Very Sharp, Amazing color rendering (They look natural, the real color), Small size, Light, Easy to operate, great focal plane coverage. Got one on e-bay for $15.00, very happy how it works on my Nikon D600

None, for the price i paid!

- Range
- Sharpness
- Lightness

- None

In my previous review submitted on September 10, 2002 I said that this zoom was a good lens but with some problems in the 130-200 mm range, due perhaps to my defective sample. I was right. I have recently bought the last model XR DI, which share the same optical design with previous 28-200 XR and I cannot see the problems at the end of the range of XR only version.

Tamron in the new XR Di brochure, states that has been improved quality control and I can say that this zoom is now a very good lens, which I rate 4 stars.

great buy, all in one lens, sharp...

none

I got mine for 85$ as new, for use with my Sony A100 Alpha, therefore, i can only speak out how this Tamron performs on my A100 only, 1st it very light, small, well build, got internal focus, comes with petal hood. Well! you all know that Sony A100 has build in image stabilization in body, so all lenses will be stabilized with what so call Super steady shot from Sony. For that reason this Tamron lens works well with A100, it gives me nice colors, neutral, contrast, and sharp at all ranges. But the sharpest i found is between the 50-150mm step down to f8-11. at 200mm i found a light purple fringes.Its small and compact fits well with my Sony body too.Filter size is 62mm. It has zoom lock so you can lock your zoom when shooting downward or upward. Metal mount made in Japan. It is a real bargain for those who wants good images without sacrified your wallet. Not all Tamron lenses are great, but so is the other brands!. I personally got many, many soft lenses from Canon and Nikon in my life. For that reason i switched to Sony.
In all, im very happy with mine, for the price i wont complain at all, its an everyday lens..i also got a Sony R1 which has a zeiss lens with real 24-120mm at f2.8.Both together i got myself a great combo for all shooting.
IF you found this lens dont work for other camera bodies, its not my fault.You should buy Sony A100.

Customer Service

none

Similar Products Used:

Nikon 28-200mmG, Canon 28-200mm, sigma 28-200mm

Value for money if I hadn't been hacked for such high price.

-Too many elements in the lens makes it recieve slightly lesser light. Common with zoom lenses. -Slow focusing. Esp when light is low. -Motor is noisy. Nocturnal animals pay attention to that noise.

I think I got hacked for this lens for the price I paid. Nonetheless its a great lens to have. I have two lens one being a Canon USM 28mm-80mm and the other being the Tamron. The Tamron 28 - 200 wins hands down. Same size longer ranges and greater picture. Great price for a lens with this capability and according to Tamron's website, this is one of its best consumer lenses. I won't argue with that. However you get what you pay for. Using the lens recently for night shots left me handicapped being that f4.0 is the largest I have when I match my Canon EOS-33 to it. f4.0 isn't good enough for night shots, not large enough for enough light to enter during high speed shots. I'd settle for a f2.8 or bigger but the Tamron Super has only f4.0 biggest on the Canon EOS-33. Other than the small apature size due the fact that it is a zoom lens, I encounter little else in the way of problems. A terrific lens to have even when I'm doing potraits with Fuji 160 NPS. Had close results compared to an L lens using the same film though I had to have a longer exposure compared with the flourite lens of Canon's L series.

Customer Service

Good enough that I won't require customer service.

Similar Products Used:

Canon 28 - 200 USM @ 72dia, price is too high for similar results with the exception of faster focusing. Better light recieving due to larger lenses.

Compact Design Zoom Range Macro

Average Aperture Reasonable Focusing Speed

I purchased this lens mainly because of it's versitility, compact design and price. As there was a special going... I also got it for a bargin price. I use a 300D, and this coupled with the tamron lens is a great combination. The 1.6 crop factor transforms the lens into a 44 - 320 field of view lens... so you tend to loose a bit on the short end. One other point to note, if you own a 300D like I do, you won't be able to get an fstop of 3.8. The camera body doesn't support that fstop hence the maximum fstop is 4 (ie. this is not a defect). The lens produces crisp images at all focal lengths. Because of it's zoom range, it'll probably be one of your main lenses... handy for the "group" shot, and great for picking out objects in a crowd or some distance away. What's more, it's fairly compact and the weight balances well on the 300D body. You won't feel it to be too much of a burden. So it's great for travelling and feels convenient enough to be the only lens you might take on a trip. Lastly, it has a 50cm minimum working distance allowing for macro shots at 1:4. This isn't too bad, and I've used it to take various smaller items to great effect. It does render quite a lot of detail although because of the aperture, isn't as wide open to get enough depth of field happening in a macro shot. Bear in mind you will probably need a good tripod to take macro shots as the lens is fairly heavy, and the aperture isn't that fast. I'd recommend it to anybody who just wants a decent zoom, that's compact, convenient and versitile. By itself, it's probably well suited to outdoor photography. For indoor photography, you will probably need a studio setup or a decent flash. Note that you might experience shadows being cast from the lens if you use the default flash on the 300D and zoomed in at 200mm (depending on how far away your subject is). Overall, a great performer and great value for money.

Similar Products Used:

Canon 18-55 EFS (very average lens) Canon 50 II 1.8

Lightweight Small size portability 28-200mm great zoom range

pictures are DECENT at best, and color is plain.

Well, what can I say, take this lens, put it on your digital camera, and you get something that's better than any other point&shoot digital camera out there. I look at this lens as a budget do-it-all lens, something that can replace a $100.00 28-75mm and a $100.00 75-200mm. All in one complete package that's lighter than both. No you won't get pictures compared to a high end 28-75mm (Like an L series, or even Tamron's 28-75 Xr Di LD) but should you be comparing these lenses together in the same bucket? No. You get what you pay for, and for the price you pay for this lens, you get exactly that. Decent, not astounding pictures and a lot of flexibility in one package.

Similar Products Used:

other lenses used: Tamron XR Di LD 28-75mm F2.8 Tamron 70-300mm Canon 75-200mm Canon 22-55mm USM Canon 28-80mm Canon 50mm f/1.8

Quite sharp,also when full open. Good contrast. Good color rendition.

Distortion at edges of picture when in wide angle or tele. (you can avoid straight lines on the edges, if you can't, don't use this lense.

I used this lens on a Minolta Dynax 700SI. I liked the sharpness and contrast of this lens, and also color rendition is quite good, but not so good as my 50mm/f1.7 prime. But it is a conveniant lens as it focal lenght reaches from 28 to 200 mm. Also its short tubelenght at 28 mm makes it a easy lens to store in your pack. Its only disadvantage is distortion (barrel at short focal lenghts and, althoug less, pincushion at tele) Thus thogether, a good lens for landscape photography and I made also nice portraits with it, whit aperture at 2.8 so that the background becomes soft. Now I turned all my stuff in for a Nikon F80 body with 50mm F/1.8 prime and sold a Nikkor 85mm F/1.8 to it because in the type of photography I do, railway photohraphy, the distortion is a problem. (poles of overhead wires wich are bent) But for the price, this lens is a good choice.

Customer Service

Not needed, the build quality is quite good.

Similar Products Used:

None

An extremely convenient and easy to use super zoom W/ 4:1 "macro." For its intended purpose of recording people and places, and showing the results in prints or slides to friends and family, it gets an "A". No one will complain about the results, because the shots will look vibrant and crisp.

None for its intended purpose. If one wants to produce murals, shoot for reproduction, do architecture...the pros know what lenses to use.

Purchased this lens as a gift for wife to replace her Minolta 35-105 3.5-4.5, which she said didn't have enough zoom range to extract all her creative potential (yeah, right! but gotta keep 'em happy, you know). The digitally printed, mini-lab, four by six results of two rolls of Fuji Superia xtra 400 were quite gratifying, and displayed better sharpness and contrast, especially wide open, than her old lens. One roll was shot in flat, overcast light at the seashore and at a commercial fishing marina, using the entire zoom range at wide aperatures. The other roll was shot in bright, midday sunlight at a scenic, Japanese tea garden, with ponds, lots of greenery, and flowers of all colors. Exposures were in the mid to small aperatures and, again, the entire zoom range was used, as was the focus range, from closeups of flowers, to infinity. She loved the results, which I may add, were better than her past photographic attempts, with better compositional framing and crisper pictures...and if she's happy, so am I.

Small, light weight, performs better than most other zoom in distortion - great for buildings and any other urban setting.

Flare is a problem when you have light bulbs shining into lens. Just compare the lens coating with some Nikkors and the difference is obvious.

I bought this lens based on the Pop Photo mag review. Before I bought it, I took a few shots with it at the shop to try out how it feels and see for myself how the shots turns out. When I got it, I have been shooting much more than before with it. For amateurs, this is unbeatable. As I take lots of buildings, the distortion is so low that I doubt any other zoom starting from 28 could do better. Less than 1% distortion from 28 all the way to 200!

Customer Service

Not needed

Similar Products Used:

Nikon 50 F1.8, 28-80 F3.3-5.6

Amazingly convenient. Focuses very close at all focal lengths. Small, light-like I said, amazing. "Bokeh" is better than I expected. As a consumer grade zoom it's remarkably sharp and contrasty through most of it's range and F stops. Seems fairly well made. Glad I tried the XR.

The biggest gotcha' is geometric distortion at the extremes - barrel at 28mm - pincussion at 200mm. If buildings/straight lines aren't the main subjects of your photographs (or if you remember to stay in the middle part of its range) you should be fine. It looses a lot of focal length up close but it's still pretty sharp.

This is one of the first zooms I've ever owned where the convenience it brings actually outweighs it's optical comprimises for many (certainly not all) situations. Sure, a pro grade zoom will be better optically - but it can't match the convenience. And the pro-grade zoom can't match primes, for my uses anyway.

Customer Service

Not needed yet.

Similar Products Used:

Many different zooms over the years - Vivitar, Pentax, Nikon.