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Good one Tamron!

Made by pablophotographer on 19 May 2020 5:40PM, join in and reply to this comment!  Reply

Thanks John. Sounds like a very modest extension. Given that’s acceptable on standard zooms I can’t see why that should be a deal breaker for medium telephoto range.

Made by ChrisV on 22 Apr 2020 3:22PM, join in and reply to this comment!  Reply

@ChrisV I've just measured it for you and the length is approx. 151mm at 70mm and approx. 181mm at 180mm. It's not extending particularly far in relation to the size of the lens overall and doesn't seem to tip the centre of gravity forwards to any significant degree.

Hope that helps!

Made by johnriley1uk on 22 Apr 2020 2:44PM, join in and reply to this comment!  Reply

So am I right in thinking the zoom is not internal?

Having recently acquired a 7rii this is a lens I may consider in future (I’m currently using a mix including adapted EF 70-200 f2.8, which is front-heavy and gives mixed results). It would be useful to know the dimensions including extended.

Made by ChrisV on 22 Apr 2020 2:00PM, join in and reply to this comment!  Reply

love your reviews including this one but I believe the Zeiss Batis APO 135mm f2.8 is a BARGAIN at $ 1,698 (B&H)
The Leica 135 APO 135mm/3.4 is $4,395 without autofocus or IS
I had the Canon 135mm F2.0 for year & loved it - no match for the Batis

Made by Imagenation on 18 Apr 2020 3:08PM, join in and reply to this comment!  Reply

Permanently welded to my X-T30, well except when it's raining, then it gets a go on the T3, great lens, perhaps just a little pricey but having 6 stops of OIS on both my Fuji's convinced me I don't need the X-T4
Don's hard hat awaiting the co-operative OIS zealots

Made by lonewolf1 on 18 Apr 2020 7:02AM, join in and reply to this comment!  Reply

What you say is certainly observable. The different lens/camera combinations seem to have been set with slightly different objectives. The Pentax resolution seems to be slightly lower but it's pretty even and has very smooth bokeh. It actually also has good contrast and as a consequence looks nice and sharp. Resolution and sharpness are really two different things, although on the web there seems to have been an increasing tendency to refer to "sharpness". The traditional example is the difference between post-WWII German lenses (high resolution, lower contrast) and the then newly discovered Nikon lenses (high contrast, lower resolution). Western photographers discovered this around the time of the Korean war and they loved those Nikon lenses. I do try and include some feel for a lens in the reviews and I suppose it's not a bad thing that they can still have some "character".

Made by johnriley1uk on 11 Apr 2020 3:22PM, join in and reply to this comment!  Reply

I understand that this Pentax lens and the Tamron version were tested on two different cameras, but is there no significance to the fact that the Tamron version tested out at much higher LW/PH than this Pentax version? The Tamron achieves north of 3500 center resolution at 200 MM for two apertures, while the Pentax barely hits 3000. And while these are two different cameras, they are both the same resolution sensor (36MP).
This relative deficit in resolution seems to appear across other comparisons of resolution of Pentax re-brands of Tamrons versus the Tamron originals.

Made by Gregl564 on 11 Apr 2020 2:19PM, join in and reply to this comment!  Reply

Thank you very much!

Made by michele83 on 3 Apr 2020 6:44PM, join in and reply to this comment!  Reply

I'm not sure we can compare the two at all. The Tamron is for Nikon and Canon cameras and the Pentax is for Pentax ones. So it's academic really.

Is it worth the money? It weighs half the weight of the f/2.8 version, costs £500 less and is within a whisker of being just as good. It produces lovely images. It also is priced very favourably compared with what other systems would pay for their own marque lenses.

As always, each photographer will weigh up their own requirements. Hope that helps!

Made by johnriley1uk on 3 Apr 2020 6:36PM, join in and reply to this comment!  Reply