Tamron SP 90mm f/2.8 Di Macro Autofocus Lens – Hands on Review

The Tamron SP 90mm f/2.8 Di Macro Autofocus Lens is a pretty affordable lens and I put it through it’s passes in this Hands on Review, so you can see what this lens has to offer with your own eyes! Lets start off with a few picks of this bad boy:

This lens extends in order to adjust the focus which makes for a very compact lens when closed up and a pretty long lens when full extended.

Tamron SP 90mm f/2.8 Di Macro Autofocus Lens – Fully Extended in Manual Focus Mode (blue Ring)

To engaging manual focus on the Tamron lens you actually pull the focus ring toward the camera and it clicks into place revealing the blue ring. Hence the Blue ring means it’s in manual focus mode. When it’s in autofocus that blue ring is not visible as seen below. I like this feature as I needed to use manual focus pretty often with this lens and finding the little switch that most lenses have is often a drag

Tamron SP 90mm f/2.8 Di Macro Autofocus Lens – AF (left) MF (right)

The Tamron SP 90mm f/2.8 Di Macro Autofocus Lens also came with a nice little padded lens pouch which is always a nice feature.

Tamron SP 90mm f/2.8 Di Macro Autofocus Lens – Lens Pouch

Here’s a few pics of the Tamron 90mm mounted to my 5D mark II, which I used to review this lens.

Canon 5D mark II, Tamron SP 90mm f/2.8 Di Macro Autofocus Lens – side view

Canon 5D mark II, Tamron SP 90mm f/2.8 Di Macro Autofocus Lens – side view

Canon 5D mark II, Tamron SP 90mm f/2.8 Di Macro Autofocus Lens – Side View Manual Focus Extended

Canon 5D mark II, Tamron SP 90mm f/2.8 Di Macro Autofocus Lens – 3/4 view

Test Chart Shots:

Now for some test shots. I found a nice high res lens testing chart on the web and printed it off on some matte photo paper. I then taped it to the wall and set-up my huge Softbox to light the chart. This certainly isn’t a chart that I would take measurements off of or anything, but it does help to see flaws that would otherwise be hidden. All these test images were taken as raw files and exported directly from Lightroom 3 with no lens correction or anything.

At f/2.8 the Tamron 90mm macro lens suffers from some a little softness, chromatic aberrations, and vignetting. It’s easier to see in the 100% crop below. This almost completely goes away by f/4 though. Be sure to click the images to see larger versions, and the Full Resolution versions are in the Gallery Here >>

f/2.8

Canon 5D mark II, Tamron SP 90mm f/2.8 Di Macro Autofocus Lens – Test Chart @ f/2.8

Canon 5D mark II, Tamron SP 90mm f/2.8 Di Macro Autofocus Lens – Test Chart @ f/2.8 – 100% Crop Top Left

f/4

Canon 5D mark II, Tamron SP 90mm f/2.8 Di Macro Autofocus Lens – Test Chart @ f/4 – 100% Crop

f/8

Canon 5D mark II, Tamron SP 90mm f/2.8 Di Macro Autofocus Lens – Test Chart @ f/8 – 100% Crop

Background Bokeh Test:

As you can see the out of focus area (bokeh) is quite nice and be sure to click the images for a larger version.

f/2.8	f/4	f/8

Real World Photos:

For the next part of this review I wanted to show you some real world sample images I’ve gotten from this lens using the full frame Canon 5D mark II.  I tried to take a nice variety of subjects to show the versatility of this lens and I put all the images up in a Gallery so you can see them at Full Resolution if you wish. Check out the Tamron 90mm f/2.8 Macro sample pics Full Res Gallery Here>> .

Here’s a few of my favorites:

5D Mark II, Tamron SP 90mm f/2.8 Di Macro Autofocus Lens @ f/4,1/125sec, ISO 400

5D Mark II, Tamron SP 90mm f/2.8 Di Macro Autofocus Lens @ f/5.6, 1/160sec, ISO 800

5D Mark II, Tamron SP 90mm f/2.8 Di Macro Autofocus Lens @ f/3.5, 1/125sec, ISO 800

5D Mark II, Tamron SP 90mm f/2.8 Di Macro Autofocus Lens @ f/4, 1/160sec, ISO 800

5D Mark II, Tamron SP 90mm f/2.8 Di Macro Autofocus Lens, @ f/5, 1/160sec, ISO 100, 1 Studio Light

Full Res Gallery with many more sample photos Here>>

Conclusion:

The Tamron 90mm Macro is a solid performing lens that produces excellent results with minimal effort.  I especially liked enabling manual focus by pulling back on the focus ring. It was both easy and convenient if your tracking something in particular.  It’s really not the biggest deal, but different than the canon’s and worth noting. The focus on this lens is what stood out to me as the weakest link.  The focus was slow and noisy in comparison to other lenses I have with USM or SSM focus motors. It also struggled to focus more than I would expect and waiting for it to go all the way in and out takes a few seconds.

The bottom line: the Tamron 90mm Macro takes a fantastic picture, is very sharp, and relatively affordable!

Here’s my rating for the Tamron 90mm Macro:

• Sharpness = 8
• Bokeh = 8
• Build Quality = 6
• Focus = 5
• Value = 7 @ $459.95
• Overall = 7.5

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