Is Tamron About to Announce a 70-180mm f/2.8 Lens for Sony Full-Frame Cameras?

Is Tamron About to Announce a 70-180mm f/2.8 Lens for Sony Full-Frame Cameras?

Rumors are circulating that Tamron is about to announce the launch of a lens that would complete its trio of fast zooms for Sony full-frame cameras with the 70-180mm f/2.8 lens. Will it be tiny, how much will it cost, and how will it stack up against Tamron’s two other amazing Sony f/2.8 zooms?

Sony Alpha Rumors is confidently reporting that the announcement will come from Tamron next month, and it would be very much in line with expectations. A few weeks ago, Tamron teased four new lenses, and a longer zoom would make their range of fast zooms for Sony complete. In keeping with the 17-28mm and the 28-75mm, Tamron seems intent on compromising on focal range rather than quality in order to keep size and cost down.

Having spent three weeks using the new 17-28mm f/2.8, intensively testing in my work, I’ve been incredibly impressed (initial thoughts here), and a full review will be published next week. Spoiler: it’s amazing.

Sony Alpha Rumors offers a nice size comparison using the leaked previews to create an indication of how Tamron’s new lens may compares with other lenses. Remarkably, it’s possible that it’s only a shade larger than Tamron’s 28-75mm f/2.8, a lens that is already very compact for its focal range. 

As with the 17-28mm, Sony shooters are faced with a very nice conundrum: if you don’t want to splash two-and-a-half grand on Sony’s 70-200mm f/2.8, do you opt for the f/4 at $1,398 and compromise on speed, or go for the Tamron and compromise on reach?

With these zooms, however, an extra factor is at play here, giving the Sony f/4 something of an edge: OSS (Optical SteadyShot). Both Sony options are stabilized and it seems unlikely to me that Tamron is going to include this, preferring to lure customers with another fantastically low price instead. It will be interesting to see how important OSS is thought to be among Sony users shooting on longer lenses. This lens will no doubt be incredibly popular among budget-conscious hobbyist wildlife and sports shooters where managing slower shutter speeds while shooting handheld is not often a concern.

How much will it cost? Will you be buying it? Is Tamron about to release another fantastic lens? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Andy Day's picture

Andy Day is a British photographer and writer living in France. He began photographing parkour in 2003 and has been doing weird things in the city and elsewhere ever since. He's addicted to climbing and owns a fairly useless dog. He has an MA in Sociology & Photography which often makes him ponder what all of this really means.

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6 Comments

Does not build in Ibis work on a 80-200? Tamron have made light portable lenses that suits mirrorless well. Some compromises must be done, with Tamron it is not size.
There is a reason there 28-75 is selling so we'll. Well done Tamron.

I have no doubt about it's optical excellence but the FL range leads me to believe that they are aiming at a smaller lens overall while still claiming f2.8.
I would also note that few people actually check the actual FL of zooms and take the stated specs as gospel. I used to own the very good 28-75 f2.8 by Tamron and noticed that at 75mm it was actually significantly shorter in FL than my Canon 70-200 set to 70mm. So in truth this may be a 70-150 f2.8 that no one will double check.

Focal length does not equal field of view. There will be differences in fov when comparing different lenses at the same focal length. Having a smaller fov doesn't actually make it 150mm that no one double checked. It just means it's a 180mm with a smaller fov

I believe you but when someone sells you a lens that claims 75mm of FL one expects something a lot closer to 70 than what I got.
If I thought I was buying 180mm of FL and got only a little bit better than my 135 I would be a bit annoyed.

I need this in my life, I posted my credit card to Tamron for convenience sake but they've yet to TAKE MY MONEY!!!!

I wish they would have compromised on the short end rather than the long end. I rarely shoot at the wider end on a 70-200, i'm almost always 150-200mm