Dpreview interviewed four Tamron managers. Most of the talk was about their new 28-75mm f/2.8 FE lens. Here are some of the key info:
1) It took one year to develop the lens
2) With the Sony Alpha 7 series, the bodies are compact, but the lenses are relatively big. So when we were planning a fast lens for FE lens it was important to us that it would be compact, but still high quality.
3) We’re not planning on making Sony E-mount versions of our existing lenses, no. Our concept is a little different to Sigma’s. We’re trying to customize lenses specifically for FE, otherwise they’d be too big. When it comes to autofocus, mirrorless has different requirements too. Mirrorless cameras are good for movies as well as stills, and existing AF motors aren’t very good for video. This lens [the new 28-75mm F2.8] has a stepping motor for autofocus, which is better for video
4) Within Tamron, we have an internal definition of SP, where we usually utilize metal for the body material, and certain other features. Optical performance of the new 28-75mm F2.8 will be equivalent to our SP lenses, but for this model we prioritized smaller size and lower weight, so we used polycarbonate instead of metal.
It’s 100% clear from this interview that Tamron is now fully focusing on making lenses for the mirrorless system. We can expect to see new FE lenses soon!
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Reminder: The Tamron lens will ship in late April-early May. The price is rumored to be the same of the slower 24-70mm f/4.0 Zeiss (check at Amazon US and Amazon DE).