Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)The Tamron 28-75 has become somewhat of a legend due to its phenomenal image performance for the price. Yet, when you take price out of the equation, this lens still holds its own surprisingly well against the top-dogs from Canon and Nikon costing anywhere from two to four times the price of the Tamron. So far, I've found this lens is consistent with what I've been hearing across the Internet: image quality is at a professional level.
The lens looks and feels like most Tamron lenses I've seen, plastic but reasonably well built. The zoom ring is at first a little snug in operation, but I suspect it will loosen a bit over time. The focus ring rotates during automatic focus operation, but that's really a non-issue in my view of things. However, everything still feels generally solid and of quality construction, in contrast to the loose and rattling lens barrels, zoom and focus rings of the Pentax "kit" lenses: the 18-55 and 50-200. Autofocus operation with the 28-75 is a bit on the noisy side, but I've found it to be fast enough so far. What's most important, it's been spot-on in typical shooting situations (a welcome relief to the Pentax DA* 50-135 f2.8 I had to return due to poor autofocus performance and resultant soft images).Some comparison shots between this lens and the Tamron 18-250 taken in the 28 to 75mm range show that the 28-75 is clearly a sharper lens and maintains that sharpness nicely boarder-to-boarder. The 18-250, my basic walkaround lens, is a strong performer in that lower range, but it is simply outclassed by the 28-75. Contrast and color saturation is also superior to the 18-250. Interestingly, color tone with the 28-75 looks to be ever so slightly warmer. I've found that CA (chromatic aberration - purple fringing) is present in some rare shots near the boarders such as with the edges of overhead florescent lighting in a gym where that lighting is overexposed in contrast to the rest of the picture, but I haven't seen it appear in many other situations where one would expect to find purple fringing.At f2.8, I've found that this lens still produces impressive images, especially at the long end, but not quite up to the sharpness at f4.0 and higher. So far, I haven't really noticed any issues with vignetting or distortion.
The 28-75 is also a full-frame lens, meaning that it is designed for cameras with a 35mm film frame-sized sensor, but it will also work on the smaller APS-C sensor of the Pentax D-SLRs (dedicated APS-C lenses such as the Tamron 18-250 will not work properly with a full-frame sensor). The positive of using a full-frame lens with the APS-C sensor is that the smaller sensor benefits from being more in the lens' "sweet-spot, " that is, the potentially softer/distorted boarders seen by a full-frame sensor for a particular lens are just outside the reach of the APS-C sensor. Kind of makes one wonder why all D-SLR lenses aren't full-frame.
Considering the limited lens options for Pentax D-SLR owners, especially higher-end products, this is certainly the lens to have. While the Pentax APS-C factor of 1.5x, and an effective focal length of 42 - 112.5mm is perhaps not quite wide enough for some shots, it does, however, work great for general use including portraits and low-light interior shots without flash. A nice surprise I found with this lens is that it has an aperture ring which means I should be able to use it on my old Pentax ME Super film SLR for a true 28-75mm focal range. As I continue to be impressed with the 28-75, I'm hoping that the new Tamron 70-200 f2.8 due out in a few weeks will be in the same league as this legendary lens bargain.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Tamron AF 28-75mm f/2.8 SP XR ZL Di LD Aspherical (IF) Lens for Pentax Digital SLR Cameras
Di: Digitally Integrated Design, is a designation Tamron puts on lenses featuring optical systems designed to meet the performance characteristics of digital SLR cameras. The most compact and lightest in the history of fast zoom lenses. Thanks to the revolutionary downsizing "XR" technology employed by Tamron in the development of high-power zoom lenses such as the 28-200mm and 28-300mm, the dramatic compactness that makes this lens the world's smallest and lightest is achieved. Its compactness makes it look and feel like an ordinary standard zoom lens, yet the versatility that a fast constant maximum aperture offers will definitely reshape your photographic horizons.
0 comments:
Post a Comment