Tamron Twin-Tele / Taisei Kogaku Tamron Twin-Tele 135mm f/2.8

Chris Bennett

Well-Known Member
Tamron Twin-Tele / Taisei Kogaku Tamron Twin-Tele 135mm f/2.8

I mentioned this lens briefly in my blog thread (Link: Notes from the Top Left Corner )

I have had the lens for well over a year now and have liked it but not really spent much time getting to know it properly. I've spotted flashes of greatness with, but never really 'learnt' it.


Twin tele parts.JPG

The earlier f/4.5 version seems a little more common than my 2.8 one. By all accounts, this was the first lens that really worked as well as buyers and reviewers hoped it might with a matching tele-convertor. It was also the design that gave Tamron its name. It was marketed under several model names aside from the Twin-Tele one - Converto-Tamron, Duo-Tamron.

Mine is a little tired cosmetically, but I think it is capable of producing some really great pictures.

It's a pre-set T-Mount and I adapt it to my Canon DSLR and a Sony, as well as using it with the Spotmatic M42 and a few Pentax K-mount bodies. The included tele-converter transforms it into a 225mm f/5.5.

Twin Tele extended.JPG

The aperture configuration will have some bokeh freaks wetting themselves, with its 12 blades.


I decided to spend a few days solely using the thing and had some fun in doing so. We spent Christmas over in North Lincolnshire, with spitting distance of the Humber bridge. A pre dinner walk took us to the local wildlife trust reserve and it got me obsessing about the sedges growing there.

Bridge sedge2.JPG

I already posted a similar one to this, with the bridge, on my blog thread, but this one, I like even more.


Pond sedge1.JPG
Moving on closer to the pond, I got these two (above and below).

Pond sedge2.JPG

We followed a creek that spills into the estuary within sight of the southern support tower.

Humber creek.JPG
 
Last edited:
Love that last one. My favourite though is the first of the two close-up shots of the sedges. The sense of movement makes it I think. Those reflections are very nice too.

This is proving to be an interesting and very capable lens.

Now, where are those pictures of Bexhill then?! ;)
 
Back
Top