Tamron AF 17-50mm F/2.8 XR Di-II LD SP Aspherical (IF) Zoom Lens for Canon Digital SLR Cameras by Tamron
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Digital camera reviews of Tamron AF 17-50mm F/2.8 XR Di-II LD SP Aspherical (IF) Zoom Lens for Canon Digital SLR Cameras
Digital camera Review: Excellent alternative to a kit lens, great warranty service.
Summary: 5 Stars
I've had this lens for 18 month now, and even with a bag full of lenses (I'm not pro enough to call them 'glass' yet) this is still my go to lens for most situations.
When I bought my Canon T1i, it was my first DSLR, before that I had a Powershot. But I didn't want to waste the extra $100 for the kit lens, I wanted to come out of the gate strong, with a 'real' lens - not just the cheapest thing that fits. A photographer friend of mine said, "Never buy a lens smaller than f2.8". So I asked him for suggestions in the $500 range to get me started, something that would work for most situations. Indoor, outdoor, wide and close, low light and sun. I didn't know what my niche would be yet, but I just wanted something that could take advantage of what the camera could offer.
This Tamron 17-50 f2.8 lens is what he suggested. I read the reviews and I bought it. Since then I've bought the Canon 55-250 telephoto, the Tokina 11-16 f2.8 Ultra Wide angle and the 50mm f1.8 and the old Canon 100mm macro. The Tokina is great for indoor room shots and weird close-up shots and panoramic vistas, but its just too wide for every day use. The 50mm is amazing for indoor shots with low light, and for great depth of field, but its a little too zoomed in for most indoor stuff on the cropped sensor of my camera. The telephoto is good for zooming, but I didn't heed my friends f2.8 or better warning, and it really suffers in anything by direct sun. The macro is a very fun lens for the hobbyist like me, but its short depth of field at 2.8 is way too hard to focus for me. This tamron can do most of the stuff these other lenses can do, but some how makes it a lot prettier.
The first thing I notice different from every other lens I own, the Tamron just makes everything more colorful. Flowers are more vibrant. Skies are bluer. skin tones are truer to life, trees and grass look like something from an allergy medicine commercial, during the good parts. If you zoom to 50mm, you won't get the crazy shallow depth of field that the prime lens offers, but there's still plenty for some great portrait effects, or to feature only a small patch of something in a large group, like plants, or kids. All the way out at 17mm, is wider than most point and shoot cameras can offer. Great for taking pics of your holiday decorations from the sidewalk, without stepping back into traffic, or taking a group photo, while still being close enough to tell people when to scoot over without yelling from 50 feet back.
The manual focusing is very smooth and easy to adjust with a pinky. Zooming is a little stiff, but it never creeps by itself. The zoom lock to keep it shot while in a bag is nice but doesn't seem necessary. Everything about it feels very solid, but its not too heavy. The filter won't spin when you focus, unlike the kit lens, so its great for a polarizer, or any graduated or effects filters. The lens hood is very easy to line up and snap on. I'm a total amateur but I always feel like a pro when I pop that thing on. My only really complaint is a minor one. The included back cap is annoying because it only works on direction. And it only works on EF lenses, not EF-S. So if I take of my telephoto lens and want to go wider with the Tamron, I can't just take the Tamron cap off and put in on the lens I removed from the body. I suggest picking up an extra Canon back cap to make things easier if you own more than just this lens and like to switch them in the field. The front cap is the best design by far of all my lenses. Huge thumb and finger grips inside the rim, so you never get your greasy fingers near the outer elements.
The warranty is great. I forget the exact terms, but its at least 5 years. If you buy this lens from a certified retailer, like Amazon 1st party, they will fix it for you for free if it breaks down. I shoot a lot of time lapse videos. This can be very hard on the inner working of lenses and camera bodies. Sometimes a sequence can include 1000 shots or more to make a smooth looking final video. Well, I think I took a few too many thousands of pictures, something most people, would never do in the normal use of a lens. I don't have an exact count, but if I had to guess is was over 75000 shots. One day, I clicked on my camera and the lens made this weird grinding noise. Everything still worked fine, auto focus, zoom, everything, until I took a picture. I could only take one picture, then the camera would send back an error about something with the lens. I was bummed. I had a big whole now in my focal range that none of my other lenses overlapped. I started to really appreciate the quality of the shots this lens produced once I didn't have it any longer.
When I finally got around to looking up the warranty info, I found Tamron's service page, where you type in what lens you have, what cameras you use it on and what is wrong with it. You fill it all in, and they give you a shipping label to print out, all paid for. If your lens is still under warranty, that's all you have to do. They get the package, read what's wrong, and if its covered by the warranty, they fix it up and mail it back for free again. I was about 6-8 business days to turn it around. No questions asked, no nonsense, they even cleaned it for me. With normal use, I doubt the average user would ever need this service, but having had to use it, I can vouch for it.
The last thing I want to mention is the auto focus. It works great, but it is very noisy. Its just makes a bad sound, like its breaking or something. In the video mode of the T1i, you have to hit a button to focus, and its so loud it will drown out most of the other audio in your shot while focusing. Stick to manual for video. For still, its very fast, but the noise just seems to cheapen it a little. If you can get past that, its great.
Bottom Line, if you want to buy a DSLR and need a good first lens, you'd be hard pressed to find better bang for your buck in terms of color reproduction, zoom range and clarity. If you've already got a few lenses in your stable, but need a good or better every day walkaround lens that can go pretty wide, this one is very versatile, without sacrificing picture quality.
Digital camera Review: Excellent glass
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one of the best purchases I made after I bought my Rebel XSI. I sold my kit lens (which wasn't a bad lens at all) and went for this one after reading all the great reviews. I do not regret this one. Excellent copy and it has served me really well. Great for use indoors, the 2.8 fixed aperature really helps. Colors are excellent and I get a lot of keepers. Construction is pretty solid. This one stays on my camera most of the time.Digital camera Review: Excellent lens for the price
Summary: 4 Stars
On the Amazon star scale (1-5):
Overall build quality 4
Sharpness 3.5-4
Autofocus 3.5-4
Value for money 4.5-5
It's a great everyday use lens with above average qualities. Definitely recommend.
Digital camera Review: Excellent picture quality, decent price, right size ...
Summary: 5 Stars
I am a photography hobbyist, and just started building my gear portfolio for Canon DSLR [EOS 30D] - having switched from KonicaMinolta gear. One of my first objectives was to find a lens that will cover day-to-day photography...
- The lens had to be bright (f4.0 or better)
- It had to be wide angle (28mm equivalent on 35mm or better)
- I was looking for something broader than KM 17-35 I was used to.
- The lens had to provide great quality pictures.
- The lens and the camera had to be of a manageable size
My first choice was to look at Canon 17-40mm/f4.0 L, or Canon 17-55/2.8 ... The first one was huge, and the light of 4.0 was not that impressive. The second one, at $1,200 was a very expensive non 'L' lens. At this point, I also realized that I was not a professional photographer, and would not be able to haul around either of these heavy lenses - same for 16-35mm/2.8 `L'.
The second step was to look at Sigma and Tamron. It was a toss up between Sigma 18-50mm/2.8 EX, and Tamron SP 17-50mm/2.8. I made the decision to go with Tamron.
It fits all my criteria above. It is relatively small, so I keep it on my camera most of the time. It is very bright, f2.8, and produces great results. It works very well in combination with the EOS30D and the 580EX flash.
I was surprised to see the lens was assembled in China, but the build quality seems very solid.
I have taken a lot of pictures at all ends of the spectrum and do not see any negative artifacts, when viewing at 1600x1200 on a 20" monitor, or blowing up to 8x10 or 20x30.
The other lenses I have are Canon EF 85mm/f1.8 for portraits, and Canon EF 70-200mm/f2.8 IS - the latter, I still try to find a good use for - it is a phenomenal quality lens, but it is just huge.
Digital camera Review: Excellent sharp lens
Summary: 4 Stars
This lens lived up to the reviews, very sharp. Much sharper than the Canon 17-85 IS which I also own (and have now sold). I also have the 50mm 1.8 prime, and the Tamron is every bit as sharp.
In fact, colors are much more saturated and there is a bit more contrast on the Tamron compared to the 50mm 1.8. If the 50mm wasn't so dirt cheap to begin with I'd be selling that too, since most of the time it's easier to shoot at 50mm with the Tamron than go through the hassle of changing lenses - especially since I don't have to sacrifice any image quality with the Tamron. I read the good reviews on this lens before buying but was still surprised just how good it is.
AF will startle you at first, especially if you're used to quiet USM, but it's really no big deal after a few minutes.