Tamron AF 60mm f/2 SP Di II LD [IF] Macro Review

I’ve been aching for a macro lens for the longest time and as if a joke was being played on me, every time I had the chance to get one, something else would come up that would require my attention. Well, I think my long wait is worth it as I pretty much got what I exactly needed.

When I was still hunting for my first macro lens, I tested several lenses (Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8, Sigma 70mm f/2.8 and Tamron 90m f/2.8) and while I was quite happy with the test results, there was a nagging doubt in the back of my head that prevented me from getting one. That is until a good buddy of mine (David Tong) pointed me in the right direction: the Tamron SP 60mm macro direction. And when I got the lens and fired off a few test shots then looked at the resulting images, I immediately knew that I got what I was looking for.

Build Quality and AF

The Tamron 60mm is the fastest macro lens currently in the market. Aperture wise, it beats its competitors hands down. The lens has an excellent feel. Build quality is very good. It’s a little bit longer than a 50mm lens but shorter than the Tamron 90mm and I like it like that i.e. I get the versatility of a 50mm and the function of a full macro lens. The Auto Focus works quite fast, although the non-ultrasonic motor is kind of noisy so this lens might not be good for insect macro photography as the noise might scare the critters away. The AF/MF switch can be found on the side of the lens. This lens has IF so the there is constant physical length. Additionally, the front element doesn’t rotate so a CPL can be attached to the front element. One neat feature of this lens is that it has FTM (full time manual) focusing and with FTM, the AF can be overridden for some accurate focusing.

Image Quality

The lens produces excellent images. Tack sharp from all apertures (f/2 – f/22). It’s as sharp as the Canon and Nikkor lenses that cost much more so in terms of IQ:cost, Tamron has a winner here. Just like the Tamron 90mm macro, optics is very good although this lens has IF and the 90mm doesn’t. The lens performs excellent as a macro lens or as a portrait lens (see sample images at the end of the page)

Although the lens shows a slight amount of barrel distortion, it is too minimal to have an impact on the overall IQ. As the lens is for APS-C cameras, there is slight vignetting wide open. Stopping down to f/2.8 solves the problem. Vignetting will practically disappear from f/4 upwards. If there are two gripes that I have with this lens it would be these: (1) there is visible CA and (2) Tamron’s VC is absent. The CA is practically a non-issue as it can be easily corrected during post processing.

If you’re into creamy bokeh, then this lens will not disappoint you. As one Internet-based camera review site would say, this lens is bokehlicious. Thanks to the excellent optics of this lens, circles that this lens produces on bokeh is perfectly round, not octagonal or hexagonal. Perfect for portraits!

Conclusion

Overall, this is a winner of a lens. Brilliantly sharp images each and every time. It has superior optical performance and delivers the goods at all apertures. It’s very light and compact so it’s a good “alternate” lens for a 50mm. If you’re into portrait photography and/or macro photography and want your images brilliantly sharp all the time, then this lens is for you.

Highly recommended!

Sample Images

Test macro shots

Just to show you how sharp the image is, I cropped a section of the above photo for reference:

The leaf below is just a half-height bigger than a thumb tack.

Test Portrait Shots

When I was trying out the lens for portraits, I had no live subject around so I had to settle with my daughter”s teddy bear. Still, the resulting images were fantastic.