WHAT’S NEW
Instant
attractIon
tamron
celebrates
40 Years of
sP lenses
To commEmorAT E 40 years of its ‘Superior
Performance’ (SP) series lenses, Tamron has
launched a modern version of one of its classic
designs, the 35mm f1.4 fast wide-angle prime.
The new 35mm f1.4 (Model 045) incorporates many
of the latest optical technologies and Tamron describes
it as its “ultimate lens”. The company also says that
it represents “...the distillation of Tamron’s accumu-
lated lens-making expertise and craftsmanship”.
Designed for full-35mm format D-SLRs, the new
SP 35mm f1.4 Di USD prime’s optical construction
comprises14 elements in ten groups, which includes
a total of seven special types – four made from
optical glass with low-dispersion (LD) characteristics
and three aspherical elements created via the glass
moulding (GM) process. Consequently, Tamron says,
exceptional uniformity of sharpness and brightness
is maintained even when shooting wide-open at
f1.4. The new lens also employs Tamron’s next-gen
BBAR-G2 (‘Broad-Band Anti-Reflection Generation 2’)
multi-coating for even more effective suppression of
both flare and ghosting, ensuring enhanced contrast.
The external construction is weather-sealed and a
fluorine coating is applied to the exposed surface of
the front element to help repel moisture and grease,
while also enabling easier cleaning.
Autofocusing is via Tamron’s ‘Ultrasonic Silent
Drive’ (USD) with the addition of an all-new ‘Dynamic
Rolling-cam’ mechanism that’s designed to minimise
the drive load on the focus lens component to give
more stable and reliable AF operation. The lens also
has a full-time manual override, and the minimum
focusing distance is 30 centimetres, giving a
maximum magnification ratio of 1:5. The minimum
aperture is f16 and a nine-blade diaphragm gives
smoother out-of-focus effects. The screwthread
filter fitting is 72 millimetres. The lens is compatible
with Tamron’s ‘TAP-In Console’ which enables
firmware upgrades along with fine-tuning adjust-
ments to the autofocusing.
The new SP 35mm f1.4 weighs in at 815 grams
and is available in the Nikon F and Canon EF mounts.
It’s supplied with bayonet-fit lens hood and its own
lens pouch.
Tamron lenses are distributed in Australia
by Blonde Robot. For more information visit
http://www.tamron.com.au
commENT
f all the analog-era film
products, the instant print
has been the most enduring.
It simply never went away,
despite the demise of its
chief protagonist (Edwin
Land’s original Polaroid)
and the swamping of photo-chemical
photography by digital imaging.
Right now there are more instant print
cameras to choose from than was ever the
case at the height of Polaroid’s popularity in
the 1960s and ’70s. Aside from the many
branding exercises of the last couple of
decades, the ‘real Polaroid’ is back as the
appropriately named Polaroid Originals,
and with an appealing revival of the
OneStep camera from 1977. There are
numerous versions in various colour
schemes and themes, but PO also offers
refurbished SX-70s, 600 series cameras
and Spectra models.
Fujifilm – which has largely been
responsible for keeping the instant print
fires burning brightly – now has a big range
of cameras under the Instax brand with
the Mini, Wide and Square formats. Instax
formats are at the heart of quite a number
products ranging from the Leica Sofort to
an instant version of the ‘plastic fantastic’
Diana. In fact, the Lomography catalogue
is absolutely bulging with instant cameras- notably the Lomo’Instant models in the
Instax Square, Wide and Mini formats, and
each in too many guises to list here. Fujifilm
is also bringing the instant camera into the
21st century with its hybrid SQ models –
which capture a digital file and then you can
choose whether to print it or not – and the
new Instax Mini LiPlay which works with
an app to add ten seconds of audio to an
image played back via a smartphone.
Another company specialising in refurbs
of Polaroid classics such as the SX-70 is
MiNT (visit https://mint-camera.com), but
arguably more interesting are its own
in-house designs, the InstantFlex SL70 and
the recently-announced InstantKon RF70.
The vast majority of instant cameras are
point-and-shoot types with fixed-focus
lenses and, maybe, a simple lighten/darken
exposure adjustment, but both the TL
and RF70 offer more scope for manual
control of both focusing and exposure
control. Both even have a proper built-in
exposure meter.
The InstantFlex TL70 is an instant film
TLR – a world first, by the way – which uses
the Instax Mini format and is classically
styled, but with a hint of the contemporary
in its clean lines. The InstantKon RF70 is
also based on a classic camera configura-
tion – this time the bellows-type ‘folder’- but uses the Instax Wide format which
delivers a much bigger print.
All the instant cameras mentioned so
far use a traditional self-developing photo-
graphic print film, but there are also quite a
number of models which use a contempo-
rary version of the instant print film based
on ‘Zero Ink Printing Technology’ (ZINK for
short). ZINK prints employ heat-sensitive
colour dyes in layers and, interestingly, this
technology’s development began at the
original Polaroid Corporation back in the late
1990s. Ironically too, there are a couple of
Kodak-badged cameras which are ZINK-
based, including the delightfully-named
Printomatic (although it really should be
Print-O-Matic, shouldn’t it?).
So what’s behind our on-going fascination
with instant print photography, particularly
when digital capture is doing essentially the
same thing (and generally much better too)?
Edwin Land began what became a 30-year
quest to perfect his ‘one step’ instant colour
film after his young daughter wondered why
she couldn’t see a photograph immediately
after it was taken. Children are still amazed
by the immediate delivery of a print – and,
indeed, are major consumers of Instax Mini
cameras – but it also has wider appeal,
especially as each is a one-off original.
That something so complex can happen
so simply is also an attraction and so,
just as well, is the often wonky colour
reproduction. It seems we can readily
forgive all the deficiencies of both camera
and medium in return for the short but
intensely engaging thrill that is the instant
print... long may it last.
Paul Burrows, Editor.