Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Nice going, Tamron!, February 2, 2007
For film cameras, 17-35mm has become the most versatile "very wide angle" zoom range. With digital bodies this focal range translates to ca. 25-52mm, what makes this lens a "wide to standard" zoom. Because the lens is calculated for full 35mm size frame, vignetting is not a problem. Most of full frame lenses are in their best sugar spot, when used on DX sized digital sensors, and this Tamron is not an exception.
The lens is not f2.8 in its entire range, but seemingly Tamron chose to design it this way as a compromise toward making it small and light. Compare this lens to the Nikkor 17-35 f2.8 AFS, both in terms of weight, and also in terms of its very attractive price. Of course, for some users all this plastic is just "too cheap" and is not an acceptable option. Personally I vote rather for less grams/pounds, if optical valors are comparable.
The lens seems to be quite sharp, and tests confirm its excellent resolution. Mine has only very little distortions, however I saw exemplars of this lens exhibiting visibly more barrel distortions! Probably the manufacturing tolerances are not tight enough...
Front element does not rotate with focusing, but the focusing ring rotates and thus the lens does not support the automatic AF/MF overwrite, like in a AFS Nikkor or in a usual Canon EF lens.
The hood is a total loss. It simply reflects too much light on its internal side. Tamron should really coat their hoods for better light absorption, like others do! Fortunately, this lens seem to control flare quite well. I tend to shade the lens with a hand anyway.
Considering the very attractive price, resolution and weight, this is a good product, great value for the money. If you do not like plastic like that, consider than the need to spend $1200 for the genuine Nikkor alternative, and maybe than the plastic will not appear that bad after all.
My generic problem with all Di XP Tamron lenses is however their lack of good grip to perform quick lens exchange. When changing this lens, you will end up turning both focusing and zooming rings to some degree, sometimes to a lot of degree... I wish that Tamron would have made the both rings a bit shorter, and provided good grip in the middle to turn the lens reliably into and out of the mount.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Lens!, November 2, 2008
Since I am not super-professional making money from taking pictures, I was looking for a reasonably priced wide angle lens for my Nikon D700 camera. This Tamron lens is exactly what I needed. It focuses very fast and I take great quality pictures with it.
NOTE!!! If you use the same (or similar in functionality) camera as I do (D700), don't forget to move the lens's aperture ring to the locked position! Otherwise you will get an error message on your camera. With the locked ring on the lens you control the lens's aperture by the CAMERA dial (in manual M or A modes). Another word, the aperture ring should stay at locked (at 22) in any mode, but the actual aperture will depend on the camera setting.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Tamron 17-35mm, January 8, 2009
I've often read the great reviews Tamron lenses get in magazines and have often thought of buying one, but always ended up going for a cheaper option. Finally, I decided to buy this. Was it worth the little extra? The answer is a resounding YES. The lens feels much better built and the results are far superior. The photographs are as sharp as they could possibly be and the colour saturaton is amazing. The lens covers 17-35mm which is great for covering the wide angle/standard range. Anyone who buys this is in for a treat.
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