Tamron 45/1.8

[Airy]

A fine lens, it seems, at least on Df (16 Mpix). AF is reasonably fast and MF reasonably smooth, remindful of the Sigma "A" lenses. AF and stabilizer are triggered by the AF-ON button on the camera in my case ; it is possible to (de)activate the stabilizer and/or autofocus via the two lens switches. Sharpness, vignetting, coma all are satisfactory. Distortion is low, but (similar with 50/1.8G) seems to "bend the corners", i.e. to increase there. So for architectural shots, you may forget about distortion correction unless there is really something going on in the corners. There is some CA (easily removed) and some LoCA (less easily), but not that much.

The stabilizer works at least down to 1/4 s, but in this case one had better duplicate shots.

In the test shots below :
1) is a strong crop of a pic exposed 1/4 s, wide open. Focus is on the trash bin. Purpose was to test the combination sharpness + motion blur. Passed.
2) is another shot at 1/4s, 100 ISO, f/2.5, completely unretouched.
3) f/1.8 again, focus on the polyester "skin" in the foreground, to show the OOF highlights. Some onion ringing can be seen iin the darker highlights.
4) interior of a tunnel at f/8, 7200 ISO, 1/8s exposure, all handheld and stabilized of course.

So for night shots that's a winner. I'll try and get some "moody" ones as soon as we get fog, to see if Kertesz or Brassai would have adopted it

[Tristin]

Their two recent primes are definitely interesting.  Howndoes yours handle flare?  What's the field curvature and starbursts like?

[Airy]

I'll test over the WE. Concerning star fields: I live in Lille, not in Arizona. Never seen any here.

[Tristin]

Any point light source from >20m will give starbursts/sunrays/whatever with the lens stopped down.

[Airy]

Any point light source from >20m will give starbursts/sunrays/whatever with the lens stopped down.

Ah OK, sorry for misunderstanding. Not observed so far.
Also tested behaviour with backlighting this morning : seems very good (examples this evening). Flare with sun coming outside the frame seems to be there however, according to lenstip.com.

[Airy]

Starbursts : this is the most I could get at f/16. At f/8, there is just a hint. The stars are well developed at f/11, and of course sharper at f/16.

[Airy]

Now some daytime shots, all wide open. Vignetting left alone. Last one does not look like vignetting; this is because it is cropped.

[Airy]

Shooting against the light at f/5.6. Shadows were raised at post processing. There is no apparent loss of contrast from wide open down to f/8.

[Airy]

January roses again, at f/1.8 and f/4.5, and minimum distance

[Airy]

Two similar shots, first with Tamron, second with Voigtländer 58/1.4, same aperture (f/2. and some cropping of the second shot (taken from too far away).

[Airy]

The revealing test, where the Voigtländer 58/1.4 (otherwise much to my taste) proved merely acceptable at f/2.0 ; the Tamron is nearly "clean" at f/1.8; dots are not turned into clover.

[Airy]

A few night street shots at f/5.0. Nice to have passers-by turned into ghosts (1/5s) and still people still sharp at 1/10s.

[Airy]

A few additional comments :
- AF is slow but spot on, does not generally pump, and did not need fine-tuning
- Balance on Df is good (the camera is not nose-diving when hung by the neckstrap), although close to the limit
- MF is definitely OK
- Close focus does not significantly deteriorate optical performance
- Works well against bright light (still have to carry out the worst test, a particular pipe organ in front of a white window)

So far I cannot fault this lens. It is nearly too clean wide open; on Df it is remindful of the Zeiss 135/2 on D800, where the aperture sets the DOF and hardly anything else. Of course the 45 is not APO (visible LoCA, would disappear around f/2. and sharpness decreases a bit when nearing full aperture, but still - on Df it does not disappoint.

[Frank Fremerey]

I adore your photographic skills. Esp. the monumental shot 7958 sticks out.

[Airy]

I adore your photographic skills. Esp. the monumental shot 7958 sticks out.

That's a compliment, thanks. And the monument deserves to be accompanied by Reger's motet "Frieden aud Erden". Do you know it ? in the present context, it impresses even more.