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It becomes a challenge to lug a lot of gear into the field. On the other hand, it’s nice to have wide-angle, telephoto and close-up capability, as well as a tripod for support. So the dilemma is always to either travel comfortably or be prepared for anything.
Tamron’s new AF28-300mm ƒ/3.5-6.3 XR Di VC zoom provides a wonderful solution: It packs a wide range of focal lengths, close-focusing capability and a new Vibration Compensation system all in one compact unit. We found the VC system will let you shoot handheld at shutter speeds two to four stops slower than is possible otherwise. We gave the AF28-300mm a real test, and it passed with honors. Our test lens was very sharp, and the autofocusing performance proved excellent on birds in flight despite the slowish maximum aperture of ƒ/6.3 at the 300mm focal length. Throw in a street price of less than $600, and this lens is a terrific deal.
Lens: Tamron AF28-300mm ƒ/3.5-6.3 XR Di VC LD Aspherical [IF] Macro
Lens Design: 18 elements in 13 groups
Special Elements: Two LD, 1 AD, 1 XR, 1 GM aspherical and 2 hybrid aspherical elements
Filter: 67mm
Diameter: 3.1 inches
Length: 3.9 inches
Weight: 19.6 ounces
Mounts Available: Canon EF and Nikon
Estimated Street Price: $599
Contact: Tamron USA, (631) 858-8400, www.tamron.com.
Has anyone else had a problem with the vibration isolators they put in this thing? When this thing tries to AF the whole camera shakes, its pretty annoying! Any help would be greatly appreciated!
This lens is far better than it has a right to be for $600. I doubted it would perform acceptably on a D700 Nikon full frame camera, but it really surprised me. It stayed on my D700 most of the time I went through Yellowstone on a rainy day. It rendered sharp color rich images with excellent contrast. What I found most surprising is that while it is plenty sharp wide open in the center, it can deliver sharp corners as well if stopped down to around f11-f16 which is no problem. The VC works as advertised. You can virtually leave the tripod at home on this one. I’ve read a few detractors of this lens in various forums around. Perhaps as is often the case, they managed to get a bad sample. I didn’t suffer this fate however. I highly recommend this lens as the ultimate “walk around” lens for a FF body.
If you stop the lens down to F11-F16, what is the defraction like?