Tamron Adaptall 2 mounts and legacy glass.

John Bragg

John Bragg

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Hi there. Times are very uncertain, and it is hard to justify spending on new (or new to me) gear, but I have managed to get a couple of absolute bargains in Tamron Adaptall 2 lenses. The only trouble now is I have opened up the Pandora's box that is making other camera mounts and systems viable. I currently have OM and Nikon Ai mounts to fit my existing cameras, but if I saw an orphan body in another system, I am likely to be swayed and buy it. Are Tamron lenses a gateway drug to hard core GAS ?
 
Absolutely! I have 17mm, 24, 28, 35-80mm zoom, 70-210 zoom , 300mm and 500mm cat lenses. The ability to switch bodies means I have Pentax, OM Olympus, Contax/Yashica and Nikon bodies. The problem is reacquainting yourself with each body when you switch.
 
Except...perhaps for their SP labeled lenses, which were supposed to be a higher grade optically, most of their lenses are ‘good enough’ even if not outstanding. I’ve had several, purchased because the zooms were coffee money cheap, but have given them away, not because of performance, but just personally don’t use zooms much.
Still have a 135mm f2.5 that is handy because it focuses to 4 ft instead of the usual 5 ft that most 135mm lenses stop at. You would be surprised how many times I’ve needed that extra foot of close focusing.

Edit; A warning about the Tamron OM mounts used on OM-4 and 4Ti. Early OM mounts could jam on the OM-4 and if forced to remove shear off the little plastic button that protruding from the lensmount, causing a expensive repair. Never a concern for me as only used on OM-1.
Later Tamron OM mounts were fixed so this would not happen.
Don’t know how to tell the difference between old and new mounts but I’m sure someone here has the information.
 
A Gateway to buying even more...???
YES !!!

Tamron 28-70mm 3.5-4.5 CF MACRO 44A My first Tamron, great lens, sharp...
Tamron SP 90mm 2.5 Macro 52BB Great close-up lens...super sharp...
Tamron 35-70mm 3.5 CF MACRO 17A Great compact lens, also very sharp

Tamron 70-210mm 3.8-4.0 46A Not sure when/where I got this one, haven't really used it...
Tamron 70-210mm 4.0-5.6 158A Glass is fogged, makes some interesting images, very compact...

The first three I use all the time, the last two sit on a shelf...the 90mm is my favorite...
I have the Nikon, Pentax K and Canon adapters.

Here's some interesting reading...

https://www.apotelyt.com/camera-kit/tamron-adaptall-catalog

90mm 2.5 SP
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I just got the Tamron 35-70mm 3.5 CF MACRO 17A as part of an auction lot. The ME Super's (2) that came with it have been sent off for one of them to be serviced but I have an adaptor coming that will let me hook the Tamron up to my Olympus Em1 MkII which should be interesting.

Once the Pentax comes back it'll be back on there in a flash.
 
moggi1964 said:
I just got the Tamron 35-70mm 3.5 CF MACRO 17A as part of an auction lot. The ME Super's (2) that came with it have been sent off for one of them to be serviced but I have an adaptor coming that will let me hook the Tamron up to my Olympus Em1 MkII which should be interesting.

Once the Pentax comes back it'll be back on there in a flash.
Click to expand...



My guess is you're gonna love that 35-70...
I use mine on the Sony a6000 and it has yet to disappoint...
 
My first was a 17A also. I paid £6 and it is in good used condition. £4 found a mount for my OM 1n. It has since been joined by a 103A 80-210 f3.8 in perfect boxed condition with the only difference from brand new being a missing sticker. I really pushed the boat out and paid £25 ! A second OM adaptor soon followed and a Nikon one for good measure. I am amazed by the tank like build quality of both.
 
I have a few Tamron adaptall lenses too. Quality varied a lot in my experience. Build quality was always good, but IQ ranged from bad to excellent: I seem to recall my 28/2.5 was not very good. My 35-135 is OK, but not stellar. The 60-300 SP lens is also OK.

However, the 24mm is good and the 90/2.5 is very good! I used to borrow the 17mm (3.5?) frequently and I really liked that lens.
 
I've had a couple of the Tamron 80-210/f3.8 and of the readily available (i.e. cheap) Tamrons, I think it's a very good value, more than decent image quality, and well-built. I still love the feel of that lens on a solid camera.

I've used a 28f2.5 and it's not great - but not exactly bad either. Let's just say it's usable.

I have a 28-70 manual that came with a camera I wanted - don't like it at all, enough that I've rarely used it. But then wide-to-tele consumer convenience lenses back in the day were mostly not very good.
 
The versatility of the 17A close focussing 35-70mm is astounding. For me it seems a perfect walk about lens. In combination with perhaps a 28 and fast 50 for low light shots ?
 
My favorite macro lens had been the Tamron 90/2.5. It gives a very smooth out of focus background.
 
Almost forgot from my earlier post that I have one more Tamron lens.....
Wait for it.....
A 135mm f4.5 preset DuoTamron from 1958 with a M42 adapter.
This lens had several lens mount adapters available for it but of course now impossible to find. (They are not ‘T’ mount, the threads are about 37mm diameter.) Mine came with the case and included the 2 element 1.66X tele extender that made the lens a 225mm f7.7
The whole set up is very small and the cameras I can adapt it to is a Pen F (film) and my EM10 M4:3
The filter size is a strange thread somewhere between 37.5mm and 39mm. I believe originally the lens came with a 2 piece hood that held a drop in filter, never going to find that either.
 
At Christmas I picked up a Tamron SP 90mm 2.5 Macro 52BB. Really like the images that I make using it. There is one issue. Whether I use the Adaptall or the Tamron to Sony E mount adaptor, I can't stop down past f5.6. It should go to f32, and it does if I remove the adaptor and just press the auto diaphragm button on the rear of the lens. Any ideas what may be causing this to occur ? I'm using it on a Sony A7II.
 
I’ve also heard that the 500mm f8 mirror Tamron was a cut above the mediocre crop of currently available third party mirror lenses, but of course with the usual mirror lens peculiar characteristics.
 
Austintatious said:
At Christmas I picked up a Tamron SP 90mm 2.5 Macro 52BB. Really like the images that I make using it. There is one issue. Whether I use the Adaptall or the Tamron to Sony E mount adapter, I can't stop down past f5.6. It should go to f32, and it does if I remove the adapter and just press the auto diaphragm button on the rear of the lens. Any ideas what may be causing this to occur ? I'm using it on a Sony A7II.
Click to expand...

My 90mm 2.5 will do the same thing but around f/11...it will close down if I play with the linkage...pretty sure I've read that this is a reoccurring problem with this lens...

I've also seen it close down by gently tapping on the side of the lens...

Tamron also offered an extension tube for 1:1 close-ups...they are hard to find and expensive when you do find them...I read that if you gut out the 2x Teleconverter (01F) its very close to the same dimension as the extension tube...I found a teleconverter with fogged glass for cheap and pulled out the parts I didn't need...works fine...
 
Thanks, I will give it a bit of exercise. Like me, maybe it's just getting old :D
Wondering if a very small drop of oil on that pin would help or hurt ?

To get to 1:1 macro I picked up a set of Fotdiox extension tubes (7,14,28) for $20. They seem to do the job very nicely.
 
I have had some serious Tamron SP Adaptall gas in past. I now have:

1. SP 80-200 f2.8 (have 2 of these)
2. SP 70-150 f2.8 Soft focus (pretty rare)
3. SP 35-80 f2.8
4. SP 17 f3.5 (51B model with built in filters) (has original hood to mount 82mm filters)
5. SP 300 f2.8 (last 360B model, pretty rare)

All are really excellent lenses, very sharp, except SP 17mm is not as good as OM Zuiko 18 f3.5.
 
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