Tamron Announces 18-200mm F/3.5-6.3 Di III VC E-Mount Superzoom for Sony NEX

[Amin Sabet]

This is pretty huge news: Tamron announced the first third-party autofocus lens for Sony NEX, and it has optical image stabilization to boot.

The new lens is an 18-200mm F/3.5-6.3mm superzoom featuring Tamron's VC (Vibration Control) technology, which is extremely effective. I owned the equivalent lens for the Canon and Nikon systems, and both were very good.

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The images make the lens look pretty large and heavy, but the specs (3.8" long, 460g) tell another story (as is the case with the existing Sony 18-200mm lens).

I'm looking forward to this lens. Should make a great lens for family vacations and trips to the zoo. Hopefully priced a bit lower than the Sony lens.

[via DPReview]

 

[Bimjo]

Hopefully Tamron prices this reasonably, $450 street would work well I should think. Maybe there's something UWA coming too, either from Tamron or Sigma. A e mount Sigma 8-16 would be sweet.

 

[jfazer]

I have a tamron lens for my canon camera, and it's great... I would wait for seeing it at a shop, but it seems very nice...
Thanks for sharing!

 

[Phoenix]

I think with the current positive reviews of the NEX-5N and of the NEX-7 its only a matter of time before we see more E-mount lenses from other lens manufacturers like Tokina, Sigma, Soligor, etc.. as all these companies will want a "piece of the action" specially since Sony has released their E-mount patent to any lens manufacturer that would like to release a lenses for the NEX.
Another indicator for these companies is that until a couple of months ago the NEX series only had 3 native lenses which was one of it's major criticism, the limited selection of lenses, Sony even stated that (I dont know where they get their stats but it sounds about right) 50% of all the NEX units sold in the past year was used with 3rd party lenses via adaptor.

I think we can expect (at least I hope so) more E-mount lenses from other lens manufacturers in the coming year, which is good news for us NEX owners. Hopefully this will give rise to more variery, options and affordability through competition.

 

[frankmarin]

I hope also to see more lens options for the Nex, it's the only thing putting me off, probably until I try a Nex7

 

[jebuskrust]

Really don't know why they covered the same specs as the original SONY SEL18200 but I don't care. The more lenses out there, the better for us users.

 

[serhan]

Samples at Focus-Numerique

Tamron 18-200 samples including raw images taken with Nex-5n at Focus-Numerique:

Google Translate

And here is also some of my experience from last weekend. After seeing the good reviews and photos, I bought one last week from B&H.

I use Olympus 14-150 since it was released, so I wanted to try Tamron option. Compared to Olympus it is a bigger lens, but when you put on the cameras, shorter flange distance on nex makes it not much of a difference on the overall length. So it is camera stabilization vs lens stabilization difference which makes the lens or the body thicker.

In comparison to Sony 18-200, they say Sony has a slower af, which might be better for video transitions. In comparison to Sony 55-210, it is shorter lens and that lens doesn't have fast aperture either at 4.5-6.3 range. So for travels Tamron makes it a very small package in comparison to Sony lenses and it is comparable to Olympus 14-150mm. Also if you have a black body, Tamron lens is black in comparison to Sony's silver lenses except Zeiss.

I found Tamron af and stabilization very good. The aperture is 4.5 around 35mm, 5.6 around 50-70mm range, and 6.3 after 70mm if I remember correctly (it is 6.3 at 100-200mm range). I have shots came good in nearly dark conditions, eg iso 6400 1/12sec at equiv 300mm f/6.3 zoomed to 5-6 feet range. In the dark, af slows down.

 

[Amin Sabet]

Thanks, Serhan. Every report I've heard of this lens has been strongly positive. Tamron knows how to make a good superzoom.

 

[nuknodis]

I purchased the Tamron E-mount lens a few weeks ago and I have to say, I LOVE IT! The image quality is much better than the 18-55 kit lens and it looks great in black on a black body. Not that the kit lens was bad, but there is a noticeable improvement over the kit. I am not an expert in any way, but the OSS is phenomenal with hand held shots. I sold the kit lens after the Tamron purchase.
But my only gripe is:...
it has problems with shooting in pano mode on the NEX 5n and 7. the pano is always blurry.
I have heard that it is not an issue on the NEX 5 (maybe on certain models). but hopefully it can be fixed in a firmware update...

Beyond that, i am really happy with it!

 

[serhan]

Here is a review of the lens:
Tamron 18-200mm F/3.5-6.3 Di III VC NEX Lens Review

 

[JimR]

This seems like a good alternative to the Sony 18-200 but I was hoping that it would come substantially below the price for the Sony. $500-$600 street would be a great price. Oh well, wishful thinking.

 

[KellyW]

I want this lens! I heard Samyang are also starting to make lenses for Nex so fingers crossed will be a bigger selection soon.

 

[Ray Vardy]

....and hopefully the more players will help drive the prices down, else I'm going to have to turn to prostitution to bring in the ££££££!

 

[rumblefish]

Hello,

Can anybody tell me if i should get this Tamron 18-200 mm? I heard there is a problem in the pano mode. Is there a fix out there? Will Tamron decide a recall for this product? Should i overlook the existing problem? Will the pros outweigh this minor problem? I mean, this is still quite an expensive lens for me (I'm on a tight budget).

 

[Bimjo]

Tamron fixed the pano problem via a firmware update. Any new-in-stock lenses should already be upgraded. If you manage to get one that hasn't been upgraded you should be able to send it back to Tamron to be upgraded, I suspect for no cost.

Oh, BTW- welcome to the forum.