Marc Alhadeff from SonyAlpha.Blog posted the world’s first review of the new Tamron 20mm f/2.8 FE lens:
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The Tamron 20mm F2.8 Di III OSD M 1:2 (450 euros) is an excellent wide angle lens
It is part a set of new Prime lenses with all a short focusing distance , a 1:2 magnification ratio, a F2.8 aperture, same length, same weight
If you compare it with the 24mm F2.8 (code F051) & the 35mm F2.8 (code F053) on A7RIV you maybe a bit disappointed as performances are less stellar
But if you compare it with all other primes around 18-21mm , the Tamron is one of the best available in term of sharpness, on par with a few others but at a fraction of the price and its very short focusing distance allow it to provide the best bokeh/background blur among all of them
If you only have a A7III with only 24Mpix and have already the Tamron 17-28mm F2.8 you won’t see a lot the difference in sharpness, if you have a 42Mpix or 61Mpix , the upgrade is worth it
Highly recommended for wide angle shooter
Pros
- Excellent sharpness on the entire frame as of F5.6
- Very good sharpness in the centre wide open
- Very good background blur and color rendition
- Very short focusing distance allowing to reach 1:2 magnification
- Very compact and light : discrete and going well for video on a Gimbal
- Moderate price
- Very Good resistance to flare
- Very low chromatic aberrations
Average
- Good build quality (but much lower than GM)
- Vignetting is moderate (to be corrected in a future Lightroom Lens profile)
- Corners are only good at F2.8 and require to be closed down to F5.6 to reach their max sharpness
- Fast and reliable AF in photo but sometimes hesitation in AFC in the corners
Cons
- Lot of distorsion (to be corrected in a future Lightroom Lens profile)
- Noisy AF in Video and not regular
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All links to the new Tamron FE primes:
Tamron 20mm f/2.8 at Adorama, FocusCamera and BHphoto.
Tamron 24mm f/2.8 at Adorama, FocusCamera and BHphoto.
Tamron 35mm f/2.8 at Adorama, FocusCamera and BHphoto.