Tamron 90mm Macro

[nucki]

Hi!

anybody used the 90mm Tamron Macro SP on a 10D?

heard very good things about this lens, beside its the cheapest of all (canon, sigma, tamron)

best regards
Peter

[aquace21]

I'm using it with my D30. Generally, I have the following opinions on it:

Pros
1) lightweight and compact
2) excellent optical quality
3) very well dampened manual focus ring
4) cheap

Cons
1) lens extends alot at minimum focusing distance
2) noisy AF
3) focusing hunts a bit if lighting is insufficient
4) short working distance at 1:1 magnification (approx 11cm from subject to lens tip) compared to canon 100mm and sigma 105mm

Fo me, i use it for insect macros, so (2) and (3) doesn't bother me since i use manual focus most of the time. The link below has some pics taken with this lens:

http://azone.clubsnap.org/home/gallery/macros/index.html

[nucki]

hi aquace21!

thanks for your reply. There are a lot of really great pics on your website! congratulations!

you said, you had a really short distance from lens to subject! is that really that much more at canon or sigma?

try this link and tell me what you think!

http://www.orchideen-kartierung.de/Macro100E.html


best regards
Peter

[J.A.F. Doorhof]

I use it and absolutly love it, it's razor sharp.
Only AF is a bit slow.

Greetings,
Frank

[openspace]

Excellent lens. Tack sharp. Don't worry about the AF speed. If you are serious about your macro photography, you'll manual focus anyway.

[MediaMagic]

The comparison shots from this lens are pretty impressive. Here in the state, the Tamron 90mm is a bit more expensive than the Sigma 105ex. B&H sells the Sigma for $359.00US, the Tamron is $459.00US with a $40.00 rebate, for a net cost of $419.00US. The prices must be different in other areas because most of the posts suggest that the Tamron is the least expensive.

This doesn't really matter to me, I just want to take really cool shots of spiders. So, what's the deal with the working distance as opposed to the specification distances? Am I understanding this correctly that the specs are noting the minimum focus distances from the film/sensor plane rather than the edge of the front glass? If this is so, could someone who does macro work please just spell out for me how far/close does the end of the lens hood need to be to the subject to achieve lifesize with the Tamron (or sigma, canon)?

Seems like the actual clearance between the hood and the subject would wind up being extremely close.


Thanks,
David

[aquace21]

nucki wrote:
hi aquace21!

thanks for your reply. There are a lot of really great pics on your website! congratulations!

you said, you had a really short distance from lens to subject! is that really that much more at canon or sigma?

try this link and tell me what you think!

http://www.orchideen-kartierung.de/Macro100E.html


best regards
Peter
Thanks for the comments!

As indicated in the site you shown me, the canon, sigma and tamron has working distances of 14, 12 and 9cm respectively (without lens hood). These distances should be referring to the subject-to-lens distance. So you see the tamron has the shortest distance among the 3.

Thanks for sharing the site. Its a very good site i should say!

[aquace21]

MediaMagic wrote:
So, what's the deal with the working distance as opposed to the specification distances? Am I understanding this correctly that the specs are noting the minimum focus distances from the film/sensor plane rather than the edge of the front glass? If this is so, could someone who does macro work please just spell out for me how far/close does the end of the lens hood need to be to the subject to achieve lifesize with the Tamron (or sigma, canon)?

Seems like the actual clearance between the hood and the subject would wind up being extremely close.


Thanks,
David



For the tamron 90mm, from my own measurement, its around 10cm from the subject to the len's tip. Note that the "len's tip" i'm talking about is not the tip of the 'glass'. Its the plastic lens hood mount tip of the lens. Rem that the 'glass' is deeply recessed inside.

Forget the lens hood! It serves no purpose in macros and will end up eating away your precious working distance and also block the flash.

[MediaMagic]

aquace21 wrote:

For the tamron 90mm, from my own measurement, its around 10cm from the subject to the len's tip. Note that the "len's tip" i'm talking about is not the tip of the 'glass'. Its the plastic lens hood mount tip of the lens. Rem that the 'glass' is deeply recessed inside.

Forget the lens hood! It serves no purpose in macros and will end up eating away your precious working distance and also block the flash.



Thanks aquace!

I just finished looking at your gallery. Some very nice work there. Great job! I appreciate all the tips and information.

David