Tamron 22A 35-135 zoom

[luisalegria]

I have had this thing for decades - came with my Pentax LX
I never really did much with it, until recently.





Its one of the earlier breed of wide-to-tele zooms, notable for its large size and heavy weight compared to the later 28-80 or even 28-135 lenses. Its quite common, though not as common as the 80-210 Tamron zooms, and is usually cheap.

It does have one fairly uncommon feature - it goes into a very useful 1:4 macro focus mode when at 135mm, which makes it a very fine nature-walk lens I think, if you don't mind heavy lenses (I don't). I like it better for that job than the Tamron 103A 80-210, because I want effectively a fixed focal length for that purpose, and 135mm is perfect. The replacement 40A 35-135 goes to macro at 35mm, which I think is much less useful, or not for me anyway.

Physically ts a well made, rugged, quite typical example of Tamron design and workmanship from the Adaptall-2 period. It does creep somewhat, but thankfully not when its in macro mode. Its as sharp as I can detect on my Pentax K-x, at any focal length, but I am no connoisseur. Its excellent with flare and backlit situations. I really have nothing bad to say about this thing, other than it lacks character - its too good, maybe. If you just want to take pictures, this will do that perfectly well.

Samples -



















The bird -



crop -

[Bruce]

your catching a nice light!

[ManualFocus-G]

Great to see you back reviewing agin Luis! Those kids are starting to grow up!

Looks like a decent enough lens in use

[Olivier]

Hi Luis,
Tank you for your nice review as I wondered how was this lens.
I have the SP 28A 28-135mm since a few days and it's an original lens with its special button system for entering macro mode.
http://www.adaptall-2.org/lenses/28A.html

[poilu]

nice portrait and great fungus closeup!

[cooltouch]

Very nice, Luis, and I agree -- it seems it would be hard to find fault with the performance of that lens.

[rpilla001]

I just purchased this lens and I am trying to understand how it functions. if I understand correctly at 135 I should be able to continue to rotate the lens barrel so that it enters into the Macro mode. Or does the lens always rotate between 1.8 meters and infinity?

Am I missing something? Any help would be appreciated.

[Olivier]

As I read this on a Pentax forum : "the 22A was continuous focus into the 1:4 macro range at 135mm"
I understand that when at 135mm you just have to focus to the closer range, hence 800mm in this case.

If you're unable to go to 800mm, maybe it's not the 22A model, but the 40A which has a button on the barrel you have to push to be able to go to 800mm.

22A : http://www.adaptall-2.org/lenses/22A.html
40A : http://www.adaptall-2.org/lenses/40A.html

Cheers.

[rpilla001]

Olivier,

It is definitely the 22A, however the markings are slightly different on the barrel of the lens than the one you have photographed above.

The lens does focus at the 800 (8 meter?) range as it should. I was just thinking how odd it was to have the macro markings on the bottom of the lens which did not correspond to any markings elsewhere on the lens.

The markings are as follows 2x CONV, 1:2/1:4, 1:2.5/1:5, 1:3/1:6, 1:3.5/1:7, MACRO.

It is certainly odd to have so many markings with nothing to coordinate them with. This is why I was thinking the focal barrel should continue to rotate ate the 135 range in order for these numbers to appear from the bottom side of the lens.


I also have the Tamron 35-210 SP model 26A which has a similar mechanical motion, but does NOT have markings on the underside of the focusing barrel.

My Tamron 80-210 model 103A has a different set of markings with the word "Macro" on the focusing barrel and coordinating lines on the fixed barrel for 1:10, 1:8. etc..

Maybe some photos would help since my lens is a slightly different version of the same 22A model.

[Olivier]

[rpilla001]

I understand the markings better now, What was confusing me was the lack of any indicator lines on the underside of the barrel like the Tamron 80-210mm F/3.8-4 Model 103A:



Tamron 80-210mm F/3.8-4 Model 103A: by Burnt Umber, on Flickr

note the guide lines on the main barrel of the lens. Now look at the 35-135mm F/3.5-4.2 Model 22A


35-135mm F/3.5-4.2 Model 22A by Burnt Umber, on Flickr

It is just blank. The proportional numbers don't mean anything since there is no indicator on the main barrel of the lens. It is almost like someone skipped a step when they made this lens.

[Olivier]

[rpilla001]

Olivier,

The lens is broken! It will not rotate to the Macro mode at 135. In the photos above the focusing barrel is rotated as far to the left as possible.

[Olivier]

Just an idea looking at the arrow design : try to gently push the barrel and twist to the right to enter in macro mode and access the ratio figures.

[rpilla001]

I have the 35-210 SP so I have a good feeling how the macro should work but the CF barrel does not seem to open to the full 135 mark which is why it will not rotate into th macro mode. Also when I slide the focus barrel I can feel a stiff spot around the 75mm mark. I had a similar issue with another lens and had it repaired by Nippon Clinic. It was a damaged ring inside the lens it cost me $125 to get it fixed. Not certain if this lens is worth it. I may just return it and cut my losses.

[Olivier]

Sorry for you.
It seems sending back is the best thing to do, if you can.

[D1N0]

I got this lens two days ago. From what i see in the pics here the lens is not entirely zoomed out to 135mm. It needs to be to go into Macro. So if you have this problem try to go all the way until the 135mm mark is entirely visible. at 1.8mm you will then start to see an orange line above it as well. I don't find the extreme macro setting very useful in this one as it is pretty soft. Only being able tot Focus to 1.8 meters on every focal length but 135mm is also a bit long for a CFD in my opinion.

I bit further out it becomes very sharp wide open already though:
Bit of a swirl by The lens profile, on Flickr

I also noticed pretty heavy vignetting on the wide en if you don't stop down.

[DigiChromeEd]

On the newer 40A version, the minimum focusing distance is 1.5 metres with the macro setting at the 35mm end.

[D1N0]

I also have the 28a (28-135). It has 2meters CFD but macro can be engaged over the entire zoom range. The 27a 28-80 has full macro without a switch over almost the entire range and a CFD of .8m at the part that can't go into macro (28 to about 31mm). You can't have it all in one lens...

[lumens pixel]

[DigiChromeEd]

[D1N0]

Just like the 28A then

[D1N0]

A few more samples:

35mm
Social housing Oosterhoogebrug (covert Duplex) by The lens profile, on Flickr

Park Pond (Ulgersmaborg) by The lens profile, on Flickr

85mm
Tripkeh by The lens profile, on Flickr

135mm
Duck by The lens profile, on Flickr

[Lloydy]

The 22A was one of the first Tamrons I ever bought, and I bought it after seeing this post of Louis' and making a note of it in my little red notebook. I think I paid £5 for it. Probably the best value lens I've ever bought, almost certainly one of the best walkabout lenses I've got.
If you haven't got one, you're missing out.