In September, Tamron announced the 90mm f/2.8 Macro lens, a move that looked like a return to the production of fast primes for the company that has lived exclusively in the world of zooms for the past several years. Unfortunately, its launch looks more like the exception, not the rule.
In an interview with Phototrend, spotted by Sony Alpha Rumors, Jean-Christophe Thiry, President of Tamron France, says that while fast primes are nice and the launch of the 90mm was “romantic” because it ” it embodies the entire history of the brand,” the company intends to stick with what it knows best: unique zooms.
“At Tamron, the strategy is to differentiate. We offer zooms that do not exist elsewhere, that is our core business. These lenses are sharpened in a homogeneous way at all focal lengths and have very good autofocus,” Thiry tells Phototrend.
“It would obviously be interesting to announce lenses like 24mm f/1.4, 35mm f/1.4, or even an 85mm f/1.2, these are lenses that make you dream. But today, from a commercial point of view, there are already a large number of players who offer this type of optics and we are rather trying to play the agility card. So we are focusing on our strengths with our zooms.”
Tamron’s last major push into prime lenses started nearly a decade ago and was exclusively for DSLRs. The 35mm f/1.8 came out in 2015 and was highlighted by a very close focusing distance, a feature that made it stand apart from Sigma’s extremely popular 35mm f/1.4 Art lens. That, and it was more affordable, made it a compelling option even though it was slightly slower than Sigma’s lens.
Tamron followed that lens with a faster 35mm f/1.4 in 2019 that was widely praised. But despite this success, Tamron never revisited these prime lenses when it shifted its business to focus on mirrorless optics.
In 2022, Tamron patented five f/1.4 prime lens designs which indicated the company was at least interested in revisiting its previous prime lens success. However, at least according to Thiry, the company’s goals have shifted.