Super Zoom & Macro	Tamron AF 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3 XR Di LD Aspherical (IF) Macro / the practical mini-review
Images:
Specs:	28-300mm for full frame/film for crop APS-C bodies becomes 44-465mm. Optimized for Di(gital) and has 1:2.9 macro capability.
Pros.:	It is light to carry, the lightest zoom of this range. Image quality is best at around 60-90mm. It has a nice bokeh effect and the lens delivers good colors when shooting in daylight. It has a "lock" switch to stop at 28mm the zoom creep effect. Generally it is a good start-up lens for all-around work. It has a good price for what it is (s/h 250 EU).
Cons.:	This lens feels best on abundant light and only around the middle of the zooming range. Very soon you will realize its limitations, firstly being a super zoom, you will loose image quality at tele-end, with mediocre results on all other lengths except the peak at the middle range. In low light situations it's a poor performer, faded colors, and suffers from lack of sharpness. At the long end the image is "milky": no contrast, soft and strong CA. AF is slow, I remember I was trying to follow and track the fast squirrel in the park, had no success to get a clear focus even-though I was using 40D with AI Servo. Sometimes I felt frustrated, really thought I have missed some nice shoots and sometimes on certain situations I got some sharp and vivid photos. AF is also not precise, sometimes you really have to switch to MF to get it right. At the macro side, I think this lens makes a good job, but again some good light is for the better. I doubt anyone getting it for macro work.
Conclusions:	You want something for all around work and you had enough with the kit lens (18-55)? If the budget is really tight, and you do not care about image quality that much and also you want an all around and macro (!) then this is a good choice. For a bit advanced (e.g..pretentious) ones this lens will shortly become second.
Samples:
Buy:

<< Go to our gear reviews <<

Things you can do next...

Get article's images as prints... Have something to share: Forum. Want to sell/buy gear: Market. Want to buy a new camera: Shop. Write your article? Register now!

Latest Articles... It's (almost always) about composing Inspection Nikon D50 DSLR Camera Review Past Articles... Canon 30D DSLR Camera Review Pottery art from Cucuteni to Corund Photographing at ArtMania Festival '09 - going the hard way Festivalul Cetatilor Dacice / Cricau 2009 Photojournalist - The Job The bed