Tamron SP AF 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3 XR Di LD Aspherical (IF) Macro
£469.99
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On initial inspection of this Tamron superzoom you might assume you’ll never need another lens again. With a focal range of 28-300mm on full-frame cameras, the lens certainly covers some ground. However, when mounted on a camera with an APS-C sized sensor, the focal range becomes 44-465mm, slightly diminishing the all-in-one aspect of the lens.
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One useful feature here is Vibration Compensation (VC). This provides much-needed image stabilisation when shooting handheld at longer focal lengths. The system certainly works very well but unfortunately it wasn’t camera shake that prevented me from getting sharp shots...
The superzoom idea is great in theory, but when cramming such a huge range of focal lengths into such a small package, something has to give, it’s an optical fact. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get a shot that I would describe as pin-sharp. This is compounded by the fact that the AF is not only noisy, but slow as well. I missed several shots while the AF system was hunting, which is fairly disappointing for a lens of this price.
SpecificationDigital focal length 1.6x; 44-465mm
Maximum aperture f/3.5-6.3
Close focus 33cm
Mounts available Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Sony
Weight/Length 550g/83.7mm at 28mm
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Just got the non-VC version for A350 for £200 - one bonus of the Sony not needing VC. For that money the shots are decent enough and this is an everyday lens. AF performance is fine in good light, but does suffer when dim.
(Written by: 45king)
17 October 2008 19:31