tamron adaptall lenses

which of this type of lens would be the ones to go for for quality and performance in zoom ,telephoto, & wide angle? looked at previous posts, which were informative, but would like a list to go looking for on our fvae auction site or indeed our own excellent classifieds.

I don't know if you are in the market currently, but in the classifieds at the moment I am advertising an Adaptall 180SP f2.5. This is a legendary lens built as a limited edition that would give the 200mm DA* a close run for its money. Possibly the sharpest lens Tamron ever made.

I am not an expert on all things Tamron but other lenses that are generally very highly thought of include:

(1) 90mm SP macro lens - especially the original all-metal version, which is built like a tank and can still hold its own against modern lenses.

(2) 500mm SP mirror lens - if mirror lenses are your thing (they have their pro's and con's) this one is generally readily available, and about as good as they get.

As a general rule, the "SP" lenses were supposed to be of higher quality than the rest of the Adaptall range, and were at their time considered to be of high quality - closer to the camera manufacturer's standards than some other third party manufacturers.

I only have limited experience of the Adaptall-2 lenses but the ones I've owned have had good to very good image quality. I've only owned the 80-210mm f3.8-4 (very good lens), the 90mm f2.5 (brilliant lens) the 500mm f8 (very good considering the relatively low cost) and the 60-300mm f4-5.6 (my copy didn't seem so great, but this model gets rave reviews on some sites).

Having said that from what I've read most of the Adaptall-2 series ranges from pretty good to downright awesome.

http://adaptall-2.org/ has plenty of info.

Basically anything with an "SP" will be a good performer, of course some designs are more sought after than others & the price will reflect this.

The SP 35-80mm F2.8-3.8 is outstanding and probably the lens I use most.
Also very happy with the SP 300mm F2.8 Model 360B.
bb2

I couldn't agree more! I bought one when they were first released (83 or 84, I think) for use with my FR1. It cost me a relative fortune at the time, but I never regretted spending the money and some of my best slide images were taken with this sharp, contrasty and versatile lens, which had excellent close-focus ability to boot! I cherished it for years and only parted with it, reluctantly, a couple of years ago.

Of the other Adaptall 2 lenses I have used over the years my next best 'favourite' would have to be the 90mm SP Macro, which justified its fine reputation in practice although the build quality became less impressive in the later variants.

All this talk about Adaptall 2 lenses has made me feel nostalgic for the days when I shot exclusively reversal film and, after what seemed an interminable delay, would fumble nervously with the box of processed slides delivered by the postie to see if any would pass muster: which they often did, IMHO.

Jon