Tamron SP 85 mm f/1.8 Di VC USD review - Introduction

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Tamron SP 85 mm f/1.8 Di VC USD

12 April 2016

Szymon Starczewski

1. Introduction

At the beginning of September 2015 the Tamron company presented a new line of lenses called SP, with a completely different appearance and type of casings. The lenses were weather-sealed constructions designed in Japan and they boasted image stabilization. What’s more, optical constructions of that new line are supposed to be so good that they can cooperate seamlessly with full frame sensors with resolution as high as 50 million pixels. The Tamron SP 35 mm f/1.8 Di VC USD and the Tamron SP 45 mm f/1.8 Di VC USD were two lenses that started the new series.

In February 2016 two other models were launched. It would be difficult to call the Tamron SP 90 mm f/2.8 Di MACRO 1:1 VC USD a classic novelty because when you compare it to its predecessor you see the producer changed mainly the casing, leaving the optical construction untouched. Still, the second lens presented at that time, the Tamron SP 85 mm f/1.8 Di VC USD, was something completely new and we wanted to test it very badly.

Courtesy of a very swift reaction of the Polish Tamron distributor, the Fototechnika company the lens arrived to our editorial office at the beginning of April so we could take a closer look at it. The results are presented in the following chapters – enjoy!

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You are also invited to get acquainted with our test procedure, described in the article "How do we test lenses?" If you feel it’s still not enough, please go to our FAQ section where you can find some further explanation.