Tamron AF 60mm F/2.0 Di II LD [IF] Makro 1:1

The Tamron SP AF 60mm f/2.0 Di II is a welcome addition to the range of 60mm macro lenses. It shows very high sharpness and pleasing bokeh, with its large aperture allows for nice subject separation and therefor qualifies for many more usages than just macro shots. CAs are a little on the high side, as is vignetting wide open, but that's the price one usually needs to pay for speed. The lens itself seems solid and is rather compact and light weight.

There's not much to criticise about this lens. Many would certainly have preferred a less noisy AF drive as it is available from the competition, but that's about it.

So, in summary, a very nice lens for an affordable price and certainly recommended to anyone considering a macro lens with this focal length.

Usually, the review would end here. In case of the Tamron SP AF 60 though we feel the need to add that our review unit showed significant underexposure. Consequently, it was sent in to Tamron Europe, and that is where the sad part of the story began.
At the time of the publication of this review, the lens is at Tamron Europe for 11 weeks now. During that time, we have received only one status update from Tamron after 4 weeks, which basically informed us that the lens has not been touched, yet. Any further request for additional information we sent thereafter, including a written complaint to the General Manager of Tamron Europe, remained unanswered.

Update Jan. 21, 2010: two days after the review was published we received a letter of apology concerning the lack of communication from Tamron, as well as the lens, which according to Tamron is without any error. Based on a re-test vs several similar lenses, including the Micro-Nikkor AF 60mm f/2.8, we tend to disagree here though.