, Brooklyn
Now what separates a good macro from the others are the fine details and that fine image quality that
Tamron has address in this refresh of their third gen of this lens.
Tamron VC doesn't come with this model (F017A) for the Sony A-mount SLT system
due to the fact that Sony has a feature called steady shot in for the A99ii 5 AXIS stabilization in their bodies.
NOTE: Sony A77ii has a IBIS system as well and most people do forget that about the crop sensor body.
But macro lenses have unique needs and this is my second macro lenses I'd owned and one is from
Sony The FE90 Macro F2.8 and it's the sharpest I have by far.
There are some improvements with this model of the lenses and that is the autofocus.
Keep in mind when focusing on your talent or subject use the correct focus limiter on the lens for best results
but even if you don't use the focus limiter,
Auto focus is very quick but does hunt a bit if you are not using
that focus limiter correctly. but overall not much hunting has happen and it does happen to all cameras.
while using the Godox X1T-S and the TT600S
The overall build quality of this lens is a game changer for Tarmon due to the past models having such good optics but budget exterior but with that said this is something to look forward to for all mounts of this model of the lens, Canon, Nikon and Sony. A-mount users will be very happy also with the SP 85mm F/1.8 with the same exterior. This is certainly a new level for tamron with the beautiful constructed design and I would apply the coatings on the lens as well. For the price range you will be more than pleased but Tamron is now claiming more of the full body dust and moisture resistance with a rear weather gasket, it's internal seal near the focus ring and front lens element.
Yes, This does include the focus limiter switches as well.
Now I did run into some that happen while using the Godox system and notice in the EVF when using AUTO-FOCUS. The images below you will explain even at F/2.8 while using focus peaking while a smoker at times. Focus peaking helps in manual mode while manually focus (which I'd prefer) and nailing it while handheld. The one category that the Tamron did so very well was the contrast against flaring in my test against bright lights. Just very little lost of contrast but since this lens has so much contrast you will never notice it. Some macro lenses in my optional have either lost some contrast while shooting as well towards sun light or bright light (directly) but The Tamron maintain it's contrast but please don't point it directly in the sun and then look through the EVF or Optical viewfinder, you can blind yourself so don't be a idiot to do it ether.
Yes, This does include the focus limiter switches as well.
Now I did run into some that happen while using the Godox system and notice in the EVF when using AUTO-FOCUS. The images below you will explain even at F/2.8 while using focus peaking while a smoker at times. Focus peaking helps in manual mode while manually focus (which I'd prefer) and nailing it while handheld. The one category that the Tamron did so very well was the contrast against flaring in my test against bright lights. Just very little lost of contrast but since this lens has so much contrast you will never notice it. Some macro lenses in my optional have either lost some contrast while shooting as well towards sun light or bright light (directly) but The Tamron maintain it's contrast but please don't point it directly in the sun and then look through the EVF or Optical viewfinder, you can blind yourself so don't be a idiot to do it ether.
Now has I was doing a bokeh test with the Tamron SP 90mm Macro, I did find the bokeh to be nice
and clean in most cases and in the corners it will become more egg shape or cat eye shape.
At times and this is just my optional but I felt that the depth of field was busy in very few images
but still clean enough for images to be editing in post.
This lens has 14 elements and 11 groups in such a small body and the angle of view is 17°37' for APS-C format with that front element coated in fluorine which makes the front element scratch resistant but it’s so very easy to clean and I find this macro lens more portable and friendly when it comes to points I’m here making.
Did I forget to mention the aperture can stop down to F/32 ?
Well it can and with the warranty in North America is a 6 years and the UK it’s a 5 years warranty, make sure you register your lens to take advantage of the warranty.
and clean in most cases and in the corners it will become more egg shape or cat eye shape.
At times and this is just my optional but I felt that the depth of field was busy in very few images
but still clean enough for images to be editing in post.
This lens has 14 elements and 11 groups in such a small body and the angle of view is 17°37' for APS-C format with that front element coated in fluorine which makes the front element scratch resistant but it’s so very easy to clean and I find this macro lens more portable and friendly when it comes to points I’m here making.
Did I forget to mention the aperture can stop down to F/32 ?
Well it can and with the warranty in North America is a 6 years and the UK it’s a 5 years warranty, make sure you register your lens to take advantage of the warranty.
With the manual focus ring simply being nice and smooth on the SP line of Tamron new lenses, I’d find it to be pleasant to focus with using the focus peaking feature on the Sony Alpha bodies in manual mode, it was smooth focus throw. As a result, having a good manual focus ring is very important. I’m can say for sure that I am delighted to inform you that the focus rings on the SP line are better than any other AF lens for now. We will have to see long term how it holds up 6 months from now. Another tip that will help you is to use portrait mode on this marco lens at 0.5m and not in Full mode on the lens for best results. I took great notice that in full mode, it will miss just a few times but once switching from full to 0.5m i notice a improvement and my hit rate was high when using eye-AF on the sony A77MKII with single point dial on the camera in mode was in Manual mode.
Tamron also updated the coating here on both proprietary E-band and B-bar coatings. This will help with ghosting and flare but I’d had some issue with flare in a video that I have upload and you can check that out for yourself. But it handle it fairly. It’s extremely flare resistant? That’s up to you to decide but for me I has some problems with flaring when doing video and photos. I felt that maybe the coating was apply fairly on the front element on my model but it still hold up and yes, there was a little chromatic aberration which is important in macro distances in a lot of shiny surfaces you will end up photographing and I have seen little in a part four lens test. But contrast was excellent and it did maintain contrast while doing a flare test. Some macro lenses do lose contrast but the Tamron SP 90mm maintain it well. I'm no professional when analyzing lenses but I'd have a good eye when to come to viewing things.
Image quality from the point of view was sharp and already excellent from the start.
The portraits that resulted from using the SP 90mm macro lens
was just wonderful to look at them in Adobe Lightroom
and will surely ask any of you Sony users to just take the time rent it and try it out.
The finally topic I would like to go over is to not underestimated this lens is the tap in console.
This is just like the Sigma USB dock and with the TAP-IN console,
you can program the lens or make some adjustments to your lens.
Yes, you are able to do customize to the lens and firmware updates to the lens as
they are release in the next upcoming months.
The portraits that resulted from using the SP 90mm macro lens
was just wonderful to look at them in Adobe Lightroom
and will surely ask any of you Sony users to just take the time rent it and try it out.
The finally topic I would like to go over is to not underestimated this lens is the tap in console.
This is just like the Sigma USB dock and with the TAP-IN console,
you can program the lens or make some adjustments to your lens.
Yes, you are able to do customize to the lens and firmware updates to the lens as
they are release in the next upcoming months.
Now let’s talk about macro photography with this Tamron SP 90,
now someone from another community said that he had the first generation of this lens and made a claim that this third generation had some focus breathing issues and it was asked if he owned this model (F017A).
He reply, no. But is there issue with focus breathing with this lens on a crop sensor body?
From the tested, there was no focus breathing that I notice
when photographing 1:1 on subjects using the Sony A77II body.
From the images below you can see that it was able to keep focus with focus peaking in manual mode.
So another question will be, is this a true 1:1 macro lens?
Yes, this is a true 1:1 macro lens and work as a macro lens should.
It’s best to always use manual mode to focus correctly and not use auto-focus mode.
now someone from another community said that he had the first generation of this lens and made a claim that this third generation had some focus breathing issues and it was asked if he owned this model (F017A).
He reply, no. But is there issue with focus breathing with this lens on a crop sensor body?
From the tested, there was no focus breathing that I notice
when photographing 1:1 on subjects using the Sony A77II body.
From the images below you can see that it was able to keep focus with focus peaking in manual mode.
So another question will be, is this a true 1:1 macro lens?
Yes, this is a true 1:1 macro lens and work as a macro lens should.
It’s best to always use manual mode to focus correctly and not use auto-focus mode.
NOW LET’S FOCUS ON THE LIGHT TRANSMISSION ON THIS LENS, I STILL FIND MYSELF COMPARING MY SONY FE 90 TO THE TAMRON SP 90MM AND BOTH LENSES ARE F/2.8 AND I’D HAVE TO SAY THAT THE LIGHT TRANSMISSION IS HALF A STOP WHAT I’D ESTIMATE LOST. THIS IS JUST FROM MY OWN TESTED AND EXPERIENCE TRYING TO FIGURE OUT FOR A LITTLE MORE THAN 2 WEEKS NOW. SO I’M GOING TO SAY THAT TAMRON DID COME UP SHORT HANDED WITH THE TRANSMISSION ON THIS LENS ITSELF BUT STILL PERFORM EXCELLENTLY WHEN GOING PORTRAITS SAMPLE TESTED. SO YES, YOU WILL NEED A BIT MORE LIGHT USING THE TAMRON SP 90MM AND THIS IS JUST MY OBSERVATION AS I’D TESTED BUT WHAT DO I KNOW. I AM NOT A SPECIALIST AT THESE THINGS. I’M A SELF-TAUGHT PHOTOGRAPHER THAT HAS BEEN DOING THIS FOR A LONG TIME NOW AND ONLY GIVING MY PERSONAL OPTIONAL. BUT KEEP IN MIND THAT YOU WILL HAVE TO STEP BACK MORE SINCE THIS CAN BE USE FROM A CROP SENSOR OR FULL-FRAME BUT THERE IS A FOCUS LENGTH DIFFERENCE AND HERE IS AN EXAMPLE ABOVE YOU.
While I was in San Jose, California doing more tested in as a street photographer I notice a bit of hunting
but not bad at all and these images below you were taking for my story
"My Tamron Story" and each time I've use the 90mm Macro lens,
the more I wanted to use it and wouldn't stop shooting.
Yes, I've became attach to the lens and realize the lens was the perfect lens for A-mount shooters
if you are doing street photographer with a macro lens.
Keep in mind that a macro lens is very versatile.
but not bad at all and these images below you were taking for my story
"My Tamron Story" and each time I've use the 90mm Macro lens,
the more I wanted to use it and wouldn't stop shooting.
Yes, I've became attach to the lens and realize the lens was the perfect lens for A-mount shooters
if you are doing street photographer with a macro lens.
Keep in mind that a macro lens is very versatile.
So you will have to take some step back to get your model or objects
and make sure you fill the frame right to not waste pixels.
Yes, for some photographers this might be a con and a choice to deal with me.
If you are a Sony Alpha users and you do owned an A99 or A99II,
both bodies are full frame and you will have true full 90mm focus length.
Another con will be and this is just optional but I'm not able to thread any filter lens on the thread with a lens hood.
I would rather like to use a ND filter and my lens hood to protect my lens and filter as an investment for long term.
My third complain will that like all manufacturer they never add their own signature vibration features to the
Sony Alpha A-mount cameras.
I would rather disable all the steady shot or 5 Axis feature
and see how well manufacturer vibration feature will performance on any Sony Alpha mount.
If you are planning to use this with a Sony LAEA4 adapter to
Sony FE mount then it will be best to use the lens adapter for the best results.
So overall this is a great lens for Sony users and please do check out my video tested on
Youtube which I’ll link my new Youtube profile.
Thank you for taking the time to read and hope this has help many of you looking for an option for
Sony Alpha A-Mount.
You can read more at http://www.tamron-usa.com/F017special/index.html
This is ThePandaPhotographer and I’ll see you on Instagram and social media.
Thank you for reading.
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