Yes, this is old news. They are the largest non-financial institution owner of the Tamron shares. This has, naturally, lead to speculation that Tamron is producing many of the Sony DLSR lenses, including the Sony/Zeiss ones. Tamron makes a lot of optical modules for digital compact P&S cameras.
Andrew Wood wrote:
Sorry if this isn't news, but I'd never heard this before.
It is old news. Many of the lenses Sony introduced for their Alpha digital SLRs are nothing more than re-badged Tamron designs dressed up as "new" lenses, with a price mark-up to boot.
Rubber Soul wrote:
It is old news. Many of the lenses Sony introduced for their Alpha digital SLRs are nothing more than re-badged Tamron designs dressed up as "new" lenses, with a price mark-up to boot.
The irony is that all but one of these (the 18-250) are actually hold-overs from Minolta's lens line and almost all are in the very minimal DT crop-specific line. Minolta had partnered with Tamron on lens design much like the current Pentax/Tokina relationship, although in the opposite direction (Minolta using Tamron designs like Tokina uses Pentax designs). Note that the Sony's are not actually identical to the Tamron's, typically they have Minolta-derived coatings and faster and tougher AF gearing (Sony/Minolta cameras are notorious for butchering the AF gearing on many 3rd party lenses due to the high torque of the AF motors in 7 and 9 series bodies). Sony's lens pricing is bad though, everything they have is mildly to moderately overpriced.
It actually mystifies me why Sony has not introduced a rebadged 17-50 f2.8, they badly need a f2.8 normal zoom for the A700.
This explains why the outer 11.1% of the image circle on my 28-75 2.8 Tamron lens is not as sharp as the center when wide open. They need Ziess or Leica to buy those shares now!
