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Lenses

Tamron 35-150mm f2-2.8 Review Update: The Weirdest Firmware

Chris Gampat
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Last updated on 02/28/2025
03/02/2025
2 Mins read
A Sony camera with a large zoom lens rests on a wooden surface, illuminated by sunlight.
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Tamron just did a very odd update to their 35-150mm f2-2.8 lens. This lens, which is still one of my favorites and one of the best for the Sony E mount, is really designed to be a workhorse. And when paired with the Sony a9 III, you get fantastic results. Truly, this lens is meant to do professional-grade work. So that’s why I’m so perplexed by this update. If anything, I don’t understand why Tamron didn’t update the firmware to make it even more capable. Could it be that that’s coming soon?

Below, you will find the updated text from our review. But you can find the full review here at this link. A special thanks goes to Lensrentals for loaning us the Sony a9 III for this review update.

Update February 2025

The Tamron 35-150mm f2-2.8 lens mounted to the Sony a9 III
The Tamron 35-150mm f2-2.8 lens mounted to the Sony a9 III

A new firmware is here! According to the details:

“With this new firmware update, AF performance during zooming is improved when shooting videos and still images in AF-C mode. Additionally, with the Sony α9 III, when the focus mode is set to AF-S, DMF, or MF, the lens will support continuous shooting at up to approximately 120 frames per second.”

To update the lens firmware, you have to use Tamron Lens Utility. Using Tamron lens utility is simple enough. All you have to do is boot up the program then connect the lens to the computer via USB. After this, just click on the update firmware feature and it’ll be done.

To be frank here, this is an odd update. Most Sony photographers I know leave their cameras on AF-C and just shoot. But the full functionality of the a9 III is only available when the lens is set to AF-S. We tested this for a period of around a second with both AF-C and AF-S. Sure enough, AF-C only gave us 23 images while AF-S gave us well over 100. Further, there are almost no situations that I’d shoot at AF-S at a super fast burst rate. Instead, I’d want the camera to continually track a subject like insects, people, etc.

A Sony camera with a large zoom lens on a wooden surface, illuminated by soft sunlight.
Sony camera with Tamron lens on a wooden surface, with bright sunlight and shadows creating a circular pattern.
A black Sony camera with a large lens sits on a round wooden table, illuminated by warm lighting.
Professional camera with a large lens resting on a wooden stool in dim lighting.

I’ve owned the Tamron 35-150mm f2-2.8 for years. And if anything, I’ve only ever really photographed people and products with this combo. That’s because by and large, this lens is meant to do serious work.

I’m so confused as to why this update was made. Sure, it can still autofocus while zooming – but it never had this problem to begin with.

I truly wish that Tamron had made this feature available when the camera was set to AF-C. Afterall, Tamron is partially owned by Sony. So why isn’t the full support there?

120 frames lens sony sony a9 III tamron tamron 35-150mm Tamron 35-150mm f2-2.8 Tamron 35-150mm F2-2.8 Di III VXD
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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