Tamron Ditching Sony A-Mount For Sony E and Fuji X Lenses?

Last Updated on 10/16/2017 by Chris Gampat

This could a fantastic move for Tamron!

Now here is some interesting chatter that cropped up over the weekend! In what shouldn’t really be all that surprising of a move, it is being reported that Tamron will be ceasing their own lens development in regards to the Sony A Mount. Instead, the word is they will be shifting their focus to a couple of other lens mounts.

According to the report over on Sony Alpha Rumors, citing an “unofficial talk”, Tamron has shut down all development going forward in regards to their A Mount lenses and future lenses for the A Mount they may have been working on. Instead, according to this “unofficial talk”, Tamron will shift their attention to the Sony E and Fujifilm X mirrorless systems for future lens development.

This is bigger news for Fujifilm shooters than it is for Sony shooters. In general using non-brand glass on Sony has been easier, with AF adapters from Canon and other third party lens options quickly making that system one of the more robust mirrorless lens ecosystems. However, on the Fujifilm side of things the pickings have been much slimmer. Zeiss tried and failed with their Touit line of Fujifilm compatible lenses (but those were really doomed because Fuji already had lenses at those focal lengths optically as good for cheaper), and beyond that some obscure Chinese and Korean lens makers have launched fuji compatible manual focus lenses.

But it would be something if Tamron entered the Fujifilm system with some high quality alternatives to the Fujinon lenses. Since this is all unofficial, it would entirely be speculation to try and guess what sort of niche Tamron would try to fill in the Fuji system – but chances are, since they are supposedly developing for both Sony and Fuji, a safe place to start guessing would be in both the Fuji and Sony APS-C lens systems because this would allow Tamron to effectively design one lens and sell it to both markets (with the different mounts of course). This would be similar to what they already do with Canon and Nikon lenses – just in the mirrorless world, with Sony and Fuji.

It will be interesting to see if this comes to fruition or not. As good as Fujifilm’s lenses are, having more options is never a bad thing.