Phase One introduces 3.5/45 mm Tilt / Shift lens
Phase One today have launched the 3.5/45 mm Tilt/Shift lens. Specially designed for the professional
photographer, this small, lightweight lens is ideal for location or
studio applications. It offers up to 12 mm shift and 8 degrees tilt for
maximum flexibility. When used with the Phase One 645 camera…
Tamron announces new Di lenses for Canon and Nikon
Tamron today have announced two new Di lenses designed for exclusive use on Canon and Nikon (with Built-in AF Motor) small sensor DSLR cameras The SP AF10-24mm Di II, the first-ever ultra wide-angle lens for digital SLRs, features a focal length range with the 16mm ultra wide-angle to 37mm…
Nikon release the AF-S DX 18-105mm F/3.5-5.6G ED VR
The AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-105mm F/3.5-5.6G ED VR is a new lens designed to partner Nikons
D90 DSLR. The Nikkor 18-105mm lens offers a focal length equivalent to
27 to 157.5mm in 35mm format, built-in Vibration Reduction and Silent
Wave Motor, and…
Tamron announces three Di Full-Size Format lenses
Tamron today have announced the availability dates of three new Di lens series in
Full-Size Format. The Tamron SP AF90mm F/2.8 Di MACRO for Nikon is a
high-performance macro lens but also as a medium telephoto lens
suitable for all photographic applications including landscape and
portraiture. (The lens is already available…
Nikon Wins European Professional Lens with 2 lenses
Both the Nikon AF-S Nikkor 14-24mm and Nikon AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8 G ED lenses have won the EISA Professional lens for 2008-2009.
Description
This
pair of Nikkor zooms represents the ideal optical partnership to equip
Nikon’s professional full frame cameras. Covering a broad focal range
at f/2.8, and delivering very high optical…
Canon announces EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS lens
Canon today has also introduced
the EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Zoom lens. With an equivalent focal
length of 29-320mm, the lens offers 11x zoom range. It also features a
16 element, 12 group construction including UD and aspherical lens
elements and a 4-stop optical Image Stabilizer. This lens has answered…
Di II: Lenses are designed for exclusive use on digital cameras with smaller-size imagers and inherit all of the benefits of our Di products. These lenses are not designed for conventional cameras and digital cameras with image sensors larger than 24mm x 16mm.
The SP AF17-50mm F/2.8 is a lightweight, compact, fast standard zoom lens designed exclusively for digital SLR cameras, expanding the product concept of the popular SP AF28-75mm F/2.8 zoom lens.
In addition, portrait shots are made beautiful with the natural out-of-focus effect characteristic provided by the fast F/2.8 aperture. Additionally, a broader photographic expression through the use of faster shutter speeds as a result of the maximum aperture offers enhanced photographic pleasure. The lens boasts one of the best close-up shooting performances in the class of fast standard Zoom lenses designed exclusively for digital cameras and featuring an F/2.8 maximum aperture throughout the entire zoom range, to ensure stress-free photographic shots at all focal lengths and distances.
Replacing you standard zoom with this one will be a great way to get sharper images from a well-built lens.
(more in-depth review coming soon)
Why should you care what I think?
My relationship with this item: I have borrowed a friends Where did you buy this item?: N/A Price paid: 0 When did you buy this item?: N/A
Conclusions at a glance
Would you recommend this Item: Yes Pros: Good build, affordable fast zoom (f/2.8) Cons: Not consistent across the range
User Lens Reviews
Average user rating from: 63 user(s)
Overall rating (weighted)
4.2
Sharpness
4.2
Build Quality
4.2
AF Speed
4.3
Value for Money
4.2
Add new review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful
Excellent Value, Thursday, 04 September 2008
Overall rating (weighted)
4.5
Sharpness
4.0
Build Quality
5.0
AF Speed
5.0
Value for Money
4.0
This lens is a great value. Sharp, high Contrast images even at large apertures. Great for portraits, landscapes and general "walkaround" photography. Appears to have a warmer Color balance than my Canon 28-135mm lens. I noticed some Chromatic aberration at small apertures, f/16, f/22 (other reviews do not concur with this). I'm guessing this lens was optimized for use at large apertures.
Has a quality, solid feel for its price. The zoom ring rotates in the opposite direction to other canon zooms, which can be annoying if not used often. I feel safe using this often with it's 6-year warranty.
My other Canon lens Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM Standard Zoom Lens for Canon SLR Cameras seems to have a more neutral color balance, lower contrast and less chromatic Aberration at small apertures, so I'll be sticking with that for product photography.
The comparable Canon lens to this, Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM Lens for Canon DSLR Cameras is almost $600 more. I don't think that it is $600 better - maybe if it were $300-400 more than this lens it would be competitive.
If you don't have money to burn this is an excellent lens.
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Not So Great Lens, Friday, 22 August 2008
Overall rating (weighted)
2.0
Sharpness
2.0
Build Quality
1.0
AF Speed
2.0
Value for Money
3.0
Own this lens but very disappointed with the image quality. My cheap Canon 50mm f1.8 lens produced much superior images. Would probably trade-in for Canon 16-35mm or 17-40mm lens in the near future.
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0 of 0 people found the following review helpful
Tamron 17-50 Lens - Alright if you don't use it mu, Sunday, 17 August 2008
Overall rating (weighted)
2.8
Sharpness
3.0
Build Quality
3.0
AF Speed
3.0
Value for Money
2.0
I am not impressed by this lens. I, once again, should have waited until I could afford the Nikon 17-55 f/2.8 before I bought this lens. I shoot NASCAR Whelen All American Series races at a local short track on Saturday nights. On the average night I shoot approximately 400-600 shots. I didn't use this lens for very much else, but within 2 months it already went downhill. Hopefully I might be getting it back from Tamron soon. At the point where I sent it back, the lens was Vignetting where it hadn't before and every now and then the aperture failed to open.
As far as sharpness goes, I think it's wonderful. This lens is definitely not made for lots of shooting. It's built very light as compared to the Nikon variant. I compared the photos from this lens to the photos from the Nikon and they were very close as far as sharpness goes. In my opinion this is the best lens Tamron has produced. But, that isn't saying much.
If you're a casual shooter, this lens is for you. If you like to shoot a few hundred frames a week, I would not recommend it. After it gets back from being repaired I will update this if things get better. I'm not expecting much, though.
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Sharp lens, iffy focus, Monday, 28 July 2008
Overall rating (weighted)
3.3
Sharpness
4.0
Build Quality
2.0
AF Speed
4.0
Value for Money
3.0
From the first shots I took with this lens I was amazed by the sharpness. To my eye it looked much better than my 28-135 lens -- when it's in focus, it's great. But the focus is the problem, for my copy at least, on a 40D, the autofocus was all over the map. In normal shooting I was noticing that the focus was way off way too often, my subject would be out of focus or just barely in focus, and the ground close to me or stuff in the background would be perfectly sharp. So I did some controlled tests and found that even in ideal conditions it was missing the correct focus on more than 1 in 3 shots. As in focus bad enough that the correct focus point was just on the edge of or outside the in focus DoF more than 1/3rd of the time. It looked like there was a tendency to front focus at the 50 end (which was what I was noticing in real world shooting) and back focus at the 17 end (which was just making landscapes soft), but overall I'd say it just tended to be really inconsistent, missing in either direction from one shot to the next. I also had a lot of exposure problems with this lens, but it's the widest lens I've shot with so I don't know if that's the lens or the camera.
If you're willing to take multiple shots of everything, or manually focus, or if you get a better copy or if it works better on other bodies . . . as I say, when it's in focus it's a really nice, sharp lens. It hooked me on the first shots, enough so that I was willing to overlook the misfocused ones as flukes or user error. Then I started thinking, it's a bargain lens, when it does get it right it gets it really right. But after a couple weeks worth of looking at missed shots it wasn't worth it to me any more.
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0 of 0 people found the following review helpful
Sharp lens, iffy focus, Monday, 28 July 2008
Overall rating (weighted)
3.5
Sharpness
3.0
Build Quality
3.0
AF Speed
4.0
Value for Money
4.0
From the first shots I took with this lens I was amazed by the sharpness. To my eye it looked much better than my 28-135 lens -- when it's in focus, it's great. But the focus is the problem, for my copy at least, on a 40D, the autofocus was all over the map. In normal shooting I was noticing that the focus was way off way too often, my subject would be out of focus or just barely in focus, and the ground close to me or stuff in the background would be perfectly sharp. So I did some controlled tests and found that even in ideal conditions it was missing the correct focus on more than 1 in 3 shots. As in focus bad enough that the correct focus point was just on the edge of or outside the in focus DoF more than 1/3rd of the time. It looked like there was a tendency to front focus at the 50 end (which was what I was noticing in real world shooting) and back focus at the 17 end (which was just making landscapes soft), but overall I'd say it just tended to be really inconsistent, missing in either direction from one shot to the next. I also had a lot of exposure problems with this lens, but it's the widest lens I've shot with so I don't know if that's the lens or the camera.
If you're willing to take multiple shots of everything, or manually focus, or if you get a better copy or if it works better on other bodies . . . as I say, when it's in focus it's a really nice, sharp lens. It hooked me on the first shots, enough so that I was willing to overlook the misfocused ones as flukes or user error. When it kept happening I started thinking, it's a bargain lens, when it does get it right it gets it really right. But after a couple weeks worth of looking at missed shots it wasn't worth it to me any more.
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Replacement for the Canon 18-55mm kit lens, Wednesday, 23 July 2008
Overall rating (weighted)
4.5
Sharpness
4.0
Build Quality
5.0
AF Speed
4.0
Value for Money
5.0
Never having had my hands on a Canon L lens, I can't make any valid comparisons. I will say this though, if this lens is noticably lacking in the "feel" of a more expensive L lens, then those lenses must be wonders indeed. It is not lacking in the area of feel and quality at all. I'm not sure it is even fair to compare it to the cheap feeling kit lens which this one replaced on my 20D. There is no comparision at all.
I shoot 100% RAW and in my post processing (Canon DPP and Photoshop CS2) I have not seen any evidence of CA, flare or vignetting. I have looked but even blown up, I do not see those problems even on the many shots I have made at lower f-stops down to and including f/2.8. If they're there, they're not enough to consider if you can't see them. Just might be slight differences in different copies of the lens. Who knows.
I have never had the pleasure of experiencing Canon's USM AF but I know that the AF in the original Canon kit lens I had was better than some lenses I had used on my previous film EOS SLR and this Tamron is noticably better than the kit lens at speed and accuracy. Yes, it is a little noisy but I can live with that. After a few shots, you tend to forget about the sound. At least I have so it's not noticable. Perhaps to my photo subjects, but not to me.
I did some focus tests (the 45 deg angled calibrated chart test) looking for any signs of front or back focus and this lens focuses right on the target line consistantly. I also did some test comparing the sharpness with that of the kit lens (fair test or not?) and as expected, this one is sharper at f/2.8 than the EF-S 18-55mm kit lens is stepped down a couple of stops. No news there. That's what I expected and wanted. I also now shoot with the 20D Set to Parameter 2 (all neutral) and my needed adjustments in post processing the RAW image are fairly minimal and more for taste than technical corrections.
Shortly after getting this lens I took it with me on a trip to Quebec City and ended up photographing a lot of the same scenery I had photographed a couple of years ago using the Canon kit lens. Now perhaps I just becoming a better photographer, but the dramatic difference in the quality of the shots this trip vs. the previous one speaks for the differences between the lenses used.
Negatives for this lens? From my point of view, nothing I can come up with yet.
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Excellent standard zoom, Saturday, 28 June 2008
Overall rating (weighted)
4.0
Sharpness
5.0
Build Quality
4.0
AF Speed
4.0
Value for Money
3.0
Very nice lens. Tack sharp wide open, light weight for a f/2,8, nice color and contrast. I considered this or the Canon 17-55IS. I picked this one because of the price, and I'm thrilled with it. The only downside is AF. It's noisy and slow compared to USM lenses from Canon, but the thing I miss the most is the FTM you get with USM/HSM lenses.
Handles well. The zoom ring is nice. However, the MF ring is not too good, but with the lack of FTM, I find myself not using it so much.
Construction quality is decent, but it's certainly not a Canon L or Sigma EX.
Apart from some minor downsides, it's a great lens capable of delivering amazing IQ. I don't give it a 5 star rating because of the AF.
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Canon who?, Tuesday, 24 June 2008
Overall rating (weighted)
5.0
Sharpness
5.0
Build Quality
5.0
AF Speed
5.0
Value for Money
5.0
This is my first ever Tamron purchase. Apparently in the past they made mediocre lenses, but that seems to have changed recently, and this lens seems to confirm it. Images are SHARP, SHARP, SHARP. Color is good, contrast is good, and there's almost no picture degradation on the outer edges, even at f/2.8. No color bleed, no fringing. It's almost too good -- I can see every little skin cell and blemish on someone's face. I can see every little grain on my grandma's leather purse. I can see every little teeny leaf in a far-off tree. It's a vast improvement over Canon's standard 18-55mm kit lens, and better than Canon's mid-grade too. Granted, I haven't tried the famous L series lenses from Canon, but this is about half the price and likely as good.
Cons: everyone complains about the focusing noise. That doesn't bother me at all -- I get used to almost anything. If silence is a factor then go with Canon. Otherwise, the Tamron AF17-50mm f/2.8 does about everything you'd ever want.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Great Lens, especially for the price, Friday, 13 June 2008
Overall rating (weighted)
4.0
Sharpness
4.0
Build Quality
4.0
AF Speed
4.0
Value for Money
4.0
I purchased this lens a few months ago. I was looking for a lens to replace my kit lens (18-55mm, non-IS). I was looking at this lens and the 17-40/f4L Canon. I had a tough time deciding but this lens won out b/c of the speed. I wanted the 2.8 since I figure this lens would be used indoors and in low light. I have the 50mm f/1.8 which is a great lens too, but indoors its way too long most of the time.
Initially I was mixed on the lens. For whatever reason, it seemed like I was missing focus. I'm a medium level hobbiest, so I understand the fundamentals pretty well. I never had this type of problem before. I tested the lens with focus tests and worked out fine. So I don't know if I hit a weird period where I just was missing focus on anything that moved or wasn't stationary.
I took this lens on a trip recently, it stayed on my camera the whole time, and it did a great job! Most of shots were excellent and I didn't run into the focus problem I initially did. I was kind of worried. I think the IQ is pretty good on the lens and definitely beats out my copy of the kit lens. For the price, its a good deal in my opinion.
The bad things:
* Loud focus - loader than I expected, but I have the 50mm f/1.8 which is also fairly loud * Focus hunt - Run into this a little more than I expect. I understand this will happen in trying situations, but in some situations I felt shouldn't be too trying, it would focus hunt. Not so bad most of the time though * Slight Hue Cast on photos - I noticed that there is a slight orange/yellow cast on photos, not a big deal as its easily fixed in post processing, or it sometimes adds to the photo
The Good: * Price - Great price * Speed - I love the 2.8 aperture * Good focal range - I like that it pretty much replaces my kit lens. The 17-40L which was my alternative would have been a little short on the tele side * Great IQ - My images are sharp and I like the overall IQ. It doesn't quite match up to the 50mm f/1.8, but it comes close and for me at least, beats out the kit lens
Overall, I'd still get this lens. THe first month or so, I was wondering about it mainly b/c it seemed like my focus was always off. I guess it was just me as I took over 700 pics on my summer vacation and focus was just fine. I also used this lens for a ballet recital. It wasn't quite long enough for where we were sitting, but it did very well in low light and didn't have too many problems. I had a few more instances of focus hunting, but that would be expected given the conditions.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
great lens, Thursday, 12 June 2008
Overall rating (weighted)
5.0
Sharpness
5.0
Build Quality
5.0
AF Speed
5.0
Value for Money
5.0
Agree with all the positive feedback. Very good walk around lens. Only wish it is 17-85mm.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
great!, Friday, 18 April 2008
Overall rating (weighted)
5.0
Sharpness
5.0
Build Quality
5.0
AF Speed
5.0
Value for Money
5.0
I just purchased this lens. I LOVE it! I wanted something that was a little wider than the 28-74 (or whatever that is) but still had the 2.8. I was a little worried about going with Tamron vs. Canon, but for the price difference it was worth a try. Its very sharp and the colors are great!
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Sharp, so long as you know the rules, Monday, 14 April 2008
Overall rating (weighted)
4.3
Sharpness
3.0
Build Quality
5.0
AF Speed
4.0
Value for Money
5.0
I got this to replace the kit lens from Canon, and I agonized for months over whether to get this, the Sigma or (outside chance) Tokina.
I ended up with Tamron because it seemed to have fewer complaints about sharpness.
The lens is quite well built, easy to use, and, if used properly, quite sharp.
But to get that sharpness, you have to play by the varifocal rules. That means that if you want a really sharp 17mm photo, zoom to 50, focus, hold that focus as you widen back to 17, then shoot.
Seems cumbersome, right? It can be. But in checking between photos done that was or just at 17mm, there's a significant difference in sharpness _when you magnify/crop the image_.
I asked around a few forums, and folks seemed to agree that most zoom lenses are like this. I just hoped that the technology had improved to address this.
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
FANTASTIC! IT WORTHS EVERY PENNY! NO REGRET! ONLY , Sunday, 06 April 2008
Overall rating (weighted)
4.8
Sharpness
4.0
Build Quality
5.0
AF Speed
5.0
Value for Money
5.0
Dear photographers friends, I am a Canon guy and this is my first third party lens. I confess that I was afraid of leaving Canon's dome and take the risk however, I CAN SAY WITH 100% OF SURE THAT I AM PRETTY MUCH HAPPY WITH MY TAMRON 17-50MM F/2.8 DI II LD. IT IS AWESOME!!! SHARP, SHARP, SHARP! TACK SHARP!!! And that is not all about this beauty! The F/2.8 aperture throughout all the focal length is wonderful! In my opinion this lens rivals Canon's L series. I have just come from NY where I took a bunch of shot during four days for iStockPhoto and all of them are fantastic! Contrast, sharpness etc is nothing less than perfection. The only thing that is a Bit strange is the noise it makes when focusing. Well, it does not bother me at all because I did not buy this lens for wildlife shots. If you intend to photograph wildlife, this lens is not for you because of its makes a loud noise when focusing in Automatic Focus mode and will certainly scare all the wildlife around you. Otherwise, if you intend to take architecture and portraiture photos then BUY, BUY, BUY this lens without any fear...
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
simply the best bang for your buck, Saturday, 05 April 2008
