It's official - the Tamron 35/1.4 is the best 35mm you can buy

Sporgon

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Roger at Lens Rentals has been testing a few 35mm lenses, and the new Tamron 35mm is the best of the bunch - if you like MTF charts. Actually I have heard that the lens renders rather beautifully too.


I'm one of those guys who'd never touch a third party lens with a barge pole, until that is a couple of years ago I decided to have a punt on the Tamron 45/1.8 as the lens appeared to be exactly what I wanted and Canon didn't make it, despite having patented an almost identical optical formula a few years before. Well the lens is just superb, assuming that your definition of good doesn't mean lack of aberrations. The tap-in console I presume and hope will make the lenses future proof. Incidentally both the Tamron 45 and 85 are AFMA 0 at all distances on my 5DS bodies - unlike some of my Canon lenses......

Trouble is my EF 35/2 IS is so strong I couldn't really warrant a 1.4, maybe, perhaps..........
 
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The EF 35 f2 IS isn't going to win any spec sheet contests but it's a consistently excellent performer in the real world. When my bag of primes was stolen in a smash and grab a few years ago the 35 f2 was the first lens I replaced. Some things just work.

edit: I should say I really like it for video and low light urban street photography so absolute sharpness is not my primary metric but I'm very happy with the stills quality as well.
 
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jd7

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Feb 3, 2013
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Trouble is my EF 35/2 IS is so strong I couldn't really warrant a 1.4, maybe, perhaps..........
That’s what I thought about my 35/2 IS ... until I tried out a Sigma 35 Art some years ago! The Art is pretty sharp at f/1.4, but more than that the overall rendering (bokeh, etc) is just better, in my opinion. I’d sworn off third party lenses (which is the main reason I hadn’t tried the Art earlier), and the 35/2 IS is a very good little lens, but after using the Sigma for myself I lasted about a week until I bought one.

I’d be interested to try out the Tamron, but I’m happy with the Art so it would be a hard sell for me.
 
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Ozarker

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I had a great experience with the Tamron 15-30 zoom and not surprised that other Tamron lenses of late are also very good. Canon's EF 35mm f/1.4L II is a lens I really miss, but if pushed due to budget, I would take a serious look at Tamron. Alas, since the lenses I have and am likely to get, will probably be the last I buy in my life I'm going to do my best to stick to 1st party Canon glass. I'm really only waiting for one more lens to come out anyway, an RF 70-135mm. After that, I'll wait for my R to die someday and just get a new body. One lesson I have learned for myself is to focus on method and technique more than gear. Everything I already have is far more capable than I am. That was the case when I had the 5D mark III and a load of EF glass too. Kind of liberating, though I salivate when something new comes out anyway.

Hope everyone is doing well. :)
 
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