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I love this lens. It produces great sharp photos and importantly is a fast f2.8 lens across the zoom range, which was one of the main features I was looking for to replace my kit lens. It feels well built and has a metal mount as opposed to my kit lens. It's autofocus motor is relatively noisy and not as fast as the top USM mechanisms found on more expensive lenses, which isn't an issue for me. I'm on a budget, and came across it on ebay by chance at an affordable price, and as my birthday was coming up, it was a perfect opportunity. I did a lot of research on the lens and comparable lenses, notably the VC version of the same lens, from various respected review sites and respected photographers, whose in-depth reviews and sample photos gave much food for thought. In the end, it came down to the newer stabilised version (VC) or this non-stabilised version, with a $100 price difference. For my needs, I wanted it to be sharp for as much of the frame as possible, and this lens despite it being cheaper at AUS$340 edged out the other lenses, of which the Canon wasn't a contender due to it being very expensive and poor value for money at around $1000 and not any better than the Tamron in picture quality though it had image stabilisation and a better autofocus motor. In the end, the reviews showed the newer VC lens was not as sharp overall and had considerable softness issues on the edges at large apertures which I couldn't accept as the low-light feature was one of the main considerations. At first I thought the sample closeups at f2.8 near the edges couldn't be right, but the full samples of test targets confirmed it. If you're only concerned with the subject in the centre, that might not be such an issue, and some field-test shots were very good where the focus was towards the centre anyway, so maybe test targets are too hard on the lens as compared to real-life usage. For things like product shots or any decent lighting condition you can use a higher f-stop where it isn't much of an issue. But for my usage, which include making mural panoramas, overall sharpness is important and I don't want to be hampered by having to watch my aperture and worry about it. I have done plenty of fairly low-light shots without stabilisation by using a proper stance, arms close to the body, and holding my breath, or leaning against objects, and for night photography I use a tripod anyway, so I knew while stabilisation is a nice feature, it wasn't critical for my work. Recently I've tested it out on night photography during the Vivid light festival in Sydney, which features a lot of light sculptures scattered around the city and buildings lit up, notably the Opera House and Museum of Modern Art, and I've gotten some fantastic results where its key benefits of high aperture and sharpness has come in good stead. I am very pleased both with our new camera and this Tamron lens, which is my walkaround lens that only comes off to use the 55-250mm zoom.Read full review
I use this lens for my micro 4/3 camera, mounted with non-electronic adapter (with adjustable aperture). The focus ring is smooth, though the focus ring's travel is short, it's easy to adjust the focus point. The zoom ring is not as smooth as the focus ring, but still smooth enough for taking stills. Since I adjust the focus manually, I can't give any feedback about the autofocus motor performance. This version doesn't come with OIS neither my camera body provide IBIS, however I never experienced blurry shots or high noise image when taking picture on dim environment. I believe the 2.8 constant aperture play role, the lens is bright enough so I don't have to step-up the ISO only to get proper shutter speed (I use aperture priority mode, mostly). For this price point, the picture quality taken with this lens is really good, use it as my daily lens now and I'm fully satisfied with it.Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
A great walk around lens with fantastic image quality. If you're looking for a general purpose lens for everything from landscape to portraits then this guys got you covered. At f/2.8 it'll work great in low light conditions and will also give you that you that nice blurry background (bokeh) to make your subject really stand out. For the price tag it's hard to find a better lens in this range though don't be fooled by its low price. The more expensive Tamron 17-50 f/2.8 with VC (vibration control) has inferior optics and is outdone by its younger brother. I would recommend this lens to anyone who wants to step up from their kit lens to something still affordable but will blow those kit lenses out of the water.
I'm just am amateur but I can say that this lens appeared to be just as the professional reviewers wrote. The images are very sharp. Sometimes. To make a long story short, my hands shake too much for me to hand hold while taking pictures at low ISO settings. My previous zoom lens had IS and I wasn't aware that I had this problem. I had it for only 2 weeks. My new lens has IS.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
I purchased this to replace my 18-55 Canon lens. Good value as it has f/2.8 aperture which is good for night shots. A bit noisy but this is just a minor issue for me. Image quality is good.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
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