Tamron patents a stabilized 10mm f/2.8 fish-eye lens for APS-C sensors

Could Tamron soon unveil its first fisheye lens? It appears that the third-party lens maker is indeed working on such a lens, as the company has recently filed a patent for a 10mm f/2.8 fisheye lens for cameras with APS-C-sized sensors. So far, Tamrom is best known for its zoom lenses for DSLR cameras, which cover everything from wide-angles and travel-zooms up to long telephotos.

The patent application spotted by Egami describes a lens with a focal length of 9.712mm, an initial aperture of f/2.85, and a diagonal angle of view of 90°. The optical construction consists of 10 lenses in 8 groups, including LD glass and aspherical elements, although it is unclear from the machine translation as to how many exactly.

Thanks to an inner focusing system, the lens will be fast and silent focusing, which makes it suitable also for video recording. This would explain why Tamron chose to include a VR image stabilizer, which is otherwise uncommon for lenses with such a wide angle of view. For videography, however, it is a necessity in order to achieve shake-free footage.

As it always is with patents, this has to be taken with a grain of salt. There's no way of telling if and when this lens will come, and if it's going to be exactly as described in the patent. In any case though, it is noteworthy that Tamron is exploring other niches besides its main focus on zoom lenses.

(via Photo Rumors)