New Tamron 35mm

[robert_bouknight1]

I'm not likely a candidate for this lens, but I do hope that future Tamron and Sigma Lenses are compatible with the Z mount. I was not surprised but was somewhat disappointed that my Tamron 35/1.8VC does not seem to AF on the FTZ adaptor. The lens is very good on my D810.

[Andrew Garrard]

Robert: can you update the Tamron firmware with the dock?

 

JDM: I suspect there are more common grey import options in the UK than there used to be, so overall prices and competitiveness are more likely to be similar now. Back in 2008, the $ and £ prices were also similar, but then the exchange rate was 2:1, so it was absolutely worth importing or buying abroad. I guess we can be thankful it's not worse.

 

Having said all that, the official price for a product and the prices in stores may be very different, so the Tamron may look more competitive when you can buy it.

[mike_halliwell]

So, to clarify, the lens price announced in dollars is not actually purchasable at that price anywhere?

 

......where-as the price announced in Pounds is the actual price I pay in the shop?

 

and I guess the same for Euros.

[Andrew Garrard]

Depends how you work out your taxes, Mike. See this. If purchases are for appropriate business reasons, you can claim the VAT back in the UK, after all - and if you go to, say, Dell's site you have the choice of whether you're buying for home or business and therefore whether VAT is included in prices. IIRC there are still import duties to worry about; I've been vaguely wondering whether Nikon's products manufactured in China are going to get affected in the US by politics. I've never run my own business, so I'm a little hazy in the details.

 

Short answer, if I understand correctly, the list price applies in Delaware, New Hampshire, Montana, Oregon, and maybe Alaska. I've never been convinced by the arguments why US shop shelves have to list prices without including taxes (or why you couldn't just set your location on online web sites), but at this point it's so ingrained that I doubt it'll change. As far as I can tell, anyone in the US not shopping near their home probably has to assume a bit of wiggle room while totaling price, since taxes can change arbitrarily by location, and for some reason shops (who presumably know where they are) have got out of having to provide actual prices to consumers until the checkout. Any store starting to list prices now (in addition to the tax free version, legally) would just look more expensive because of the higher price.

 

Such changes are possible. Supermarkets in the UK have to (I think) list relative prices on bulk products; this is why cheese, for example, has a price per item and a price per kg on it - saving customers from having to do division in their heads. This didn't used to be the case, so you'd get some people buying a 1.5l bottle of coke because it cost less than 2l while getting more per litre, and you'd have special offers making the 1.5l bottles cheaper per litre being ignored because customers were trained to buy the larger quantity. (I nearly got bitten by this on my last shop: 18 packs of diet coke cans were £7, and I missed that the store, unusually, had some 24 packs in at £7.50.) I suspect the US government would have to mandate it, though, and the populace don't want it enough to put up with the inconvenience to the retailers (other than us foreigners who think it's madness).

[Dieter Schaefer]

Short answer, if I understand correctly, the list price applies in Delaware, New Hampshire, Montana, Oregon, and maybe Alaska. I've never been convinced by the arguments why US shop shelves have to list prices without including taxes (or why you couldn't just set your location on online web sites), but at this point it's so ingrained that I doubt it'll change. As far as I can tell, anyone in the US not shopping near their home probably has to assume a bit of wiggle room while totaling price, since taxes can change arbitrarily by location, and for some reason shops (who presumably know where they are) have got out of having to provide actual prices to consumers until the checkout. Any store starting to list prices now (in addition to the tax free version, legally) would just look more expensive because of the higher price.

The US sales and use tax situation has come up in this forum a few times already - it's too complicated to get into in detail and moreover, with last year's supreme court decision is also changing. B&H started to collect CA state tax (you can use B&H's payboo card and get it instantly back); adorama currently does not collect CA sales tax (since CA has a use tax, the buyer is supposed to pay the "sales" tax come tax filing time (but there are ways around that one too)). You are certainly right that everywhere you go in the US, you have to assume that the price as marked isn't the one you are going to pay (except for the four states you listed that don't have any sales tax, state or local). I can mail-order from adorama and don't pay sales tax at check out (yet) - but if I fly to New York and buy at the store I am charged sales tax - the NY one, not my CA one. As you found out, there's not only the states sales (or use) tax but every locality can add their own local tax on top of it. Thus, depending on where I purchase in CA, I may per more or less tax at the counter or at checkout.

[ben_hutcherson]

I'm not likely a candidate for this lens, but I do hope that future Tamron and Sigma Lenses are compatible with the Z mount. I was not surprised but was somewhat disappointed that my Tamron 35/1.8VC does not seem to AF on the FTZ adaptor. The lens is very good on my D810.

 

From what I've seen, Tamron hasn't managed to PERFECTLY reverse engineer the AF-S, G, and VR protocol. It's also worth noting that my 35mm f/1.8 VC has both a maximum aperture lug and the AI-S "notch"-both features that aren't present on Nikon "G" lenses.

 

Mine works fine on my F5, F100, and F6. I don't currently have a working N80, but it works fine on my N80-based DSLRs(D100, Fuji S2 and S3, Kodak DCS 14/n).

 

It throws the F4 for a loop, though. I've used Nikon G, AF-S, VR lenses on the F4 a fair bi(in particular the 14-24mm f/2.8, which isn't VR, but is a G AF-S lens). AF works fine and the lenses give perfect exposure in P and S modes. VR doesn't work, but that's basically it. The N90 gives basically the same compatibility, while the N8008, N6006, N2020, and possibly one or two others will expose correctly but won't focus.

 

The F4 acts kind of crazy with the lens mount. As best as I can tell, the camera seems to think it's a manual focus lens as it will revert to "A" mode when set to P or S, although of course this won't give correct exposure since aperture tab is at the wide open position while the camera will just drop the aperture lever all the way down and allow the lens to stop down all the way.

[ben_hutcherson]

Short answer, if I understand correctly, the list price applies in Delaware, New Hampshire, Montana, Oregon, and maybe Alaska. I've never been convinced by the arguments why US shop shelves have to list prices without including taxes (or why you couldn't just set your location on online web sites), but at this point it's so ingrained that I doubt it'll change. As far as I can tell, anyone in the US not shopping near their home probably has to assume a bit of wiggle room while totaling price, since taxes can change arbitrarily by location, and for some reason shops (who presumably know where they are) have got out of having to provide actual prices to consumers until the checkout. Any store starting to list prices now (in addition to the tax free version, legally) would just look more expensive because of the higher price.

 

I guess people are just kind of immune to it. I know that often times if I'm haggling a price(doesn't work in all stores, but works in some) if I'm trying to get the store to give a bit I'll ask for the sticker price "out the door" or with sales tax paid by the store, and in many cases I've had that one work.

 

The local used camera store where I spend a lot of time prices most of their "student cameras"(AE-1s, AE-1Ps, K1000s, etc, all with 50mm f/1.8s or whatever the maker makes that's close to that) at $95 sticker. They then ring it up at $100 even, which leaves the store on the hook for 70¢ of sales tax, but they don't lose a lot of sleep over it. The store regulars also get a break on sales tax(break meaning we pay the sticker price)-I actually am willing to pay them a bit more than I would other stores-not just because of great service but also because even a slightly higher sticker price can still be about the same price or even less.

 

As Dieter mentioned, B&H now charges sales tax to all US shipping locations, as does KEH. Amazon has been doing it in Kentucky for a long time, but then we've also had a physical Amazon presence here for a while in the form of a large-ish shipping warehouse(one of the old criteria as to whether or not a company had to charge sales tax). 2019 will be the first year I don't report any "use tax" on my state tax return because all of the vendors I buy from charge it.

 

I'm fortunate in Kentucky in that we have some of the lowest sales tax in the country at 6%. At the same time, though, a lot of southern states get down into the 4% range, and some states are at 0%. You have to watch those, though, as some states have what's called a "local option" tax where the cities can charge a few percent more-so far Kentucky hasn't adopted that, although last year a whole bunch of previously untaxed services started getting taxed.

 

In any case, the varying rates can make things extra complicated. If, for example, I go to Indiana and buy something(somewhat frequent occurrence-Wal-Mart is both closer and easier to get into from where I live) I don't have to pay the state anything because the 7.5% sales tax is higher than Kentucky's. At the same time, if I go to a state where it's 4%, Kentucky says that I owe them 2% in use tax on top of that.

 

It all gets fun :)

[daniel_bliss]

Back directly to the topic of this lens, have people here seen the Tamron MTF chart for the 35 f/1.4? It is-out-of-this-world sensational. If it is even close to accurate this is going to be a very interesting launch -- even if, by any reasonable standard, an 800-plus-gram 35mm prime that takes 72mm filters can be considered brick-like in proportions.

[Andrew Garrard]

Back directly to the topic of this lens, have people here seen the Tamron MTF chart for the 35 f/1.4? It is-out-of-this-world sensational. If it is even close to accurate this is going to be a very interesting launch -- even if, by any reasonable standard, an 800-plus-gram 35mm prime that takes 72mm filters can be considered brick-like in proportions.

 

Since Tamron's EU site doesn't seem to have picked this up yet, here's a link that includes the MTF. It does look good. Substantially better than Sigma's MTF for their 35mm. Not quite as good as the Sigma MTF for the 40mm. We'll see how independent tests relate to the manufacturers' figures, although I'm at least as interested in other aspects of the image. The Tamron page does confirm a few other things - notably 805g (vs 665g for the Sigma 35mm and 1200g for the 40mm) and 102.3mm long (vs 94mm for the Sigma 35mm and 131mm for the Sigma 40mm). I'm not surprised it falls between them, although it's reassuringly closer to the 35mm.

[mike_halliwell]

Tamron SP 35 mm f/1.4 Di USD review - Image resolution - LensTip.com

 

2nd table/graph down is the most helpful, although obviously the rest of the test shows where it's strengths and weaknesses are.

 

Sums up what Andrew G said above...;)

[glen_h]

(snip)

 

I can mail-order from adorama and don't pay sales tax at check out (yet) - but if I fly to New York and buy at the store I am charged sales tax - the NY one, not my CA one.

(snip)

 

It used to be that you could buy things in actual store, have them shipped to you out of state,

and avoid the sales tex. (Yes you are supposed to pay use tax.)

 

As to why they price without tax, the same as prices ending in 99, to make you think it

costs less until you see the total, when it is too late to change your mind.

(That is, psychology.)

 

US now requires airline web sites to quote prices with all taxes and fees.

(I believe not state dependent.) Airlines and others complained that it would make them

less competitive (maybe against bus companies), but it is still there now.

(Unless Trump canceled it when I wasn't looking.)

 

If you buy one, and then take it home to a different country, presumably you have to

pay duty, or include it in your duty-free allowance. I suspect some people go on trip

to other countries just for that reason.

[mike_halliwell]

As to why they price without tax, the same as prices ending in 99, to make you think it

costs less until you see the total, when it is too late to change your mind.

(That is, psychology.)

I suppose the difference in the United States is that THERE ARE some VAT free states, or at least a very large range of values, starting very low indeed.

 

Shops here in the UK aren't allowed to show only the pre-VAT prices but a few trade stores, such as builders merchants are allowed to display the pre VAT prices with the assumption that they are buying bricks for business purposes so VAT doesn't apply. (but the inc. VAT price has to be there somewhere, in the small print!)

 

If you buy one, and then take it home to a different country, presumably you have to

pay duty, or include it in your duty-free allowance. I suspect some people go on trip

to other countries just for that reason.

Indeed! :D

[glen_h]

I suppose the difference in the United States is that THERE ARE some VAT free states, or at least a very large range of values, starting very low indeed.

 

Shops here in the UK aren't allowed to show only the pre-VAT prices but a few trade stores, such as builders merchants are allowed to display the pre VAT prices with the assumption that they are buying bricks for business purposes so VAT doesn't apply. (but the inc. VAT price has to be there somewhere, in the small print!)

 

 

Indeed! :D

 

Reminds me that, as I understand it, the agreements of credit card companies allow stores to offer

a cash discount, but not a credit card surcharge. (Not that smaller stores don't do it.)

That might be US only.