Tamron 18-270mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC LD Aspherical IF Macro

ok heres my take...

first, I am not sure if your lens is ok or not, but your 1st and 2nd photo are not acceptable, shooting at 1/1000 and still got blurry results? its almost unbelievable... but with a monopod or tripod, you should turn OFF the VR.

when handholding, VR on my copy was very very very good, I even missed it now on my Nikkor 70-300mm.. you could have a problem with your lens VR.

18mm - there is a big amount of barrel distortion there.. but at 20mm up no more

at 270mm with no VR, you will need a tripod or monopod already and Mirror lockup to avoid vibration and camera shake unless you have a very very high shutter speed.

I find the results to be at par with my previous 18-55mm IS kit lens paired with the 500D.

Ya, first off, get rid of the "Cheap" filters and get some Hoya filters or the likes thereof.

This lens tends to grab a subject and hold it there and if you move even slightly after the "grab effect" your pictures will become blurry. So with the first 2 pics you moved the camera after focusing. The last 2 x pics prove that the lens is actually ok and those pics can be sharpened even more with the correct processing.

This lens actually needs a bit of practice to get used to it, so I say keep taking pictures to get the full "feel and use" of this lens.

Also, try to stay of the Auto settings as this setting tends to focus on other areas you intend to focus on and many of your pictures will be OOF with the odd one being in focus. Try using Av and Tv settings with "center point" focusing...

monk3y wrote in post #10538628
ok heres my take...

first, I am not sure if your lens is ok or not, but your 1st and 2nd photo are not acceptable, shooting at 1/1000 and still got blurry results? its almost unbelievable... but with a monopod or tripod, you should turn OFF the VR.

when handholding, VR on my copy was very very very good, I even missed it now on my Nikkor 70-300mm.. you could have a problem with your lens VR.

18mm - there is a big amount of barrel distortion there.. but at 20mm up no more

at 270mm with no VR, you will need a tripod or monopod already and Mirror lockup to avoid vibration and camera shake unless you have a very very high shutter speed.

I find the results to be at par with my previous 18-55mm IS kit lens paired with the 500D.

Hard to believe VR and monopod stabilization redundancy could cause an issue with blur, but I could be wrong. Yeah, I'm not trhilled about the noticable barrell distortion at 18mm. I'm going to experiment with this lens for another week or so before I decide to keep it or sell it. I wish the results were on par with my old XTi with non-IS 18-55 kit lens. So far they are not even close. The thing I dug about my old setup was that is was almost difficult to get "bad pictures" with it. Now I find it difficult to get "good pictures". I liked it better the other way around. I'll post more pics soon as I experiment with it. Thanks for the advice

rodleviton wrote in post #10540298
Ya, first off, get rid of the "Cheap" filters and get some Hoya filters or the likes thereof.

This lens tends to grab a subject and hold it there and if you move even slightly after the "grab effect" your pictures will become blurry. So with the first 2 pics you moved the camera after focusing. The last 2 x pics prove that the lens is actually ok and those pics can be sharpened even more with the correct processing.

This lens actually needs a bit of practice to get used to it, so I say keep taking pictures to get the full "feel and use" of this lens.

Also, try to stay of the Auto settings as this setting tends to focus on other areas you intend to focus on and many of your pictures will be OOF with the odd one being in focus. Try using Av and Tv settings with "center point" focusing...

I really don't want to have to do any processing. I want to get good shots straight out of the camera already in JPG. I really don't care to fool with RAW and processing. I may on a select few, but not on everything. I just don't have the time.

I will try some better filters and see how the colors are. I'm a little confused with your second comment. Isn't the camera shake what the VR is supposed to correct? Shouldn't the "grab effect" counteract my slight movement? I thought that was the whole purpose of the VC. I get better shots out of the 75-300 I used to have with no IS or monopod at full zoom. I took well over 1000 pics with the 75-300 and 85% of them were better than what I'm getting with this Tamron lens.

I'll try the other camera modes with fast shutter speeds and see what I get. I'll post more examples soon. Thanks for the advice.

sarmistead wrote in post #10545949
I really don't want to have to do any processing. I want to get good shots straight out of the camera already in JPG. I really don't care to fool with RAW and processing. I may on a select few, but not on everything. I just don't have the time.

I will try some better filters and see how the colors are. I'm a little confused with your second comment. Isn't the camera shake what the VR is supposed to correct? Shouldn't the "grab effect" counteract my slight movement? I thought that was the whole purpose of the VC. I get better shots out of the 75-300 I used to have with no IS or monopod at full zoom. I took well over 1000 pics with the 75-300 and 85% of them were better than what I'm getting with this Tamron lens.

I'll try the other camera modes with fast shutter speeds and see what I get. I'll post more examples soon. Thanks for the advice.

In Single Shot, after the "Grab effect" you should not move the camera... as the camera is stabilized already based on that particular subject. unless you use AI Servo.

I am not sure about your problem, but I got nice results after 2 months or so of shooting with the lens and somehow knowing its limitations

Those first 2 pictures, the entire pictures are out of focus due to camera shake so it means you took the pictures while the camera was moving. After the VC grabs the picture you need to immediately take the shot WITHOUT moving.

Also try to take some shots WITHOUT the filters and see what you get..

If you want good jpegs straight out of the camera you will need to play with in-camera "picture styles" and settings. Bump up your sharpness, saturation and contrast settings a a few notches to experiment. This way you don't need to PP on a PC. Be careful with in-camera noise reduction though as this can sometimes make your pictures too soft, I prefer to leave this off personally and if there is any noise I don't like, then I'll get rid of it later during PP.

I think the really blurry shots are probably due to VC being on while the camera is on a tripod or monopod. That is well documented in most lenses to cause blur. Yes the lens distorts at 18mm but its not the same lens as an 18-55. This lens is like having an 18-55 and 55-250 on your camera at the same time. That results in inherent compromises.

So I took some other shots with this setup and shots like the previous ones. Cruddy filters still installed. I shot TV mode, ISO100, AL Focus, Center Point Focus, Standard Style, Daylight WB, AEB=0. the first group were VC on and the second group of the same shots are VC off. Both were on a monopod. I did the best I could to hold the camera steady the whole time. As I was leaving the office, I realized I hadn't shot the same group again with no monopod and VC on, but I'll do that next time. I guess I still need to do some troubleshooting, but the shots are virtually identical with VC on and off. I'm going to try some shots with no filters to see if that helps any. Where do I adjust the saturation, contrast, and sharpness? I read about the noise reduction issues. The review I read said it was wise to stick with the lowest setting of noise reduction. Thanks again for the advice. Here's the latest samples.....

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Shot some others at home with varying results. I think I was on CA mode with default settings. No monopod and was as steady handed as I could be. I noted the zoom level in MM and the approximate distance from the subject.....

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The shots of the spider are really nice. Its strange that you are getting blur even at fast shutter speeds.

Unless you have parkinsons there is something wrong with your lens. I've gotten images sharper than anything you've posted handheld at speeds below 1/100.

Funny. No I don't have parkinsons, so there must be something wrong. I was leaning in that direction myself already. The seller said the lens was a working return item. I figured the cracked lens hood was the reason. Maybe the lens malfunction was the real reason for the return. I'm going to contact the seller and see if Tamron will warranty repair it.

The spider shots are pretty cool. I wish I could have gotten better close up shots. It was in the process of eating the insides out of this entombed beetle. Gross and cool all at the same time.

Your pictures looks like my sisters when she is trying to use her dslr, witch she got for her birthday because she "liked" to take pictures with her mobile phone - always on auto, point and shoot , preferably family and her kids. Cant bring it anywhere, to bulky she thinks. Should have gotten her a decent compact instead.

Seriously, if your in decent outdoor lightning using vc, tv prior. at 1/100 or even 1/50 your pictures should never come out like that. Return it.

So the el cheapo garbage filters were my problem. The lens couldn't figure out how to focus through it. The VC appears to work better. I guess the lack of quality glass in them was fouling up the general functionality of the lens. It apparently didn't become a problem until I was at 50mm or greater. Strange, but at least the problem is solved. Took some random shots in front of my house. The light fixture is much sharper than before. The transformers were at full 270mm zoom. The little car was at full zoom on my office table. Now I'm happy. Much much better as you can see!!!

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Do you mean UV filters? I'm glad you got this sorted out. I hope you continue to get good pics. B+W and Hoya both have good filters, Tiffen isn't horrible either.. If you plan to buy NDs and Grads, etc, you might want to consider the Cokin P series, or some other filter kit with square filters. Good luck.