The Tamron 45mm is a nice wide-normal lens with excellent sharpness, perfect for a variety of subjects.
Tamron’s SP 45mm F/1.8 Di VC USD
Full disclosure: For a few years, around 2014/17, I was a Tamron Image Master and they would occasionally send me new lenses to test out. I would provide my opinions through blog posts, or interviews that appeared in their online newsletter. Tamron was great to work with. I’d used Tamron early on in my film days, but had drifted away over time. It was fun getting reacquainted with Tamron’s lenses — they have really come out with some great products lately — and they never put any pressure on me regarding the opinions I voiced. If I didn’t like a lens, I was free to say so. That never really happened, though. Especially in the case of their SP series prime lenses. I think they’re great.
The 45mm
It was during this time — I think late 2015? — that Tamron came out with two new lenses in their SP series: a 35mm f/1.8 Di VC and a 45mm f/1.8 Di VC. I was given the choice of trying out one or the other and, after some thought, I chose the 45mm.
My reasoning was this: while I tend to prefer smaller primes — and the 35mm is physically smaller than the 45 — I have a 17-35 Nikkor zoom that is nearly always on one of my camera bodies. I just didn’t know how often I would actually swap that lens for another prime in the same focal length range, when I’m already so happy with the 17-35. I also liked the idea of having something a little out of the norm. There are a lot of 35mm and 50mm primes (I have a 50mm f/1.8) but there aren’t a lot of prime options in between those two (I do covet the tiny Voigtlander 40mm pancake lens — but that’s another story).
The 45 sits in an interesting spot. On the 35mm (full-frame) system, lenses in the 50-55mm range are usually considered “normal” lenses — not wide-angle, not telephoto (although there is a LOT of discussion about what focal length is actually “normal” — just go with me here). A 35mm is the beginning of what is typically considered wide-angle. So, the 45mm is a little wider than normal (or on the wider end of normal), but not so wide as to have a lot of distortion issues for things like portrait photography (wide-angles are not typically used for portraiture due to distortion issues on the face, but 35mm and even wider can be useful for more environmental portraits that show a smaller subject in their surroundings).
I first tested this lens out as a walk-about lens — a sort of street photography approach. Many consider 35mm lenses ideal for street, so that was how I first thought of the 45mm. But, the more I used it — and in different situations — the more I realized how versatile this focal length actually is. Over the 3+ years I’ve now owned this lens, I’ve taken it around the US, Europe, and Asia, and I’ve shot everything with it from architecture to food to portraits.
In the early days, I often shot wide-open at f/1.8 for the shallow depth of field. It was kind of a novelty — something I hadn’t had access to with my 17-35 f/2.8. I liked the look but found that I often needed a little more in focus and I gradually started stopping down a bit more unless I really wanted the effect. I have other lenses that I purposefully shoot at f/8 most of the time, just to ensure sharpness corner-to-corner. The Tamron 45mm is amazingly sharp at any f-stop, so it was never a real concern of mine to stop down to improve sharpness. It was now more of a creative decision on how much depth of field the particular image needed.
Personally, I would be happy with a smaller lens. That’s where I still covet the Voigtlander 40mm pancake lens — it’s TINY, but also manual focus and with no vibration control. To be honest, I could easily live without VC on a 45mm lens for my type of shooting (I do appreciate it on a telephoto), but Tamron’s version of vibration control is my favorite of those that I have tried. Nikon’s has always felt a little “swimmy” through the viewfinder for me. Tamron’s feels like it really locks on and I don’t even notice it after a while. That’s the way it should be. So, if I want a smaller lens — there are options — but for great autofocus and VC, the size of the Tamron is perfectly acceptable.
I’ve come to really enjoy this lens and I see it having a place in my bag for a long time to come. I generally only travel with two zooms: the 17-35mm and a 70-200mm Tamron. For the midrange — 35-70mm — I tend to prefer having some nice, fast primes. The Tamron 45mm fits that need perfectly.
Have a look for yourself. Below is a gallery of a variety of shots I’ve taken with the Tamron 45mm over the past couple of years. As I think you’ll see, it excels at pretty much everything I can throw at it, from food to people to architecture:
