Tamron SP AF 28-75mm F2.8 XR Di LD Aspherical (IF)

I am beyond disappointed with this lens. After borrowing a friends Canon 24-70, this is like a ham sandwich compared to a steak dinner! I did all of my research before commiting to this lens. Including reading all of the reviews on this site. When the lens came in the first thing that I noticed is that the lens felt cheap. Not sturdy like the canon. No internal zoom. Plastic casing, and smaller size. Then I saw that the turning zoom is opposite from what I am used to. When I want to zoom in, out of habit I turn the wrong way. But I can get past these differences. However, when I used it for what I purchased it for (action photography)I was close to tears! I take recital photos during dance recitals. The F stop of 2.8 should have allowed for stop action with crisp photos(like the Canon). This just did NOT happen. I can't retake these photos! I cannot WAIT until Monday! I will be at UPS waiting for them to OPEN so that I can return this lens. Sometimes trying to save money just isn't worth the headache. Note to self, you get what you paid for. Even if you paid more then the product was worth. p.s. I hope to have my new Canon 24-70 in hand by the next recital. In the long run, it will pay for itself tenfold.

I really like this lens. I have had some trouble with it, however. Every once in a while it will freeze and give me an F-- error (that is the how the actual error dispalys, I promise! :). I have sent it in to Tamron, and they were very helpful, however, even after getting it back, it will still sometimes give me this error. It is occasional, but when you're just about to get that perfect shot and it happens, it's quite annoying. I would have to say Tamron was easy to deal with and the lens takes excellent pictures. I am happy and would still recommend this product to friends.

I really wanted to like this lens and on a independant product site on lenses this had a good review. Some others on amazon have rated it highly. The lens certainly has a solid build on all exterior surfaces. I tested the lens outdoors in sunlight, cloudy days, indoors with and without a flash. I shot with a variety of shutter speeds, f-stops, and modes. In the end though when looking at images at 1:1 the were unacceptably soft. The images may have been OK for the web or small prints, but for a lens in this price range I was expecting more. The time estimate for the lens to be recalibrated was longer than I wished to wait. I may have received a lens with QA problems or some other type of processing problem. I am currently looking at other lenses.

For half the price of the OEM Canon 24-70mm 2.8 lens, it does exactly the same thing. So why spend more? this is a MUST for cinematographers & photographers!

Well, I like others, did not want to like this lens. I wanted an excuse to buy an L series lens, the 24-70. I rented it just to SEE if I liked it but I expected that it would just take "ok" pictures and that I would still want the Canon. That said, I REALLY liked this lens. I had it for a week, I shot 4 portrait sessions - a newborn, 3 month old, 4 year old, and a maternity session. I was so happy with ALL of my photos, great bokeh and the colors were so good! The quality of this lens really helped cut down my editing time. I shot a session in the morning and by that afternoon, i had 70 something pictures to give to the client because all I had to do was a few minor adjustments and we were good to go. The lens was really sharp and just the right amount of DOF, I could center focus on the eyes and the whole body of the kid I was photographing would be in focus with the background just blurry enough. I pretty much shot at f 28 the whole time but I did some landscape photos with various other apertures and was pleased with those photos as well. I haven't used the 24-70 Canon lens, so I can't compare directly with it, but I have friends that use it and comparing my pictures with theirs at similar apertures and subjects, the Tamron held it's own. I am just starting out so I can't justify the $1400 for the Canon right now but I plan on purchasing the Tamron and maybe a Canon in the future. I am super happy with this lens!