Tamron VC Lenses on Film

This is something that I can't find an answer to anywhere, so thought I'd see if anyone had tried/experimented with it and if so what you found.

 

I went on vacation last week, and the day before I left got it in my head that I wanted a fast 35mm prime. A used Sigma ART caught my eye, and I looked at that next to the Nikon 35mm f/1.8(FX). Ultimately, though, the Sigma had noticeable front focus issues on three different bodies(my personal D800, D600, and a shelf model D810 at the shop)...I know that can be fixed with the dock, but the shop didn't have one and I couldn't get one in time.

 

Ultimately, something of a "dark horse" caught my eye, and I ended up walking out with a Tamron 35mm f/1.8 VC. I was pleased with how it performed both in the shop and on my trip. The only film cameras I took with me, though, were an F4 and an FM2n, and I didn't try this particular lens on either. Of course it's next to useless on an FM2n, and given that Nikon's own VR doesn't work on the F4 I didn't think it was worth a shot with 3rd party.

 

I haven't had a chance, though, to test the lens on a more modern camera. The F5 and F100 work great with Nikon VR lenses, but I haven't seen much discussion of 3rd party stabilization with late model film cameras. Some quick testing shows me that the lens focuses fine on these two cameras and I can hear it "humming"...but it's difficult to see whether or not VR is working through the viewfinder of such a wide lens(as opposed to something like the 70-200 f/2.8, where it damps out what are normally large movements of the camera).

 

So that I can save myself burning the film to test it-has anyone tested Tamron VC lenses on late model film cameras, and if so does the stabilization work correctly?

 

One of the things I've run into with other cameras-specifically the Pronea 6i-is that VR will SEEM to work and will "hum" but it's not actually stabilizing the image-it will just continue running and draining the battery. I want to avoid that also.

This isn't an answer to my question, but just a bit of additional FYI for film work:

 

This lens seems to be basically useless on the F4.

 

I've used G and AF-S lenses quite a bit on my F4. AF-S works without missing a beat(within the limitations of the F4's focus system, but using an F4s(6 cells) focus is decently fast as long as there's enough contrast for the sensor to see). Since the F4 lacks any ability to select an aperture directly from the camera body, G lenses must be used in S or P mode-if you mount a G lens and have the camera set to A or M, it will automatically set itself to P.

 

None of this is true with the Tamron Di VC 35mm f/1.8. First of all, autofocus doesn't work, although the electronic rangefinder does work.

 

Second, the camera will set itself to "A" mode regardless of where the mode dial is set. I don't think I tried setting it to M, but S, P, and Ph all revert to A. I SUSPECT that it's going to meter wide open and then shoot with the lens all the way stopped down. The first seems consistent with the meter readings I was getting, although I can't confirm the second since both of mine are loaded at the moment and I didn't feel like wasting a frame of E100 or Velvia to find out.

 

So, it looks to me like this lens is a complete no-go on the F4. Stabilization is still up in the air, but it looks like exposure and focus are at least good to go on the F5 and F100(presumably also the F6 and N80, and possibly a few others).

This isn't an answer to my question, but just a bit of additional FYI for film work:

 

This lens seems to be basically useless on the F4.

 

I've used G and AF-S lenses quite a bit on my F4. AF-S works without missing a beat(within the limitations of the F4's focus system, but using an F4s(6 cells) focus is decently fast as long as there's enough contrast for the sensor to see). Since the F4 lacks any ability to select an aperture directly from the camera body, G lenses must be used in S or P mode-if you mount a G lens and have the camera set to A or M, it will automatically set itself to P.

 

None of this is true with the Tamron Di VC 35mm f/1.8. First of all, autofocus doesn't work, although the electronic rangefinder does work.

 

Second, the camera will set itself to "A" mode regardless of where the mode dial is set. I don't think I tried setting it to M, but S, P, and Ph all revert to A. I SUSPECT that it's going to meter wide open and then shoot with the lens all the way stopped down. The first seems consistent with the meter readings I was getting, although I can't confirm the second since both of mine are loaded at the moment and I didn't feel like wasting a frame of E100 or Velvia to find out.

 

So, it looks to me like this lens is a complete no-go on the F4. Stabilization is still up in the air, but it looks like exposure and focus are at least good to go on the F5 and F100(presumably also the F6 and N80, and possibly a few others).

 

- Sorry Ben, but I see that as less an indictment of the Tamron lens, and more a confirmation of my opinion of the F4; as the best doorstop that Nikon ever made.

- Sorry Ben, but I see that as less an indictment of the Tamron lens, and more a confirmation of my opinion of the F4; as the best doorstop that Nikon ever made.

Nikon have made a bit of a mess of backwards compatibility with G, AF-P and E, but can't really blame them for problems with another manufacturer's lens made decades after the F4 was discontinued. Well designed 3rd party lenses ought to work like Nikon AFS G VR lenses on the F4 - AF and correct metering in P and S modes, but no A, M or VR.

I have an F100 and a D750. I have two (will have three on 26 Dec when FedEx delivers) lenses.

 

My Tamron 70-200 f/2.8 A009 (pre-G2) lens works perfectly on the F100. VR works as doses autofocus. It is a nice sharp lens on the F100.

 

My 24-70 f/2.8 G2 A032 has electronic diaphragm (aperture) control and will not work on the F100. I have not even bothered to try it.

 

My Tamron 90mm f/2.8 A009 will arrive Wednesday. It should work on the F100. I think I tried it a few years ago at a Tamron Road Show event and it worked, but it may have been the previous version. I'll let you know when I finally get it.

 

A rule of thumb would be: If it has an electronic diaphragm, it will not work on an F100. If it is pre-G2 it probably will work with full function on the F100.

 

Of course all the Tamrons work on the D750.

 

Happy Holidays.

I had the Sigma 35 art for a while when I had a D800 but could not seem to get consistently accurate AF even after trying the dock, so it was sold. I like the Tamron 35/1/8VC I have now, AF seems accurate enough on my D810.

 

Hmmm, the Nikon F4. I have a few around I think, not sure if any of them work. They sure are large for a 35mm camera. I used the F4 on occasion while when I had mostly manual focus lenses, probably still prefer an F4 to the F3 that most people like. My favorite film Nikons now is an F with motor drive for fun, F2, or F100 now that I am so used to a 2 wheel control setup and automation. But, I can't say that I have shot film in a while.

I noticed something interesting on the Tamron today, so decided to do a bit more experimenting.

 

Nikon lenses with aperture rings are fully AI-s compliant, and have both the crescent cut-out in the mount to indicate that they are AI-s lenses as well as the maximum aperture lug.

 

G-type Nikkors must, by definition, operate like AI-s lenses, or in other words the aperture actuation should be linear with respect to the position of the stop down lever. Nikon G-type lenses, though, lack both the crescent cut-out to designate them as AI-s and the maximum aperture lug.

 

The Tamron lens, on the surface, is a G lens, as it does not have a physical aperture ring. It does, however, have a maximum aperture lug and an AI-s cut-out.

 

That got me wondering as to how it would behave on bodies that DO NOT have electronic communication but offer program and/or shutter priority with AI/AI-S lenses. To my knowledge, the only bodies on which this is true are the FA, FG, and N2000(the N2020 and F4 both can read the maximum aperture lug, but also talk to the lens CPU, and based on my experience with the F4 wasn't going to put batteries in my N2020 to try it).

 

My FA has a valuable roll of E100VS in it at the moment, so I elected to not try it. My FG is also loaded with HP5+, so I grabbed the only unloaded one of the bunch I have-the N2020.

 

First of all, it would only work in P and Ph modes. With it set to P mode, I also used a piece of cardboard to push the AI tab over make the camera think the not-present aperture ring was set to the smallest aperture.

 

Once that was done, though, it seemingly at least gave correct exposures. If nothing else, it at least gave reasonable shutter speeds, and in moderate light would stop down to mid apertures(i.e. not always to the smallest).

 

I wouldn't necessarily say that using the lens this way is practical in any way, but it's interesting to me that it at least sort of work. Ultimately, though, if you want to use these lenses on film my playing around indicates that you get full functionality on the F5 and F100, and I'd ASSUME the F6 also as well as probably the N80.

I have the Tamron 45 f1.8VC, I wanted the 35 but this lens was a Adorama store demo and it was almost half the price of the 35. I have used the lens with my F5 and the VC works great with one exception I think. I use rechargeable Enelope AA batteries and I think the VC may have drained the batteries a little faster but I'm not sure about that. Most of the time I use a Nikkor 35 f2.0D or 50 f1.4G lens. I also tested it without film with my F100 and it worked perfectly.

I have the tamron 45mm VC in EF mount. I have an eos 620 that works with canon's IS (tested). The tamrons VC does not work on the eos 620 at all. It will autofocus though, but only after pressing the dof preview button. Also, the aperture must be set to anything larger than 1.8 when pressing the dof preview button for the lens to start auto focusing. It will then focus perfectly fine. But for the next shot, you will need to press the dof preview again to get AF to work. I emailed tamron and their response was that they don't expect their VC to work on canon film cameras since some have small batteries or none at all. This was a fairly broad response, obviously, as the eos 620 runs on a fairly significant battery, the c2r5. They also said they would expect the lens to function on autofocus intermittently because of the battery needs or something like that. Which, is my experience actually. Perhaps the battery is not big enough to run VC and perhaps pressing the dof preview button tricks the battery somehow to get it to start auto focusing.

 

I bought the lens new, so I am sure it is functional and I also bought a new battery so no problems there either.

 

In terms of working on a f100, f5 or f6, I am interested as well. I found a youtube video related to this question and commented . See here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQDhSDpwTgM

 

the author of the video replied to me in the comments and said that his tamron 45mm vc works on his f100 but that he does not suggest using it on film cameras because of a coating used on the lens is for digital cameras and creates a hotspot? Ok, next question, what is a hot spot, how bad is it and do I even care?

 

 

Ok to summarize

1) tamron 45mm vc not working on eos 620

2) autofocus works once it working, but you need to trick the battery buy pressing the DOF preview button each time you take a shot and this has to happen with the aperture set at 2.0 or higher

3) someone said the f mount version works on the f100

4) would there be any reason to not use this lens on a film camera because of a hot-spot due to the lens coating being used and designed for a digital sensor? What exactly is a hotspot anyway?

5) and my most pressing question....will this lens work with VC and AF on an eos 1-v!?

 

 

 

I was going to trade in the lens for an f mount, but decided not to. I am going to keep this one for the new sigma mirrorless or perhaps the ultra mp eos R or maybe a 5d classic. This lens is so great that I will likely buy an f5 when the tamron goes on sale for 399 (which is always does) and use it for slide film. But it would be great if it worked on a newer canon film body so I could stay in the canon realm.

I have the Tamron 45 f1.8VC, I wanted the 35 but this lens was a Adorama store demo and it was almost half the price of the 35. I have used the lens with my F5 and the VC works great with one exception I think. I use rechargeable Enelope AA batteries and I think the VC may have drained the batteries a little faster but I'm not sure about that. Most of the time I use a Nikkor 35 f2.0D or 50 f1.4G lens. I also tested it without film with my F100 and it worked perfectly.

do you think it will work on an n75? I might buy the lens in f mount and keep my EF mount version, but I'll need a temporary ultra cheap nikon film body in the interm. The n75 is very new, it should work, no?

but that he does not suggest using it on film cameras because of a coating used on the lens is for digital cameras and creates a hotspot?

 

- Oh good. Another piece of nonsense to add to all the other urban legends. Just what the Internet needs.

 

If there's any truth in this at all, it won't be because of 'special digital coatings', but due to infrared transmission of the glass elements.

 

It's well known that some lens designs, both old and new, are unsuitable for infrared use due to giving a hotspot, and that the extended red sensitivity of some fast panchromatic films extends into the near infrared. Not all films mind - just a select few.

 

If there was any issue within the visible region of the spectrum, it would show up on a digital sensor just as readily as on film.

- Oh good. Another piece of nonsense to add to all the other urban legends. Just what the Internet needs.

 

If there's any truth in this at all, it won't be because of 'special digital coatings', but due to infrared transmission of the glass elements.

 

It's well known that some lens designs, both old and new, are unsuitable for infrared use due to giving a hotspot, and that the extended red sensitivity of some fast panchromatic films extends into the near infrared. Not all films mind - just a select few.

 

If there was any issue within the visible region of the spectrum, it would show up on a digital sensor just as readily as on film.

 

thank you

Digital sensors are significantly more reflective than film, and it's my understanding that some makers have realized that they need to pay more attention to the coating on the rear element because of this.

 

That shouldn't affect the len's performance on film in any way, though, and in fact might make a TINY(but I'd guess more or less imperceptible) improvement.