Review by Klaus Schroiff, published February 2016

Introduction

Tamron's new ambition in following Sigma's push is most obvious in terms of build quality. Traditionally Tamron emphasized small size and weight which also meant that many of their products used an extensive amount of plastics. Consequently many lenses felt a bit "hollow" and didn't really leave the best quality perception - although technically there's nothing wrong with plastics really. This has changed now. The Tamron SP 35mm f/1.8 Di VC USD uses a metal body based on a metal mount and everything is tightly assembled. The lens is also moisture-resistant. A fluorine coating on the front elements also repels dust and waterdrops. A petal shaped lens hood is also part of the package.

Note: You may spot some tape on the focus window in the product image. We bought this lens for testing purposes and obviously we are going to sell it again thus we didn't remove the tape.

Tamron's USD (Ultrasonic Silent Drive) is both very fast and silent. Interestingly the lens can focus down to 0.2m providing a max. object magnification of 1:2.5 - this is impressive. We'd rate the AF accuracy as "Ok". A floating system is used to optimize the positioning of the focus groups at such focus distances. As mentioned Tamron included image stabilization or to use Tamron's wording "Vibration Control" (VC). It is good enough for a gain of 3 f-stops - for comparison: Canon claims a 4-stop advantage for the Canon EF 35mm f/2 USM IS. That being said - in the real world Tamron's VC efficiency felt closer to 2 f-stops really.

The lens is compatible with Tamron's TAP-in USB Console (even thought at least for early production models a firmware update of lens might be required to make it compatible). Just like Sigma's USB Dock, the Tamron Console allows to adjust autofocus accuracy at three distance regions, set the priority of VC to stabilize viewfinder image or the actually shot image and update the lens' firmware.