Tamron SP 24-48mm F/3.5-3.8(13A)

Review and Photo example of the SP 24-48mm F/3.5-3.8(13A)

Gallery

Sample photo taken with the HASSELBLAD X2D.

Review

Tamron SP 24-48mm F/3.5-3.8 (13A) is a 2x zoom lens released in 1980.
This is Tamron’s line of high-end lenses called the SP (Special) line.
The mount uses Tamron’s proprietary interchangeable mount, Adaptor 2 mount, so it can be used with a wide range of lenses such as Nikon-F, EOS, α (MINOLTA), LEICA-R, etc.

Although it is an old zoom lens, it is very convenient as the wide-angle end starts at 24mm, but since it is an old zoom lens, you cannot expect perfect depiction. When you take a straight-line object from the front, the edges are quite distorted, but the center seems to be well resolved.
Also, if you use it at various focal lengths and shooting distances, you’ll probably notice more imperfections, but since you only use it occasionally, it’s not that noticeable.

The lens has a focus ring on the wide ring at the tip of the lens, making it easy to operate. When the focus ring is rotated clockwise, the left end is at infinity and the right end is at the shortest distance.
The narrow ring on the body side is the zoom ring, and like the focus ring, it rotates clockwise, and the left end is the telephoto end of 48mm, and the right end is the wide-angle end of 24mm.

When used with the X2D’s digital medium format sensor (44*33mm), the 24mm will be kicked out quite a bit at the edges, but the 48mm won’t be as noticeable. As expected, the image flows around the edges at any focal length.
It is designed for 35mm format, so when used with a 35mm full-frame sensor such as EOS-1Ds or LEICA SL, the peripheral flow will not be noticeable. It’s light and compact, has a 2x zoom lens, and is easy to use in terms of focal length, making it an easy-going lens.

The lens filter screws into the hood 27FH, so you cannot attach the filter without the hood. You can find used lenses as single lenses, but they are often sold without the 27FH hood.
The hood is made of plastic and is flimsy, so there is a high possibility that it will break over time, and if you drop it, it will definitely break. Since it has been a long time since it was manufactured, there are few hoods in existence, and I think it would be difficult to find the hood itself.

If a manufacturer were careless in naming their lenses, it would probably be a zoom lens that prioritizes marketing and calls itself F3.5 and F4. Tamron was an honest manufacturer in that regard and displayed detailed numbers regarding the F value. At the time of the Adaptor 2 lens, I think the labeling was more honest compared to companies S and T, who were also major OEMs.
In recent years, Tamron has also adopted a sharp number for the aperture value, but it is unclear whether the F value is as shown or rounded off. Nowadays, there is a tendency for consumers to not pay attention to details, so perhaps no one cares about the labeling. It would not be strange for a lawsuit to occur in countries such as the United States due to misidentification of quality, but I have never heard of such a case.

Specification

Items	Value	Note
Focal length(mm)	24-48
Max aperture	3.5-3.8
Min aperture	32
Lens Construction	10elements in 9groups
Leaf blade	6
Min distance(m)	0.6
Lens length(mm)	65.5	Distance from mount surface/Nikon F mount
Max diameter(mm)	64.5
Filter Size(mm)	77	Attached to hood 27FH
Weight(g)	346	Nikon F mount
Release date	1980