Tamron (finally catches up with Sigma with) USB dock for lenses + new lenses

[arthurking83]

For any Tamron fan boys and girls out there ....

Tamron's 85/1.8 VC + 90/2.8 VC Macro lens news

and Tamron TAP-in usb lens dock news on DPR.

I've said a long time ago that this is the way of the future for lenses and finally now Tamron has probably realised that Sigma has stolen so much of their thunder simply due to this little USB device.
While it's not for everyone and some folks probably really don't care, that's not the point!
The point is to have the hardware available for the geeks to tweak and twiddle to their hearts content which gives them something to talk about .. and that talk is mainly positive!

I don't think it'll be long before genuine manufacturers will eventually follow suit with something similar, now that Tamwon has joined Sigma down this path.
Damn!... Nikon needed something like this over a year ago with their lens faux pas of late

Back onto the new Tammy lenses!
They do seem a little conservative given what Sigma has been doing recently(rumoured 50-100/1.8 probably going to be announced tomorrow .. plus other lenses recently)
They probably work really well and whatever .. just a tad conservative.

eg. 90mm should have been f/2 as a minimum, or they could have easily combined the 85 and 90 as an f/1.8 AND macro into the one lens .. a true portrait + macro lens in the one unit.

85/1.8 just seems a bit too 'average' as a lens, even with it's VC and now USB dock configurability.
It'll be more expensive that Nikon's 85/1.8 and irrespective of it's VC that's not a good sign from a thirdparty manufacturer.

Anyhow .. just my thoughts. I'm curious as to what others think too.

[Cage]

Got me excited there for a moment Arthur till I saw the compatibility list contained only primes.

I like the idea but if it's prime lens territory only I really can't see a huge advantage over the in-camera adjustability.

[arthurking83]

I don't think it'll be long before they update their zoom lens range to suit this dock thing.

I think the only reason that this thing is compatible with their prime lenses is that these are the lenses that they have recently released(the 35, 45, 85 and 90 macro).
The assumption is that the last zoom they released(the 15-30VC) was a bit too early to be included in the compatibility list for this dock thing.

Strange why they felt the need to update the 90 macro lens when it was a fine lens already

I guess the advantage of in lens adjustability over in camera lens adjustments is that doing it via the dock(on a PC) allows for more flexibility in that you can adjust the short range differently to the mid range compared to the infinity range of focus levels.
And that you can adjust the focus speed(at least with the Sigma dock you can) and apparently with the Tamron dock, you can adjust how sensitive the manual focus ring is too.

Of course in camera lens tweaking is great, but at the moment, it's limited to only being useful for prime lenses only due to their basic/simplicity levels.

warning! .. rant coming(again)
Y'know what would be interesting to see from Tamron and Sigma ... to see them support their older products properly.
That is, to offer a service where they could update the CPU in their old lens range to suit their respective dock devices.
That's really the limitation to these docks .. the CPU in the lens. I'm assuming that the older CPU types are re-writable .. so offer a service(for a small fee of course) where they could swap out the old CP from your old lens .. and install a new dock capable CPU chip in the lens.

Customer happy(for a long time to come) ... company makes a bit more money for their struggling dealer network in these current times where fewer folks are buying cameras and lenses!), customer becomes loyal to the brand ... etc.
It amazes me why some overpaid, underworked, idiot marketing guru hasn't thought of this concept yet!

[spootz01]

Strange why they felt the need to update the 90 macro lens when it was a fine lens already

Apparently it is essentially just a reskin of the original, putting the same optics into the new design housing. Most of the coverage online seems to be hinting at this. Tamron are having press test these lenses at CP Plus in Tokyo this week so will be interesting to see some comparison shots.