Tamron develops 14-150mm F/3.5-5.8 VC for Micro Four Thirds

Tamron has announced that it's developing an image stabilised superzoom lens for Micro Four Thirds cameras. The 14-150mm F/3.5-5.8 Di III VC (Model C001) is poised to become the first third-party zoom for the system, and will offer a 28-300mm equivalent focal length range. It uses the company's Vibration Control (VC) system to counteract hand-shake, and a stepper motor for fast and silent autofocus. The lens will also feature a metal barrel and be available in a black or silver finish. Price and availibility are still to be confirmed.

Press release:

Tamron announces the development of the company's first Micro Four Thirds high-power zoom lens, equivalent to 28-300mm in the 35mm full-frame format

Tamron 14-150mm F/3.5-5.8 Di III VC (Model C001) with Tamron's proprietary VC (Vibration Compensation)* mechanism and sophisticated metal finish in two colors - black and silver

January 29, 2013, Saitama, Japan - Tamron Co., Ltd. (President & CEO: Morio Ono), a leading manufacturer of optical equipment, announces the development of a high-power zoom lens designed for Micro Four Thirds mirrorless cameras.

Product features:

• With one LD (Low Dispersion) glass element, two molded-glass aspherical elements and one hybrid aspherical element, Tamron's new Micro Four Thirds high-power zoom lens delivers leading-edge high image quality by thoroughly compensating for aberrations.
• The ingenious optical design achieves a compact body with a filter diameter of just 52mm despite being equipped with the Tamron's highly regarded VC (Vibration Compensation) mechanism.
• A stepping motor optimized for this model provides silent, quick and accurate auto focusing.
• This lens is equipped with Tamron's acclaimed VC (Vibration Compensation) mechanism. The VC mechanism reduces image blur caused by camera shake to deliver sharp images. This makes it possible for hand-held shooting in any unstable position with extremely light mirrorless cameras. The VC is also optimized for movie images and smooth scenes.**
• The metal lens barrel exterior is available in two colors: black and silver, providing the most popular color options to match high end cameras.
• Using a circular diaphragm***, this lens achieves spectacular background blur effects.

* VC (Vibration Compensation) is Tamron's proprietary image stabilization mechanism.
** The lens VC feature should be turned off, when used with cameras that have built-in image stabilization functions (such as those made by Olympus).
*** The circular diaphragm retains a near circular shape even when taken two stops down from a wide open position.

Specifications

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Comments

Total comments: 29

By New Daddy (5 months ago)

Looks like there will be competition between this one and Panny's new 14-140mm f/3.5-5.6

http://www.dpreview.com/news/2013/04/24/panasonic-introduces-lumix-g-vario-14-140mm-F3p5-5p6-asph-power-ois-for-Micro-Four-Thirds

Comment edited 22 seconds after posting

0 upvotes

By Desert Rose (6 months ago)

I'm strongly considering a GH3, but would not do it but for this lens. Although there will be others, I want to have something in this range. The 14-140 is too expensive and Oly's 14-150 doesn't have VC. Yay!

0 upvotes

By xlotus (9 months ago)

I own a Tamron 70-300 VC for Canon and their image stabilization is very effective, almost as good as Canon's latest lenses.
Coming from a company that only a few years ago introduced their first VC lens I think it is very impressive.

I also own Panasonic 45-200, 100-300 and 45-170. I can tell you that Pany OIS is significantly worse than Tamron VC or Canon IS.
With that said, I'd rather buy this Tammy 14-150 VC lens any given day than Pany 14-140 OIS, if it is priced right.

1 upvote

By qwertyasdf (9 months ago)

One (probably) average lens from Tamron, a great leap for MFT.

It's time to make MFT into an affordable system.

2 upvotes

By dmanthree (9 months ago)

Strange choice by Tamron. Instead of offering something new for m4/3, the nearly duplicate the 14-140 Panny lens, which is very good. Why not offer something different, like a decent 12-55 with IS? They made the same strange decision with their NEX lens, the 18-200, of which Sony sells multiple copies. And Sony's original 18-200 zoom was also a really nice lens, probably their best zoom for that system.

0 upvotes

By speculatrix (9 months ago)

Am pleased to see a high quality lens manufacturer produce m4/3rd lens with IS... hopefully this will be a very good lens at a good price.

0 upvotes

By G Davidson (9 months ago)

If this can do better than the not-so-well reviewed Olympus one, whilst being a lot lighter than the Panasonic offering, it could be a very nice choice for a travel ser-up.

0 upvotes

By tkbslc (9 months ago)

Why do mirrorless lens makes seem so fixated on remaking somewhat boring lenses that already exist. Do something different for a change! This is the 3rd or 4th 14-xx superzoom for m4.3. Sony has like 27 different 18-200's.

0 upvotes

By Edoveral (9 months ago)

Allthough I agree (I would love some third party wide-angles), I must say I'm intrigued by this lens, especially from a Panasonic point of view. The Panny superzoom is too expensive for me, and for walkaround purposes this could be a good alternative if priced below € 400,00.

However, what I'm really waiting for is a wide-angle zoom by Tamron or Sigma, designed for MFT. I think it's a matter of time.

2 upvotes

By ThePhilips (9 months ago)

3rd.

I hope that Tamron's super zoom would be cheaper.

In Germany, Oly's 14-150 goes for around 500€ and Panny's 14-140 for 600€. Unlike the APS-C, there is no 300-400€ super-zoom for m43. OK, literally all of the cheap APS-C zooms are *beep*, but as a vacation lens they are pretty OK.

0 upvotes

By cangi (9 months ago)

i have the tamron 18-200 f3.5-6.3 DI III VC lens in sony E-mount for my Nex-7 which is the same zoom range as this mft lens. they physically look very similar. the build quality is very good and i am very impressed with the image quality after 9 months use. the lens is sharp, has good contrast and color and the vibration control works very well. this lens is smaller and lighter than mine because of the smaller image circle it has to cover but if everything else is the same it will make any purchasers very happy.

4 upvotes

By bloodycape (9 months ago)

If only it started at something wider than 14mm, even 13mm would have been fine with me. Or at least ended at f4.5

3 upvotes

By camcom12 (9 months ago)

Indeed. Seems like micro 4/3 manufacturers are "fixated" on 14mm at the wide end, with a few exceptions of course:
12-50mm (no VC/VR)
12-35mm (big $$)
& maybe the old 11-18mm

If you have Panasonic, and thus need in-lens VC/VR, my 'budget' solution for Panasonic is the 14-42mm Power Zoom, and their 0.79 Wide Converter, giving 11mm or 22mm(equiv). Yes, a bit fidgety but very portable, fine for travel & snapshots. I like the Oly 12-50 but no VC/VR. A full 10X superzoom, like a 12-120mm is probably size-cost prohibitive.

Glad Sigma, Tamron, etc, are jumping in micro4/3 now.

0 upvotes

By oluv (9 months ago)

if you are all sooo after wideangle, just take the 9-18 m.zuiko. it is small, light, focuses fast and doesn't cost a fortune!

2 upvotes

By xlotus (9 months ago)

Uh-oh! $700 for Oly 9-18 at only F4-5.6 and that is not EXPENSIVE???

0 upvotes

By CAcreeks (9 months ago)

Less than half the weight of the Panny 14-140 and faster at the wide end. This probably wipes out any remaining advantage of the travel zoom. Now if Olympus would just put a darn 4:3 LCD on their 4:3 cameras!

6 upvotes

By BJN (9 months ago)

"Four Thirds" is not a reference to an aspect ratio.

1 upvote

By M Jesper (9 months ago)

Just a happy coincidence ...

Truth is, the images are 4:3, the screens are 16:9.

5 upvotes

By csoren (9 months ago)

Four Thirds refers to both the sensor size and sensor aspect ratio, according to an interview with the Olympus Product Manager from 2002

http://web.archive.org/web/20021027085654/http://www.a-digital-eye.com/Olympus43Q&A.html

Comment edited 2 times, last edit 2 minutes after posting

1 upvote

By Michael Gerrard (8 months ago)

On any m43 camera you can change the aspect ratio to whatever you want. I have an E-P1 with a 4:3 LCD screen but I shoot 3:2.

0 upvotes

By M Jesper (8 months ago)

Sure but that's part of the sensor and FoV to waste.

Anyway, images wider than the screen is much less annoying than screens wider than the image.

Problem is the camera's are so small, there isn't any more height available, so the only way for them to get a 3" screen in the specs is by making it wider, and use Video as an excuse.

0 upvotes

By Lupti (9 months ago)

It should be considerably cheaper than the 14-140mm. Otherwise the need of it is questionable.

0 upvotes

By peevee1 (9 months ago)

Tell Tamron to widen the wide end. After 12-50 and 12-35, few will be lured by that lens if it means losing 24-27 eq. focal lengths.
24 is a new 28.

0 upvotes

By gak44 (9 months ago)

What I would like is a reasonably priced 10-70 or 80mm zoom. That with the 100-300 would serve for almost any purpose except very low-light situations.

2 upvotes

By Dheorl (9 months ago)

Speak for yourself. I personally rarely even go to 14mm these days.

If this isn't to pricey and it's quallity is good then I'll definately be buying one, especially if autofocus is as quite as the native lenses. Part of me has been wanting to get the panny 14-140mm for ages but I just think it's too heavy.

0 upvotes

By howielenny (9 months ago)

Good to see Tamron investing into M43. Having used Tamron lenses with my D7000 along with Sigma and Nikon, this will be a nice addition to m43. I'm more of a prime man myself so will eagerly await to see what primes they come out with :)

4 upvotes

By bcalkins (9 months ago)

Agreed - while this lens doesn't appeal much to me, both Tamron and Sigma make lenses that do. Any signs that 3rd parties are producing lenses for MFT are welcome...

0 upvotes

By Ben Herrmann (9 months ago)

Finally....

Although it's not a "prime lens" buster, it's nice to see some of the traditional 3rd party lens makers getting on board the mirrorless bandwagon. Hopefully, this pending 14-150 zoom lens will be as good as (or better) than the Olympus 14-150. Just more choices for those of us who have embraced the m4/3 system since the beginning. Be curious to see if this lens will range in the $500 or $600 range (USD). I do know that from trying their other 18-270 VC lenses on the likes of Nikon, their lens-based OS system is absolutely superb, especially on the long end.

10 upvotes

By Sergey Borachev (9 months ago)

It is indeed nice to have another choice for lenses and also competition. This Tamron looks quite nice. The specs looks very close to Olympus' lens, but it also provides, for the same weight and dimensions, lens IS. So it will be good for those who have a Pansonic M43 body or have both Panasonic and Olympus bodies. And, it includes something Olympus will never give you, a lens hood.

Comment edited 4 minutes after posting

5 upvotes

Total comments: 29