If you’ve been a Tamron lens lover but really wanted their lenses to come to Canon RF mount, then you’re in luck. The Tamron 11-20mm f2.8 has come to the Canon RF mount. But if you’re like me, then you’re also probably a bit disappointed. Both Sigma and Tamron now support the Canon RF mount, but they do it only for APS-C camera models. That means that Canon probably wants to limit how third-parties work with them. To that end, we’re a bit disappointed — but not necessarily in Tamron. So we updated our 11-20mm review, and more details are below.
Here is the updated text from our Tamron 11-20mm f2.8 review below. If you want to read the entire thing, then please check out the full review at this link.
It mostly has to do with the fact that really, we don’t believe in the legitimacy of APS-C camera bodies for real photography anymore. They’re great for content creation — but so is your phone.
Update December 2024
In December 2024, we completed testing of the new version of this lens for Canon RF mount. We used it on the Canon EOS R7 briefly. However, we didn’t do very much testing as we traditionally would’ve in the past — and there’s good reason for that.
First off, know that if you purchase the Tamron 11-20mm lens, it will autofocus very well on Canon RF cameras. This is surprising to us as back in the DSLR days, the autofocus of third-party lenses wasn’t so great. But now, you can’t really tell the difference between how it works on a Sony, Nikon, Fujifilm, or Canon camera. At least, that’s the case for most — Fujifilm’s cameras are still caught in the stone age when it comes to autofcous. In this situation, that’s clearly not Tamron’s fault.
However, the photo industry is moving away from APS-C cameras for real photographers. Instead, APS-C is being continually bought up by people who use the cameras to be content creators instead. They’re also for a more entry-level and mass market appeal. In the eyes of a journalist who has done this for over 15 years, that’s a race to the bottom.
Canon perhaps wanted to protect their higher end cameras and so they only gave Tamron entry to their APS-C cameras first. But in reality, Canon is only hurting themselves.
You’re probably reading this update in 2025. And honestly, I wouldn’t bother with an APS-C camera if you consider yourself to be a real photographer. To that end, this lens and APS-C surely had their moment. But you should wait for Tamron’s better full-frame lenses to come to Canon instead.