Customer Reviews

Tamron AF 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5 SP Di II LD Aspherical (IF) Lens for Sony Minolta AF Digital SLR Cameras

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I acquired this lens to provide me with an ultra-wide zoom for landscapes and indoors uses. I do not routinely shoot in this focal length range, so I was hesitant about spending so much on the Canon 10-22mm, although the Canon 10-22mm is by all accounts, fantastic. I have had very positive experiences with Tamron in the past, and decided to give this lens a try over the Sigma equivalent. Cosmetically, the lens is very lightweight but feels solid in the hands, and the zoom ring takes some getting used to as it rotates in the opposite direction as Canon brand lenses. The finish on the lens is very nice and the included lens hood fits nicely, but provides only minimal protection to the front element. This is understandable since this lens is an ultra-wide zoom, and larger lens hoods would cause vignetting and shadowing problems. The lens hood does a nice job of protecting from lens flare issues. The lens extends only a small amount when zooming. Performance wise, the lens is quite soft wide open, which is somewhat disappointing but not a major issue for my own uses. It is something to be acutely aware of nonetheless. However, stopped down to f/8 or narrower fixes this problem, and at f/8 and narrower, the lens is very sharp with very nice color contrast and saturation. Sharpness falls off again at f/16 due to diffraction, but between f/8 and f/16, the lens is excellent. CA is nicely controlled as is barrel distortion, both of which are common big problems for many lenses in this focal range. I was pleasantly surprised with this lens's control of CA as I was expecting it to be much worse than it is. I borrowed a friend's Tamron 11-18mm lens, and my 10-24 was VASTLY superior with regards to problems with CA and barrel distortion and adds a complete stop of speed. The upgrades that Tamron has made with this lens are very noticeable and worth the extra cost over the previous generation Tamron ultra-wide zoom lens. The autofocusing is very quiet, accurate, and fast. Overall, this is a very nice alternative to the vastly more expensive camera-branded lenses like the Canon 10-22mm or the extremely expensive Nikon super-wide angle lenses and provides very good quality in this zoom range.

UPDATE: Recently, this lens took a serious tumble from about 3 feet off the ground onto a hard tile floor. The only damage was a ding on the lens cap! I'm impressed.

After reading the reviews, I don't know if I would have purchased this lens. More than likely I would have gotten the Sony 11-18 f/4.5-5.6 as I believe, or at least I did at the time, that it takes sharper pictures. But, my wife, who loves me dearly, got me this lens for my birthday. I could have returned it, but since I had it, what the heck.

I've read that there is some distortion on straight lines if you shoot very close. I suppose that means like you see in those lens tests where they shoot a brick wall from a couple feet away and show you how those straight lines bend a bit. I don't shoot like that. I use this lens to take indoor shots and for landscapes and for me, it really delivers. I've read reviews that said this lens is very soft when used wide open. Those reviewers used this lens on other camera bodies, Canon and Nikon. Either I got an exceptional copy or my Sony Alpha magically sharpens the pictures, because my shots are fine and plenty sharp.

I've also read that compared with the Canon 10-22 and the Nikon 10-24 that this lens has more noise. I've shot at ISO 3200 and I'm not seeing any noise. Also, if you're reading this review, you've got a Sony Alpha body and you can't use those lenses anyway. This lens is faster than the Sony 11-18, it cost less, has a wider range and I'm keeping mine. I'm a lover of Sony lenses, have a lot of them, but this Tamron lens, in my opinion, matches Sony in both performance and build quality.

I bought whis lens to give it a try to Tamron after reading several reviews and comparing against the Sigma and Tokina. I use it with a Rebel XTI (400D) and a complementation of a 24-105L. I like it, construction is good, distortion very well controlled, cromatic aberrations is just ok, sharpness is just ok on the center but regular to bad on the corners, even at f5.6, f8 or f16. I did some home test with some friends that own Canon 10-22 and Sigma 10-20. I believe that Canon is the best choice between these three options. Second place to Sigma (sharp a little better)I don't mention tokina because a have not try it.

Conclusion: It's ok but it is not impressive to say "WOW!!!!".

Lets face it. You're buying a lens like this to shoot at 10mm, so most of my review will focus around the ultra wide end.

This lens is cool. You can create optically things that don't really exist, and take quite unique photos.

At F3.5 it's surprisingly fast. I've taken some night-time images of Salt Lake with this lens where it had the best control over lights not blossoming into a purple mass (even wide open) of any lens I've got.

My complaints are around CA at 10mm at the edges and corners. I wish it was better controlled. You can fix these in post, but I don't spend the time to PP every photo.

Your other wide options from here are the Sigma 8-16mm and the Sigma 10-20mm (3.5 and 4-5.6) I hear good things about the F3.5 10-20mm.

All in all, I'm happy with this purchase at this price. It's good enough for what I want to shoot with it at ultra wide, and when I want more, I'll switch to the DA 15mm Limited or the DA* 16-50.

*Taken from someone who USES the lens.*

As a professional photographer since 1969, I've worn out more equipment than I care to admit. Carrying Nikon, Canon and Maymiya cameras all over the world sometimes becomes a burden. I decided to give this lens a try after reading the specs on Tamron's website. I use a Canon 50D for my daily point & shoot. It's light and with a vertical grip fits my hand better than my D700. I'm just beginning to use the Tokina. On the surface it appears well made (6 year warranty.) It focuses quickly albeit a little noisy compared to Canon 10-22. The range of the lense (10-24mm) is an asset to a non-full frame sensor camera. Team this lens up with 28-135mm & 75-300 zooms and you have a bag that you can actually carry for most circumstances encountered. So far so good. Next thing to do is run it through my battery of tests. I'll update this review as soon as tests are done. Initial perspective. Good focal length range, appears shape with low vignetting. Very low distortion with no fisheye effect. Small size. Great lense cap.

Not a lot to say other than after researching this lens and comparable offerings from Sony and Sigma, I opted for the Tamron. All three were close in features, but the Tamron was lower priced and had a $50 Rebate.

Right from the minute you open the package, you can see that this is a finely crafted product. The external finish is perfect and the lens has a nice "heft" to it. Obviously, the optics are the important thing, but the fit and finish do promise a quality experience.

I've only had the opportunity to shoot a hundred or so test shots on my Sony Alpha 350, but so far, I like what I see. I shoot RAW and JPEG images simultaneously, using the JPEG's in my photo library and only keeping the RAW images for those shots that are special. This lens yielded sharp, clear images in both modes and in my opinion, there was remarkably little distortion even at 10 mm. Auto focus was quick and accurate. The only minor issue was that the focal length ring was a little stiff but my guess is this will ease up slightly with use.

With my built in flash, I got shadow vignetting that was heaviest on the bottom of the image. When I moved to my Sony auxiliary flash, there was practically no shadow effect because the flash tube sits higher on the camera. When I snapped the diffuser over the flash tube, all the shadows were gone and the result was beautiful, high quality images that were evenly lighted.

I would definitely recommend this lens to a friend. It is a great product and an excellent value.

Using this lens with a 40D, I was underwhelmed with the results and will return it and try with the Sigma. The build quality and feel of the lens was very good. I use the excellent Tamron 18-270 so the company has satisfied me in the past.

As with any wide angle lens, the principal concern is going to be distortion and my expectations were realistic. Some barreling is normal. What surprised me is how often the aberrations crept out of the corners to the heart of the images. Not always, mind you. The problem is most severe when you've got the lens wide open -- but then isn't that part of the point of this lens? Also you do get different results depending on stop but i didn't find a consistent solution. Moreover, I'd rather not have to factor that in for every shot.

A couple of other points. Focusing was really good in the center of the image but pretty soft at the corners. Again, there was variation. Color representation was good and consistent.

This lens may turn out to be better than the competitors and I may end up having to re-purchase it but first I'll check out the Sigma and, if necessary, the Canon.

I have a Canon EOS20D and have always been a little frustrated by the 1.6x sensor factor. I'm used to a 50mm lens being "normal". I have used this lens for dramatic landscapes with a closer object of interest to add depth, as well as for portraits where I want to bring in more of the surroundings. In both cases it produces very sharp, impressive images. I am comparing them to my Canon macro/portrait lens (which is a very good lens).

The Tamron 10-24 is a superb lens that provides a very wide field of view with little distortion. Obviously, there is some distortion of the image, especially for the closer objects in relation to those further away. But overall, the images corner-to-corner look very good.

Some reviewers have said the lens suffers from a little lack of sharpness, but I have not found that to be the case, even at small f stops. I typically try to shoot at around f8 or f11 to maximize sharpness.

I did notice some diffraction limited softness when shooting at the very smallest apertures that are needed to get the kind of impressive depth of field shots that are possible with this lens. But all systems "suffer" from diffraction limits.

Occasionally the autofocus gets confused, so I suppose I could take away one * for that, but it is not any worse than any other autofocus lenses I have.

Make sure you order the lens type that is compatible with your camera.

I installed this lens on my Sony Alpha 55 camera and also tried it on the Sony Alpha 550 which is my second camera... In both cases this Tamron 10-24mm zoom gave me complete satisfaction. Besides the excellent optical quality, It responds very well to the very fast Sony Alpha 55 autofocus.
The almost "ultra wide angle" provided at the 10 mm(15mm equivalent on full frame sensors) focal length is perfect for achitecture shooting in narrow space : no visible barrel nor chromatic distortions in ordinary shooting conditions, I didn't test this lns on special testing images... But who wants to shoot square paved paper prints...

and

The upper end focal length: 24 mm(36mm equivalent on full frame sensors)is a great all purpose focal length for landscapes and family or home picture taking.

I'd warmly recommend the combination Sony Alpha 55 + Tamron 10-24 + Sony zoom 18-250mm: a great focal length span with just two lenses...

I got this lens recently to compare to my Sigma 10-20mm. The lens is pretty much unusable at f3.5-f6 with extreme softness in all parts of the picture. I analyzed softness by looking at my images at 100% of my size. Softness started to show up at about 60%. I didn't see much improvement for distortion over the Sigma as a lot of literature has talked about. I concentrated my effort at the 10mm setting is this is primarily what I bought the lens for. The construction of the lens is fairly cheap and there is a fairly loud and slow whirring autofocus that reminds you of the pre-USM and HSM days. The lens has a very plasticy feel, and is a little lighter than the Sigma. TO save a few bucks, I would not recommend this lens over the Sigma 10-20mm.