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Home โ†’ Reviews โ†’ Cameras and Lenses โ†’ Tamron SP 45mm f/1.8 Di VC USD Review

Tamron SP 45mm f/1.8 Di VC USD Review

By Nasim Mansurov 7 Comments
Last Updated On January 26, 2024

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7 Comments
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Gregory Lewis
Gregory Lewis
April 13, 2022 9:09 pm

Excellent on my D500 when VC is turned off. VC works best in Q or QC mode.

0
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Airy Magnien
Airy Magnien
July 22, 2020 6:43 am

An excellent allrounder, esp. for trips and night photography; for the latter usage, I prefer it to the Noct Nikkor (while the Noct has other qualities that make me use it more often – see my user review). VR is also a plus; even with modern sensors, it is a blessing to be able to shoot at 1/8s without using a tripod (occasionally down to 1/4s, but with a reduced success rate, so better take series of 3 shots).

I generally cannot stand conspicuous longitudinal chromatic aberrations, but my copy at least does not seem to suffer badly from it, fortunately.

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Kenneth Almquist
Kenneth Almquist
July 11, 2020 10:37 pm

I bought this lens to use with my D7200. I use it even when shooting under bright light because its optical qualities are good, but the combination of optical stabilization and a fast aperture has allowed me to shoot a lot of low light images that I couldn’t have gotten without it. At $399, which has been the going price for several years (I bought it in 2017), this has been one of my most successful purchases in terms of bang for the buck.

4
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David Burns
David Burns
July 9, 2020 4:53 am

As ever, Nasim, thanks for the excellent review.

I became dissatisfied with the large aperture performance of my Nikon 50mm f1.8 AF-S G some time ago and decided to get the Sigma 1.4 50mm to replace it. This proved to be (as you have stated in this review and others) a very, very sharp lens. But, it simply would not focus consistently on either my D810 or D500, often being in focus for less than 50% of the shots. This made it unusable as far as I was concerned. I tried three different copies, much fine tuning and they were each as bad as the other.

I gave up on the Sigma and bought the Tamron 45mm instead. Happily, I have not had any significant focussing problems with this and have only performed fine tuning on my camera bodies. I like it very much and it is much, much better than the Nikon at large apertures. It makes a slightly longer than ‘standard’ lens on a DX camera as well. Rather good for portraits I find. It is also much heavier and more expensive than the Nikon though!

4
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Bun Ichihara
Bun Ichihara
July 6, 2020 12:22 am

$399 seems to be a permanent sale price for this lens. It’s not just for the holiday.

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Nasim Mansurov
Nasim Mansurov
Author
Reply to  Bun Ichihara
July 6, 2020 2:24 pm

Thanks for letting me know! I haven’t been tracking the price of this lens, but at $399, it is of excellent value!

1
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Wolfgang
Wolfgang
Reply to  Bun Ichihara
October 10, 2023 9:08 am

Just bought a Nikon version for $110, or 800 Chinese yuan. used one, but glass beautiful.

0
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