Tamron Is Building a 70-200mm f/2.8 Lens for Sony Full Frame Cameras [Rumor]

Tamron Is Building a 70-200mm f/2.8 Lens for Sony Full Frame Cameras [Rumor]

Following on from the impressive 28-75mm f/2.8 Sony FE-mount lens that Tamron released earlier this year, rumors are circulating that the Japanese lens manufacturer is planning to launch a brand new 70-200mm f/2.8 in early 2019.

Reviews have been incredibly positive for Tamron’s 28-75mm lens, said to offer fantastic levels of sharpness and a consistent aperture at almost one-third of the price of Sony’s own equivalent lens, albeit with a slightly narrower focal length. It seems that losing 4mm of width and adding 5mm of length has allowed the manufacturer to work some magic when it comes to consistent aperture zoom lenses, and there’s a chance that it might be able to do likewise with this telephoto offering. 

With Sony’s own FE 70-200mm f/2.8 GM OSS weighing in at $2,598, many will no doubt be excited to see the price point when Tamron’s announcement arrives in the new year.

Rumors circulated earlier this year that Tamron was plotting a 17-35mm lens. If it produces an FE-mount version, Sony shooters could suddenly have a surprisingly sharp, very affordable holy trinity of fast zooms available — a package that will probably be significantly lighter than the Sony equivalents without a huge compromise when it comes to performance. For those photographers on a budget still shooting adapted glass on recently purchased a7 III and a7R IIIs, this could make for another nice stepping stone at a time when Sony’s own lenses remain an expensive option.

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

I've been quite happy with third party lens such as Tamron and Sigma. As a new Sony A7III owner, I was quite surprised how well the SP 24-70mm f/2.8, version I, worked with the MC-11 adapter. Curious about the performance of the Tamron 28-75mm, I recently acquired the lens, and I am really impressed with the quality of the photos and looking forward to seeing what Tamron and other third party manufacturers will roll out for 2019.

Please let it, Tamrom!

Please make it small and light, with great optic like your 28-75f2.8. You'll have my money.

I love my Sony 24-70 2.8 GM. It's an amazing workhorse lens and WELL worth the premium I spent on it. I would never consider getting the Tamron given the choice now. However since I almost never use my adapted Canon 70-200, maybe 5x a year max I can't even remotely justify spending over £2 grand on the GM. If the Tamron manages to hit around the 1k mark they'll have a day 1 sale from this guy

I really enjoy the 28-75 on my a7iii. I would buy a 17-35. If it doesn’t get announced soon I’ll probably do ef 16-35 on the mc11. Is also appreciate a 100-400 native mount not from Sony.

Any update for this 70-200mm FE lens ? It was told to be launched early 2019 in multiple places but not seeing update anywhere, it's Mid 2019.