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Logo image of Tamron
1950
Japan

Tamron information and a brief history

It is a Japanese company producing camera lenses and other optical devices with initial name of Taisei Optical. In 1970 its name was changed into Tamron to remind the surname of Uhyoue Tamura who was a key people in deleveloping the company's technology.

About 12% of shares of Tamron are owned by Sony and infact many Tamron lenses are for Sony cameras.

It has subsidiary companies in other countries like in China, United States of America, Germany, Hong Kong and Russia.

Tamron lens abbreviations

Some of the tags Tamron uses in its lens naming are the following ones:

  • BBAR: BroadBand Anti-Reflection, a type of lens coating.
  • Di: Digitally Integrated, coating optimized for digital cameras.
  • LD: with a Low Dispersion glass.
  • OSD: with Optimized Silent Drive autofocus motor, less advanced than RXD.
  • RXD: with Rapid eXtra Silent autofocus motor, more advanced than OSD.
  • SP: Super Performance, for professional lenses
  • USD: with Ultrasonic Silent Drive autofocus motor, less advanded than RXD.
  • VC: with Vibration Compensation, i.e. image stabilization built-in the lens.
  • VXD: with Voice-coil eXtreme-torque Drive, a fast drive for focusing introduced in lenses since 2020.
Product TypeModels in Production / Total
Lens
Models: 34 , in production variants: 41 ,  discontinued variants: 21