The-Digital-Picture.com Reviews Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 Di LD (IF) Zoom Lens

Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 Di LD (IF) Macro Lens

The Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 Di LD (IF) Macro Lens is a lot cheaper at about $700 than its equivalent lenses from Nikon and Canon which could cost anywhere from $1200 to $1650. The review from The-Digital-Picture.com reports a favorable prognosis on this lens, despite a few issues.

Overall, this zoom lens delivers sharp images for its price. The review states, “On the wide end (70mm), this lens is sharp wide open (f/2.8) across the entire 35mm frame. Stopping down only makes a small improvement in sharpness – reduced vignetting is the primary difference seen. By 100mm, the center is still sharp wide open, but corner softness is setting in due to a slightly curved focus plane. Stopping down to f/5.6 results in excellent image quality across the frame.”

It has a weak spot at 135mm, though, exhibiting a very soft right side at this focal length. But its biggest issue (which could be a non-issue to some!) is its autofocus system.

The review notes its inconsistent AF accuracy, “If you can shoot, check the results and reshoot if necessary (as many times as necessary), this lens can deliver very nice results for a relatively small cost. I would be very uncomfortable if I had to use this lens for a wedding – or adding the slow AF speed factor, for action sports – or for any other important shot that I couldn’t reshoot.”

[Via: The-Digital-Picture.com]

Published by Chris Malinao

Chris teaches Lightroom as workflow software to photography students at the FPPF, Federation of Philippine Photographers Foundation. He also teaches smartphone photography.