Tamron SP 35mm f/1.8 Di VC USD £600/$600

Refinement with add ed stability

Tamron’s recently launched 35mm, 45mm and 85mm ‘super performance’ prime lenses all combine a fast f/1.8 aperture and highly effective optical stabilization, or ‘Vibration Compensation’. This 35mm edition is definitely the best fit for street photography, where it’s suited to FX format DSLRs. Physically, the Tamron is wider but shorter than the Sigma 35mm lens, and lighter at 480g compared with 665g.

Build quality feels almost as good as the Sigma lens and the Tamron adds weather-seals, which can be a big plus point for rainy-day photography. The Tamron is two-thirds of an f/ stop slower than the Sigma but many will feel the 4-stop stabilizer compensates for this in street photography.

Performance

Image quality is impressive overall, with nice bokeh, but the Tamron isn’t as sharp as the Sigma. Autofocus and manual focus both work well, but there’s little distance between the 1m and infinity marks on the focus scale, and depth of field markings are absent.