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

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!

 

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.

 

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  

 

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.

 

Samples at Focus-Numerique

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

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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.

 

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!

 

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

 

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.

 

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

 

....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 ££££££!

 

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).