 From a skeptical user! |
| Review Date: November 8, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Varad Arasanipaalai, MD |
Ok. I recently got a D90 and had bought the 55-200 Nikon lens with it. But I wanted to get a good walk around lens for an upcoming trip through CA & NV. So I finalized the Nikon 18-200 (5 yr warranty) & Tamron 18-270 (6 yr warranty). I had to eliminate the Sigma (1yr warranty) due to significant number of users having their lens go bad in 2-12 months.
I bought it from Amazon last week hoping to keep it or return it for the 18-200 Nikon if there were significant problems. I find that after 400 photos, I see excellent photos and great Vibration Compensation (VR or VRII on Nikon). On low light (maybe 1 candle light equivalent) it takes a tad longer (extra 2-3 seconds) to focus, but I can't comment about it unless I can compare against the Nikon 18-200.
However I compared the Tamron against the 55-200 Nikon that I already have and whenever the Tamron struggled to autofocus, so did the Nikon under the same parameters. At improved lighting, the Tamron was better than 55-200. The Tamron did better than the Nikon 18-55mm too in similar lighting. I know I cannot extrapolate these results to the Nikon 18-200, but I have to wait until I can borrow it from my friend to compare.
Compared to the Nikon being another three-hundred&fifty more, I don't know if it is that much better.
I'm very impressed with the build quality of the Tamron lens. Seems well made. I like the autofocus locking speed and pic quality is crisp in most lighting conditions,zoom, shutter & aperture settings. The motor is slightly more noisier than nikon lens, but it does not even bother me. I think is is something that will bother someone who really wants to find fault with this lens. I do feel that people with D90 & D300 have great experiences with this lens while d80 and d200 and older bodies, people complain. So maybe that might be a factor in less stars? I have another 28 days more to evaluate this lens or exchange for the Nikon. I will come back and edit this review if I find anything to the contrary. But so far it is a great buy and looks like a keeper. I reviewed thousands of pictures in pbase & flickr before I felt this lens even merited a try and so far hasn't failed to impress me.
2009-Nov-14: Its been almost 2 weeks with the Tamron. I also purchased a Nikon 18-200 from Amazon hoping to keep one of them. There is lens creep in both the Nikon and the Tamron. I took a few pictures in low light of the same subject, hand held, VR/VC ON @ 200mm, 0.63 secs exposure, ISO 1600. f5.6 on Nikon & f6.3 on Tamron. I did a side by side compare in Paintshop at 60% zoom of the 4288x2848 image and I see the Tamron has better details, sharpness. The setting was indoors with two 3 w bulbs about 10 feet away at night. I have to try the same on a tripod though. I'm thinking why not spend the money saved when buying a Tamron (almost three-thirty as of today) towards a high speed lens for specialized night shooting if/when needed and/or a Nikon SB-600 flash. So far I like the Tamron. I'm an amateur, but comparing pics side by side with the two lenses is slowly convincing me to keep the Tamron. Will update again if I find anything more to add.
Of course be sure to read the reviews at DPReview for both lenses where they rate the Nikon slightly better. Also look at pics taken at pbase & flickr for the lenses.
Dec 31, 2009: I finally went with the Nikon 18-200 in Nov before my vacation just because I wasn't sure about the Tamron's performance in low lighting and if it will bite me if I end up taking some low light pics. Looking back though, I feel like I should have stayed with my Tamron and netted the difference in money and enjoyed! :-( I looked at some older pics taken by Tamron when I first bought it and one thing I really liked was the bokeh in closeup pics. It is very smooth compared to the Nikon 18-200. I for one usually hunt for value in any product and in this I might have not done so by not sticking with the Tamron. I highly recommend this lens. |
Tamron AF 18-270mm VC - a great lens
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| Review Date: May 28, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Paul Masquelier, San Jose, CA USA |
I hesitated about ordering on-line after reading about the zoom-creep and the slow focusing under poor light conditions. I bought the lens locally where I could easily return it if there were problems. I have never been happier with a lens. The photos have been very sharp throughout the range of focal lengths. I am using it with a Nikon D60 which I bought to use as a lightweight SLR/Lens combo. I have not found zoom creep too be a significant problem.
Having used other (Nikor) VR telephoto lens, I knew that auto-focus could be slow under poor light conditions. This can be frustrating if you are trying to capture an action with quick shots.
The solution has been simple and has helped me to get better photos than if I was using auto-focus. Turn the VR switch to the on position, and turn the AF switch to the off position. Simply, focus the old fashioned way. I zoom in on the subject and adjust the focus so the subject is in sharp focus. Then I zoom back to compose the photo. When I hit the shutter release, I get an instant exposure, under the poorest light conditions.
By using manual focus, I have regained control over my photos to a degree that was never the same when using an auto-focus lens. No longer is the lens focusing on some far away object when my subject was off center in the composition. All of us would be better photographers if we quit depending upon auto-focus to do all the thinking for us. It never knows exactly what we are trying to do. |
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