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The Tamron SP 35mm f/1.8 Di USD VC is a bit difficult to judge. Some aspects are really impressive whereas others ... not so much really.
In lens does a good job in terms of resolution - mostly. The quality of the wide center region is great even at f/1.8 but the outer image field is very soft here. While this may sound worrisome, you have to balance this with the fact that the corners aren't usually all THAT important in real world situations when using the lens at this setting. The corners are much better at f/2.8 and the quality is good to very good at medium apertures. In fact the Tamron lens is better than the recently tested Canon EF 35mm f/1.4 USM L II here. Both image distortions as well as lateral CAs are very well controlled. Axial CAs aren't quite as impressive though and - worse than that - the lens is prone to purple fringing which is difficult to correct during image post-processing. There's some light falloff visible at f/1.8 but, to be fair, that's just normal on full format cameras. The quality of the bokeh left some mixed impressions. The general blur is quite smooth but out-of-focus highlights are downright unpleasant.
Tamron made a substantial step forward in terms of build quality. In the past we weren't all that impressed really but the new design feels much more sturdy and reassuring. Thumbs up here for sure. The AF is both fast and silent. The VC (Vibration Control) is a more than welcome feature although it's not overly efficient based on our experience with the lens.
So where does this leave the lens in the grand scheme of things ? The Tamron sits in between the Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG Art HSM and Canon EF 35mm f/2 USM IS. We haven't tested those two lenses on the EOS 5Ds R yet so it's difficult to come to a final conclusion. However ... we have doubts. Honestly we'd probably pick the Canon for size and the Sigma for speed so the room for the Tamron is shallow here. It is good optically but not an obvious choice regarding some of its weaknesses.
Optical Quality:
To be determined once we have a broader base of tests at 50mp
