Not sure who else saw the announcement a month-ish ago, but Tamron has released a new 90mm macro lens (Tamron product page) for both Sony E and Nikon Z. It has fast AF, reviews of it have it coming in pretty darn sharp (at least on par with the Sony and the Sigma macro offerings), and an MSRP of $699. 

 

A few things to note:

• It's about 5mm shorter than the Sony 90mm at 126.5mm
• MFD/MOD is listed as 230mm, so you end up with about 4" of working distance before any distance lost to the port it's behind, compared to the 5.8" of the Sony. 
• 12 blade aperture, minimum aperture of f/16
• Weather-sealed barrel

 

I'm considering picking up a copy to see how it compares to my adapter Canon 60mm. A few thoughts on that:

• The working distance at 1:1 are effectively the same between the Tamron and the Canon
• The fast/modern AF mechanism might be a worthwhile upgrade, even with the most recent firmware for my Metabones mk IV 
•  I would probably benefit from an increase in sharpness

 

If anyone here has had or will have a chance to play with one, I'd love to hear your feedback. 

 

List of E-mount macro lenses with some random-ish stats

Thanks for sharing this. 

 

Just f/16? Pairing this lens with a diopter means even more forgone DoF.

 

I recall resolution being pretty good up to f/22 on my Canon EF 100 f/2 L.

 

The first serious reviews of this lens look good, e.g. here: https://dustinabbott.net/2024/10/tamron-90mm-f2-8-di-iii-macro-vxd-review/

 

=> AF seems to be faster and IQ a tad sharper compared to the Sony 90mm macro...

 

Less of interest for Sony photographers who already have the native 90mm macro and the latest camera models (e.g. me with A7R5), but possibly of interest for people who have older camera models, where AF is not working well with the native macro lens...

 

Possibly of interest for Nikon Z (but as far as I know the native 105mm is very good and the focal length comes close).

 

A pity that Tamron did not come out with a macro lens with complementary to the existing ones (I personally would have liked 120 or even 150mm; also magnification bigger than 1:1)...

 

 

Wolfgang

 

Edited October 22, 20241 yr by Architeuthis

Tamron has a very long history of releasing 90mm macros.

 

Up sides not mentioned, the focus limiter has a range from 1:1 to 70cm unlike the other 90/100/105 lenses that are all 1:1 to 50cm the extra 20cm is a very welcome addition to help reduce hunting. Twelve rounded aperture blades v. 9 for most others, helps with soothing out of focus areas.

 

If you go to the Tamron web site under Tech Specs the minimum aperture is listed as F/16-F/22. Because many macros don't have manual aperture rings the aperture is changed in camera and with this Tamron stops at F/16. However as the lens is extended into the 1:3 to 1:1 range the aperture often changes to F/22 by default. It remains to be seen if this will appear in the lens meta-data.