Tamron AF 180mm f/3.5 SP Di LD [IF] macro (Canon) Review / Test Report
Lens Reviews - Canon EOS (APS-C)
Article Index
Introduction
Analysis

Review by Klaus Schroiff, published June 2007

Lens kindly provided by Tamron Europe!

Introduction

The AF 90mm f/2.8 SP Di may be the more popular macro lens made by Tamron but it is not their only offering in this segment. The Tamron AF 180mm f/3.5 SP Di LD [IF] macro has certainly a lesser visibility due to its double price tag (~700€/US$) but apart from the longer focal length (equivalent to 270mm when used on APS-C DSLRs) it offers a significant advantage - a bigger minimal working distance (25cm vs 9cm) which can make life a little easier when it comes to shooting rather nervous critters.

In absolute terms the Tamron is a fairly big lens but within its class it is actually comparatively compact and light-weight. Fortunately the weight reduction measurement don't seem to come at cost of build quality - it is obviously a pretty sturdy lens also thanks to a constant physical length regardless of the focus setting. The very broad, rubberized focus ring operates very smooth. An nice feature is FEC (Filter Effect Control), is a dedicated control ring to rotate the filter thread even with attached lens hood - a quite interesting and efficient approach.

The 180mm f/3.5 has a conventional AF micro-motor which is moderately noisy and very slow when focusing throughout the extensive focus range. This can happen quite frequently because Tamron did not implement a focus limiter - in the middle of focus nowhere there's a good chance that the AF focuses towards the wrong direction before hunting back again. If the focus is well off it makes sense to do a coarse manual pre-focusing prior of activating the AF. You change between AF and MF by pushing/pulling the focus ring so there's no need to fiddle around with the small AF/MF switch on the camera. A side effect of this focus clutch design is the decoupling of the focus ring from the AF gears so it does not rotate in AF mode.

Specifications
Equiv. focal length288 mm (full format equivalent)
Equiv. aperturef/5.6 (full format equivalent, in terms of depth-of-field)
Optical construction14 elements in 11 groups inc. 2x LD elements
Number of aperture blades7
min. focus distance0.47 m (max. magnification ratio 1:1, 25cm min. working distance)
Dimensions166 x 85 mm
Weight820 g
Filter size72 mm (non-rotating)
Hoodbarrel-shaped (included), snap-on type
Other featuresfloating system, detachable tripod-mount, FEC (Filter Effect Control)



Disclosure: When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network and Google Adsense.