It’s very exciting that Tamron is developing lenses for Fujifilm finally and the Tamron 18-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Di III-A VC VXD is a good choice for their first X-mount lens, but if you do not follow Tamron then you might not be aware that they have two additional APS-C mirrorless lenses the Tamron 11-20mm f/2.8 Di III-A RXD and Tamron 17-70mm f/2.8 Di III-A VC RXD. These lenses may come to X-mount in the future if the Tamron 18-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Di III-A VC VXD sells well, but should they?
I primarily use Fujifilm and Sony cameras and when Tamron started releasing its light, affordable, compact lenses for E-mount I quickly dumped a lot of overpriced Sony glass for the Tamron equivalent at a fraction of the price and did not regret it in the least, even with an a7RIII. Now it looks like Tamron will bring their glass to X-mount in addition to E-mount, but is it as attractive to Fujifilm photographers?
Above I compared some similar lenses from Fujifilm, but the most similar lenses are f/4 zooms and not f/2.8. There is no direct head-to-head comparison to be made here, but it looks like Tamron lenses won’t be much smaller than Fujifilm’s equivalents according to camerasize.com, but they will likely be lighter and should be a little more affordable as you can see below.
Tamron 11-20mm f/2.8 Di III-A RXD $829 335g
Fujinon XF 8-16mm f/2.8 R LM WR $1999 805g
Fujinon XF 10-24mm f/4 R OIS WR $999 385g
Tamron 17-70mm f/2.8 Di III-A VC RXD $799 525g
Fujinon XF 16-80mm f/4 R OIS WR $799 440g
Fujinon XF 16-55mm f/2.8 R LM WR $1199 655g
If Tamron can maintain or even reduce its price point a little on Fujifilm cameras then I believe Tamron’s current APS-C zooms could sell quite well, but the price may not be enough for some to accept the more plastic feel Tamron lenses tend to have. I personally will be sticking with my Fujinon X glass even if these lenses come to X-mount, but the Tamron 18-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Di III-A VC VXD might be of interest if the performance is good enough.
Tamron did very well on E-mount because most of the full-frame lenses they released were half the price of Sony’s equivalents and they had an almost equivalent or better level of performance. The same can’t be said on X-mount when it comes to price so maybe Tamron will skip its current APS-C line and release some f/2 or faster zooms in the future to really stand out as they did on E-mount. Personally, I think that is their best move since Fujifilm has a very full and affordable lineup of glass for X-mount photographers. It would also be interesting if Tamron decided to take on the GFX in the future, but I think that is unlikely.
Tamron 18-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Di III-A VC VX D (Coming Soon):
B&H Photo / Amazon
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