Tamron Adaptall-2 28mm f/2.5 BBAR MC (02B, 1979-1992)

Tamron Adaptall-2 28mm f/2.5
BBAR MC (02B, 1979-1992)

2017.06.20 - Published

2018.01.31 - Re-written

2022.09.12 - Re-written and re-uploaded

Tamron Adaptall-2

28mm f/2.5

BBAR MC

"With f/2.5, which is 25% brighter than f/2.8. Despite its compact size, it features high-contrast imagery. Two concave and two convex lenses are arranged appropriately in the front and rear groups, respectively, to suppress the occurrence of flare. Clear image quality is obtained over the entire screen even when the aperture is wide open. The shortest shooting distance is 0.25m."

Model - 02B

Years Produced - 1979 - 1992

System - Adaptall 2

Minimum Focusing - 25cm

Focus Throw - 120 degrees

Filter Thread Ø - 49mm

Hood - 22FH

Aperture Run - f/2.5 - f/32

Clicks between f-stops

# Diaphragm Blades - 5

Optical Formula - 7 elements, 7 groups

Coating - BBAR Multi Coated
Made in Japan

VERSIONS

PFH-28Au (1972-1973)

28mm f/2.8 Adapt-A-Matic (7el/7gr)

https://www.tamron.co.jp/data/old-lens/lm28.htm

CW-28 (1976-1979)

28mm f/2.8 Adaptall (7el/7gr)

https://www.tamron.co.jp/data/old-lens/cw28.htm

02B (1979-1992)

28mm f/2.5 Adaptall-2 (7el/7gr)

https://www.tamron.co.jp/data/a2-lens/02b.htm

Photo Album

https://photos.app.goo.gl/o1RgMgtmihM2HPva8

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Impressions

Tamron's Adaptall system are lenses with an interchangeable mounts; you simply swap out the mount with another adapter. That way, you only need to buy one lens and can use it across different camera systems (eg. Canon FD, Nikon F, Pentax K, M42, Olympus OM, Minolta A, Minolta MD, and Konica AR, etc.) instead of having to buy the same lens for each of those cameras. The lens can be easily adapted to any DSLR or mirrorless cameras. There are genuine Adaptall adapters which enable auto diaphragm and meter coupling, but there are cheaper third party adapters which only allow manual-stop down.

The Tamron Adaptall-2 28mm f/2.5 (02B) wide angle lens was very popular and made for a long time from 1979 to 1992. On crop sensor cameras like my Nikon D5200, the lens becomes a standard 43mm but still wide enough. I do like it as an all-around prime lens than a 35mm.

The lens is solid and lightweight considering it was mostly metal, with only the aperture ring being plastic. Nothing about this lens says cheapo at all. The aperture ring and focus ring go the opposite directions. The weird thing was that the diaphragm blades only had 5 blades, it shows up as pentagonal-shaped bokeh balls in the background. See samples below.

The lens was known to produce sharp output at the widest f/2.5 aperture, and it became very popular because of the quality. This was the best vintage manual 28mm prime I've ever used. It was so good that it's also the one I used the most. What you get at f/2.5 are sharp images with good contrast and pleasing colors (a little bit cool) with no color fringing or aberrations showing up. The excellent BBAR multicoating keeps flares in control, you can see my sample shot wide open and still have a beautiful characteristic. You'll be happy to travel this lens without a hood.

Conclusion: This Tamron 28mm is the best 28mm prime lens and can be bought cheaply nowadays. It was a reliable buddy of my Nikon D5200 and they even did not separate for a long time.