Hi,
Yesterday I received my new lense, the Tamron 28-75 XR Di 2.8 and today I got a chance to go over to the park and have a little play.
The build was better than expected (it does get run down a bit too much), it is plastic but it feels solid- very different to the feel of the 18-55 kit lens. The hood is very good and the lens cap is great- it's design allows you to take it on and off whilst the hood is on. Manual focus is nice and smooth- the focus ring does move during AF but for me that is not a major concern. Focusing is fairly fast under good light but like alot of lenses it does hunt quite a bit under lower light.
Optically this lense is fantastic, opening up the photos in CS2 I was very pleased with the sharpness of the images (this lense is as sharp as alot of people have been saying), the colours were nice and the bokeh was very pleasing at f/2.8. I would say that it is sharper than my 50mm 1.8 and at first glance I probably prefer the images the Tamron produces (and I do love my 50mm).
I was debating for a long time about whether to get the Tamron or the Sigma but in the end I am very happy with my choice. For an enthusiastic amateur like me it does a great job, I am not used to L quality and so the build does not bother me, nor am I used to L quality photos but anybody interested in buying this lense will see from the many glowing reviews that optically this lense can easily compete with the best. For me the Tamron was the better choice as I found alot more great reviews for it and less reports about bad copies, the filter size is smaller (I really want a CP and don't want to have to shed out alot of £ for large filters) and the reviews on the optical abilities of the Tamron swayed me. The loss of 4mm on the wide end is not a problem for me- until I can afford a UWA like the 10-22 Canon/Sigma lenses I will use my kit lense for that. Also the extra 5mm on the long end is nice for portraits (for urban shooting I prefer this as it gives me more space from my subjects.. if needed).
Attached is a photograph I took today and then a large crop (not quite 100% I don't think- although at 100% it was still VERY sharp) so that you can see the sharpness on the leaf. These images are straight out of camera besides some levels and cropping.
For more examples just ask and I will post a few more (I won't yet due to the posting limits).
I hope that this is all useful to some of you.
p.s. thanks alot to fellow POTN member kagemaru for a great deal on this lense.
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haha). Anywhoo..that's my only issue with it and why I'd consider changing it if the 17-55 IS or the 24-70L offered better AF.
