My Bonanza Tamron Adaptall Lens Review and Resources!

Welcome to my Tamron Adaptall Bonanza article! Everything you need to know about the Tamron Adaptall series is here, from what it is, how to videos, loads of fun facts, my mini reviews of the 11 Tamron Adaptall lenses I bought over the last 4 years as well as some resources I've put together over that period, including those old school brochures AND a for-sale page right here!

My Existing Tamron Adaptall Lens Collection

Some Adaptall Lens Mounts I have

If you have found my page via Google, then I assume you know about the Tamron Adaptall lenses. If you do, you can skip the next section. BUT, if you really don't know what they are, well, you are in for an interesting history lesson (I'll keep it short. Promise).

Tamron today is a well known manufacturer of third party lenses. Probably the biggest. They make affordable alternatives for DSLRs lenses, such as the 10-24mm f3.5-4.5, 17-50mm f2.8, 24-70mm f2.8, 70-200mm f2.8, 90mm f2.8 macro and a few other lenses. They don't however make mirrorless lenses yet. I've used a few of them before (10-24, 18-200, 17-50) and found the 17-50mm f2.8 lens a real value for money. Now, I'll bring you all the way back to 1979. 

1979

Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize award. Jimmy Carter was the President of the US. "Just the Way You Are" by Billy Joel won the Grammy Record of the Year and the Bee Gees were still a hit. And Tamron markets their first Adaptall-2 lens. Why the "2"? The second generation of Adaptall lenses are the most popular and common Adaptall lenses you will see today. Much better optically than their predecessors, they offer excellent value for money, just like their modern day counterpart do.

So what so special about the Adaptall series? Back in 1979 (and obviously before), all cameras were film. All cameras were manual focus. Some cameras have auto exposure features, but was a luxury then. Because camera and lens mounts were not as complicated as what we have today, Tamron decided "Hey, let's make a lens that a user can keep even if they move systems!". So how do you do that? Make the lens mount swappable! Pure genius!

Some of the Adaptall-2 lenses. Source: adaptall-2.org

Tamron made their adaptable mounts on almost all (hence Adaptall) camera mounts of the day. There was the Canon FD, Nikon AI, Minolta MD, Olympus OM, Yashica, and not forgetting good old screwmount (M42) and whole lot more. One particular mount which has lasted through the 30+ years is the Pentax PKA mount. Even today you can still buy third party lens mount adapters from eBay for about USD15 for Canon EOS mount, Nikon mount, Sony E-mount and almost all modern cameras!

So What Happened?

Like the great dinosaurs, Adaptall lenses went extinct. Well, almost. Although the concept of the Adaptall is really awesome, there was one thing they were not able to cope with time, and that is Autofocus. When major brands like Canon decided to move to AF, they also decided to change their mounts and made all the contacts electronic. While Tamron did make an effort to make ONE Adaptall lens with autofocus (it ran on AA batteries!), the 70-210mm f4 lens it made was big and AF was simply sluggish. Because people demanded AF on their lenses, Adaptall lenses became less and less relevant to the market, and the last Adaptall lenses were discontinued in 2006, after 27 years in the market.

The Tamron Adaptall 70-210mm f4 AF lens. Source: mflenses forum

Today, Adaptall lenses are still in demand on eBay, mostly by Pentax users because Pentax is the only brand that did not change it's mount since after the m42 Spotmatic days! Of course, Pentax as a brand today is facing a questionable future, but that's another story to tell.

My Collection

My little collection started when I was still on my Pentax. I brought an Adaptall lens from eBay after reading about how affordable and good they were. I've been looking out for a telephoto and macro lens then and decided to buy the Tamron Adaptall-2 90mm f2.5 52BB, and that started my journey with the Adaptall series until I got my Fujifilm X-M1 camera.

My Adaptall collection includes 3 PKA lens mounts, which are rare and quite pricey now, and I am really fascinated by how they work. Mounting a Adaptall can be a challenge (especially the PKA mount) if you are doing it the first few times, but you'll get a hang of it.  The PKA is unique because with a push of a button, I can transform the mount into a PK mount, and allows me to choose the aperture settings manually through the lens aperture ring.

The Tamron Adaptall Pentax PKA mount

The Tamron Adaptall PK mount which does not have auto exposure functionality on modern day DSLR but it does have auto exposure on the Pentax film SLRs (thanks to Marcus from PentaxForums for correcting me!).

Because Adaptall lenses are made for film cameras, they are actually full frame lenses. The lenses come with Tamron's old multi-coating (named BBAR) but the 20 years old technology shows it's age compared to today's lens coating. So if you do buy an Adaptall, remember you are buying a lens made for film and set your expectations right. What you are buying is really the legacy of Tamron and the interesting focusing mechanisms of lenses more than two decades ago. All lenses were made in Japan, and most of the older ones are build like tanks due as they use lots of metal in for it.

How to Mount an Adaptall Lens?

Here's a video I made to show you how to easily mount and unmount.

Mini Reviews

Below are little reviews I have made for each lens I owned. For the lenses I still own, the sample photos are using my Fujifilm X-M1 with a PKA to Fujifilm X mount adapter. For those that I have sold, they are either taken with my Pentax k5 or Pentax k-x. You can check using the EXIF data in the photos. All sample photos (unless specified) are unedited. At the moment, I have not tested the lenses on full frame cameras.

Here's a shortcut to all the reviews. Note that most reviews will open a new article due to feedback that the current article loads too slowly because of the many photos I have here.

Tamron Adaptall-2 24mm f2.5 01BB
Tamron SP Adaptall-2 28-80mm f3.5-4.2 27A
Tamron Adaptall-2 35-70mm f3.5 17A
Tamron SP Adaptall-2 90mm f2.5 52BB
Tamron SP Adaptall-2 90mm f2.8 72BB
Tamron Adaptall-2 70-210mm f3.5 19AH
Tamron Adaptall-2 70-210mm f3.8-4 46A
Tamron Adaptall-2 70-210mm f4-5.6 158A
Tamron Adaptall-2 60-300mm f3.8-5.4 23A
Tamron SP Adaptall-2 2x Teleconverter 01F
Tamron Adaptall-2 1.4x Teleconverter 140F


 

Tamron SP Adaptall-2 90mm f2.5 52BB

Ah, the Tamron Adaptall-2 90mm f2.5. One of the cult classic lenses. It's very sharp even wide open and doubles as a good portrait lens. Made almost entirely of metal, it's rather heavy but well built.

It is a true macro lens with a 1:2 image magnification. Ironically, I loved this lens so much, I decided sell this lens to buy the later 72BB lens, which has a 1:1 image magnification. 

Tamron Adaptall-2 70-210mm f4-5.6 158A

The tiny zoom. Source: some where in the Internet.

What's this lens doing here? It's the smallest 70-210mm zoom lens ever made IMHO, and I bought one from eBay. And for the first time ever, the lens got lost in the mail from the US to Malaysia. So as a memory of the lens I paid for but never arrived, I have dedicated this one paragraph of my blog for it.

I brought the 46A lens in replacement (see review above), which is a bigger but had a better aperture range. Take a look at this forum here on a short discussion on both lenses. It's one of the last (if not the last) Adaptall lens ever made and Tamron actually made some autofocus versions of this lens for other mounts too. Ok, so I dedicated two paragraphs to this lens.



Tamron SP Adaptall-2 1.4x Teleconverter 140F

I got this teleconverter after reading great things about it and also the fact that the 01F's was heavy and image quality degradation was quite high (see review above). It was only after I bought it did I realize it did not fit any of my current lenses because of the longer back lens elements on most lenses.  This TC can only be fitted in specific prime lenses, including the 52BB which I sold and some of the telephotos ones like the 180mm f2.5. The only lens that I could use this TC on was the Adaptall-2 60-300mm f3.8-5.4 23A in MACRO mode after I have extended the focus out a little and the back lens element has moved away from the mount.

The very lonely Adaptall 140F Teleconverter

Guess The Lens

After looking at all those Astro dishes from my sample photos, let's see what you think about the following photos? Which Adaptall lens did I use to take this? Answer at the bottom of the page!

Guess the lens! Taken at 70mm

Guess the lens! Taken at 210mm

The Tamron Adaptall Family Obituary

Sounds a bit morbid, but it's all here. Every single Adaptall-2 lens ever manufactured.

All the Adaptall-2 models source: www.tamron.jp/en/data/lenses/list_dis.html

Resources

There are not many Tamron Adaptall resources online, but here's the ones I have compiled:

1. Adaptall-2.org - The number 1 go-to resource which has almost all lens reviews (except for four lenses). The reviews however are probably as old as the lenses, so when they say things like "the best", it meant the best 20 years ago.
2. Pentax Forums Adaptall-2 Lens Club - Pentax is the only modern DSLR mount that is able to provide full exposure reading with an Adaptall PKA mount, hence there is a popular following there. [Update: PentaxForums member Marcus has corrected me that some Nikon DSLRs can do full exposure reading on NAI mounts]
3. Pentax Forums Tamron Adaptall User Reviews - Good comprehensive user reviews of the lenses. Note that some reviews are quite old so, that raving review of a lens may not be so great today.
4. Hinman's blog - Another Pentax user and blogger, Hinman, has (or had) quite a collection of Adaptall lenses and wrote quite a bit about them. But I believe he has since moved on from Adaptall, but his blogs are still useful for real life reviews of the lenses.
5. Tremyfoel's blog - Good write up on the mounts here
6. My Adaptall catalog collection - While Adaptall-2.org has a collection of brochures from 1979, I have collected the 1985 and 1987 ones online. Probably the last lens catalog brochures printed by Tamron for the Adaptall series.

Bring your photography skills up another level. His photos speaks louder than words and he'll teach you how to do the same.

Adaptall Lenses For Sale!

You may ask why am I planning to sell my lenses? Well for one, my dry box is really running out of space. Number two is I already have my Fujifilm lenses covering the same range as the Tamron. Finally, I can't take sharp photos with my Adaptalls on my Fujifilm because of their weight and the fact there is no AF and image stabilization. :(

So I'm letting go of every lens except three. I'm keeping my 90mm since it's the only macro lens I have, my 2x TC for my macro lens and the 24mm for my future Spotmatic excursions! I'm selling all the following as a bundle and will ship anywhere in the world via Poslaju (Malaysia's EMS).

• 70-210mm f3.5 19AH
• 70-210mm f3.8-4 46A
• 60-300mm f3.8-5.4 23A
• 1.4x Teleconverter 140F 
• 1 x PKA lens mount
• 1 x Minolta MD lens mount

All lenses are working and has no fungus. There will be some dust (it's 20 years old!) on the lens elements and maybe some minor paint coming out, but overall it works fine. Send me a comment if you want to own a piece of history and we can setup a deal.

Oh, and if you have an Adaptall lens for sale, if you like, you can use my comments section here to advertise as I foresee lots of visitors coming over.

Summary

Tamron Adaptall lenses hold a unique story in the lens design history. While they are not as good optically as modern day lenses, they are not bad either. Issues like CA and low contrast are also common amongst older lenses, but with simple image editing on Lightroom and such, these problems can be minimized.

Finally, a big thank you for visiting my page. It's really been fun writing this and I hope you have gotten something out of it. Do visit my other pages and add me on Feedly or your favorite news readers as I have lots of other lens reviews and interesting stuff here.

*** Guess the Lens answer: It's not an Adaptall lens at all! It's the Fujifilm XC 50-230mm at 70mm and 210mm wide open. It's super sharp, contrasty and no CA visible. Comes with AF and Image Stabilizer. Of course, it's 3 to 4 times more expensive than the 19AH so you get what you pay for.