Tamron announces SP 35mm f/1.4 Di USD, the finest prime lens in the company’s history

Tamron SP lenses have been around for 40 years. To celebrate this anniversary, Tamron has decided to launch an “ultimate” 35mm lens for Nikon and Canon DSLRs. The SP 35mm f/1.4 Di USD is coming soon and it’s going to be “the finest lens in Tamron’s history.”

The new 35mm f/1.4 is designed with versatility in mind, considering that the 35mm focal length is used in many different photography genres. According to Tamron, this lens is a “distillation of Tamron’s accumulated lens-making expertise and craftsmanship.” It’s designed for full frame Nikon and Canon DSLRs, but of course, you can also use it on an APS-C body. On Nikon cameras, it gives a 52.5mm equivalent focal length and a 56mm equivalent focal length on Canon.

The AF drive is equipped with Tamron’s proprietary USD (Ultrasonic Silent Drive). According to Tamron, this will provide you a fast, precise and quiet autofocusing. There’s also a Dynamic Rolling-cam mechanism, which has been newly developed specifically for this lens. It helps to minimize the drive load placed on the focus lens component. Because of this, you should have improved AF performance and reliability even under the harsh shooting conditions, such as high and low-temperature extremes. Finally, the lens is also equipped with a Full-Time Manual Focus override system. This allows you to instantly make fine adjustments to the point of focus, even when using the AF mode.

The Tamron SP 35mm f/1.4 Di USD is built of 14 elements in 10 groups. These include four LD (Low Dispersion) and three GM (Glass Molded Aspherical) elements. Thanks to the lens construction and the special coatings, the company promises high-resolution performance from the center of the frame to the edges, even at f/1.4. On top of that, the lens is durable and weather-resistant.

Check out the full specs of the lens:

The Tamron SP 35mm f/1.4 Di USD is currently available for preorders in Canon EF and Nikon F mounts. There’s still no official pricing listed yet, but Tamron lists the recommended retail price of £929 (~$1,170). As for the availability, the Nikon F version is expected to start shipping at the end of June, and the Canon EF version is coming at the end of July 2019.