Tamron Announces Development of Lightweight 70-180mm f/2.8 Lens for Sony E-Mount

In addition to releasing three sort-of-macro wide-angle prime lenses for its FE lineup, Tamron today also announced the development of the highly-anticipated f/2.8 telephoto zoom lens for the Sony E-Mount: the 70-180mm f/2.8 Di III VXD.

The lens—which has been thoroughly leaked alongside the three prime lenses announced today—will complete Tamron’s version of the “holy trinity” for Sony full-frame mirrorless shooters. It will join the already announced Tamron 17-28mm f/2.8 Di III RXD and Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 Di III RXD to complete the lineup of compact-but-capable f/2.8 zoom lenses that have thus far received such positive reviews.

Since this is only a development announcement, we didn’t get many details. Tamron explained that the lens—which will be on display at PhotoPlus Expo in NYC this week—was designed with the idea of “making high-speed zoom lenses user-friendly.” As such, it’s compact and lightweight, uses the same 67mm filter thread as its Tamron E-Mount siblings, boasts a short 33.5-inch minimum focusing distance, and uses Tamron’s newly developed Voice-coil eXtreme-torque Drive (VXD) linear focusing motor for “quiet, quick autofocus.” It’s also weather sealed, as you would expect.

The lens is scheduled to drop sometime in “Spring 2020,” and pricing is still TBD. To read all of the available details, check out the development announcement press release here.