Last night, Tamron announced the development of a compact 20-40mm f/2.8 lens for Sony mount mirrorless full-frame cameras. Pricing does not appear to have been announced, and the release date is sometime in the “Fall of 2022”, but it does look like a very interesting lens.
The zoom range of this lens is unusual, covering a very wide angle 20mm to a “normal” lens range at 40mm. While other Tamron lenses cover a wider angle zoom range (such as the 17-28mm f/2.8) at f/2.8, none cover the wide to mid range so well.
The lens is also remarkable for its size, at 3.4 inches long and only three-quarters of a pound in weight, with weather sealing and a fast VXD focusing motor. And just as importantly, the lens can focus down to subjects that are only 6.7 inches away… making it great for close up (near macro, at 1:3.8 reproduction) shooting.
Tamron is marketing the lens towards people creating “family videos, vlogs, and other online content”, which is undoubtedly a large market segment, but it raises a bit of a red flag for those of us for whom “online content” has always been synonymous with “mediocre-quality.” I’ll look forward to testing it out to see how it compares to their decidedly professional quality existing f/2.8 lenses.
For additional information, check out Tamron’s product page.
