Tamron Adaptall 2 90mm f2.5 Model 52B macro lens

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Contents: Build Quality | Image Quality | Good/Bad | Conclusion | More Sample Images


gone to seed | monochrome

After shooting macro images with extension tubes, reversed lenses, and doubled/reversed lenses for a while, I wanted to try out a proper macro lens. Given my affinity for the Adaptall series and the overall positive reviews for the Tamron Adaptall 2 SP 90mm f2.5 macro lens, I hunted one down in minty condition and snagged it. After running it through the paces for a couple of months on my macro photography adventures, I have some thoughts about this bad boy.

Build quality and feel

Like all the other Adaptall SP lenses I have, the 90mm f2.5 macro has a fantastic build quality. The copy I have is the 52B, so it’s mostly metal in construction with a plastic aperture adjustment ring and a comfortable grooved rubber grip on the focus ring. The lens focuses down to around 13” or so from the sensor plane, which gives me quite a bit more working distance than I’m used to with the aforementioned reversed lens and macro tube configurations (which often required the end of the lens to be an inch or two from the subject).

The feel when using the lens is, as usual, great. The manual focus ring is smooth and evenly damped. The focus control gets pretty fine at the close focus end of the range, but sadly focusing from 2m to infinity happens in about 10 degrees of focus throw. Not that big of a deal, but worth noting when you stand up and use it as a short telephoto lens for subjects further away. The aperture ring is clicked.

The lens is also a beautiful unit. Multi-colored markings for the focus scales and magnification range. It's just a lovely lens, like all its Adaptall 2 SP siblings.

purple flower
red flower
old truck, headlight detail
busy little ants
dry
prairie cone flower macro

Image Quality

The image quality is fantastic. In-focus shots are tack sharp with beautiful color rendering. The out of focus areas wide open are soft and pleasant without and harsh or distracting edges. Image resolution is good as well. From other’s experience I’ve read about with adapting this lens to modern digital cameras, they’ve run into problems with the flat rear lens element casting a purple reflection in the center of the image under certain lighting conditions, but I haven’t run into that issue yet. Just something to keep in mind.

The Good

The Bad

cicada shell
leaf-footed bugs on a texas thistle
curls

Conclusion

Superlative sharpness, sharp aesthetic design, good resolution and acuity… for less than a modern Chinese-made manual focus lens? Count me in!

More sample images can be found on my Flickr page

Written on Tuesday, 22 December 2020, by Aaron Brown. Last edited on


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