Tamron SP AF 17-50mm F/2.8 XR Di-II LD SP Aspherical (IF) Zoom Lens with Built In Motor for Nikon Digital SLR

by Tamron

Product Details

• Item Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00156OZ68
• Item model number: AF016NII-700
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: March 1, 2008

Product Description

From the Restaurant

The SP AF17-50mm F/2.8 is a lightweight, compact, fast standard zoom lens designed exclusively for digital SLR cameras, expanding the product concept of the popular SP AF28-75mm F/2.8 zoom lens. In addition, portrait shots are made beautiful with the natural out-of-focus effect characteristic provided by the fast F/2.8 aperture. Additionally, a broader photographic expression through the use of faster shutter speeds as a result of the maximum aperture offers enhanced photographic pleasure. The lens boasts one of the best close-up shooting performances in the class of fast standard zoom lenses designed exclusively for digital cameras and featuring an F/2.8 maximum aperture throughout the entire zoom range, to ensure stress-free photographic shots at all focal lengths and distances.

Extraordinary detail at the macro level

AF18-200mm F/3.5-6.3 XR Di II Highlights

Di II
Lenses are designed for exclusive use on digital cameras with smaller-size imagers and inherit all of the benefits of our Di products. These lenses are not designed for conventional cameras and digital cameras with image sensors larger than 24mm x 16mm.

Extra Refractive Index Glass (XR)
Extra Refractive Index (XR) glass can bend light rays at steeper angles, thereby decreasing the physical length of the lens while enhancing imaging performance by minimizing optical aberrations. This has allowed Tamron to develop a line of shorter, smaller-diameter, lighter lenses without sacrificing lens speed, and actually upgrading image quality compared to older designs. XR glass is costlier than conventional glass but it yields enhanced optical power distribution, making possible many of the outstanding and innovative lens designs that bear the XR designation. XR glass, with its superior light-bending power, makes it possible to design a short-barrel lens with the same light-gathering ability (aperture value) as a long-barrel lens—even with a smaller lens diameter. By using this principle Tamron has been able to shorten the length of the entire optical system and produce lighter, more compact lenses of the same speed, and also to provide greater zoom ranges in lenses that are much more convenient to carry by hand.

Special glass for better performance and more compact lens designs

Low Dispersion (LD)
Low dispersion (LD) glass elements in a lens help reduce chromatic aberration; the tendency of light of different colors to come to different points of focus at the image plane. Chromatic aberration reduces the sharpness of an image, but glass with an extremely lowdispersion index, has less of a tendency to separate (defract) a ray of light into a rainbow of colors. This characteristic allows the lens designer to effectively compensate for chromatic aberration at the center of the field (on axis), a particular problem at long focal lengths (the telephoto end of the zoom range), and for lateral chromatic aberration (towards the edges of the field) that often occurs at short focal lengths (the wide-angle end of the zoom range.)

Low Dispersion (LD) Glass for Greater Lens Sharpness

Super Performance (SP) for Discriminating Shooters
Tamron SP (Super Performance) series is a line of ultra-high-performance lenses designed and manufactured to the exacting specifications demanded by professionals and others who require the highest possible image quality. In creating SP lenses Tamron’s optical designers put their foremost priority on achieving superior performance parameters—they are all designed to a higher standard with little regard for cost constraints. As a result, Tamron lenses bearing the SP designation feature impressive and innovative designs that have established an enviable reputation for excellence among those knowledgeable photographers that demand the very best.

Zoom Lock (ZL)
Another original Tamron mechanical engineering concept is the Zoom Lock (ZL), a simple convenience feature that prevents undesired extension of the lens barrel when carrying the camera/lens unit on a neck strap.

Product Description

Lenses are designed for exclusive use on digital cameras with smaller-size imagers and inherit all of the benefits of Di products. The SP AF17-50mm F/2.8 is a lightweight, compact, fast standard zoom lens designed exclusively for digital SLR cameras, expanding the product concept of the popular SP AF28-75mm F/2.8 zoom lens. These lenses are not designed for conventional cameras and digital cameras with image sensors larger than 24x16mm. In addition, portrait shots are made beautiful with the natural out-of-focus effect characteristic provided by the fast F/2.8 aperture. Additionally, a broader photographic expression through the use of faster shutter speeds as a result of the maximum aperture offers enhanced photographic pleasure. The lens boasts one of the best close-up shooting performances in the class of fast standard zoom lenses designed exclusively for digital cameras and featuring an F/2.8 maximum aperture throughout the entire zoom range, to ensure stress-free photographic shots at all focal lengths and distances. Weight - 430 grams (15.2 ounces)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Excellent - good performance in low-light situations, July 24, 2009

By 

Isaac Alonzo (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tamron SP AF 17-50mm F/2.8 XR Di-II LD SP Aspherical (IF) Zoom Lens with Built In Motor for Nikon Digital SLR (Electronics)

Update at the bottom (04-dec-2009)

I am an event and wedding photographer and first i was more keen to the Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8G but i did my research and even asked in a Wedding Photography group on Flickr and a friend of mine told me that he switched to tamron after he discover the performance was comparable to the three times more expensive lens made by Nikon.

You wont get the metal lens or the internal focusing that comes with the Nikkor one, but to be honest that does not matter that much in a lens this small, it comes out like a bit over an inch when you zoom in but i don't see why that would be a problem to anyone. I shoot events that last for hours and the lightweight is a plus.

I have taken over 3,000 pictures already and they are just perfect. I did a test with both lenses mounting the camera in a tripod and taking the picture of the same subject and i couldn't tell which one was taken with Tamron or Nikkor (not even in my big screen).

The focusing is pretty fast, well suited for fast paced situations such as weddings and concerts where everybody is in constant movement, also very quiet! If you are on budget i strongly suggest you to buy this lens and you wont be disappointed. My copy serial is almost 30,000 so i guess previous issues have been solved. The only problem i have found is that on the wide end (17mm) corners are a bit soft (not too much to notice at first sight) but that doesn't bother me because i use it between 20mm and 28mm most of the time.

Note that i have been using the lens on a Nikon D300 and i take around 500 pictures per event average.

I think it's not fair call this lens "junk" just because you have a bad copy, please be fair. If that is your case ask for a replacement and I'm sure amazon will work things out for you, then make a review based on the good copy.

Isaac

Update 04-dec-2009:
The lens it's been focusing really slow for the past 2 months and even though the focusing speed was OK and a bit noisy the pictures were fine, now I'm going to repair it and then sell it, just purchased the Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8G and wont buy anything from Tamron ever again and stick to Nikkor lenses. Maybe i got a bad copy and i know some of my fellow photographers don't have the money to purchase a 1,400 dollar lens, but if you can do it just don't think of it twice just for the sake of avoid a focusing failure in the mid of a job. If you are just an amateur photographer having fun with the camera, i encourage you to try every lens before spending your hard earned money in something that will just stop working few months later.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No focus problems here, great general purpose lens, November 21, 2008

By 

M. Hendry (Santa Monica, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Tamron SP AF 17-50mm F/2.8 XR Di-II LD SP Aspherical (IF) Zoom Lens with Built In Motor for Nikon Digital SLR (Electronics)

I was wary of picking this one up, but so far I haven't noticed anything wrong at all with autofocus: very clear, crisp images, and I'm loving the speed compared to my D40's stock lens (18-55mm f/3.5-5.6).

About all I could complain about is the motor, which is noisier and seems slower than the 18-55. It works though which is the main thing! Build quality seems solid.

Mine is Japanese-made according to the label, serial number 29xxx. One would hope that after building nearly 30,000 of the things they would have any quality control problems worked out.

Update 01/2010: I posted my review originally 14 months or so ago and in that time I've upgraded from a D40 to a D90 and picked up a few other lenses along the way for specific situations (f/1.4 Sigma prime, 55-200mm Nikon long zoom, 105mm Sigma macro). It's more plasticky in construction than any of those but is still my favorite lens, not just the one I use the most, because of the quality of the images. After 10,000+ shots taken I'm not noticing any mechanical or electrical problems. Seems other people have, I guess I'm one of the lucky ones!

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good deal. Autofocus is less of a problem than people think., August 8, 2008

By 

J. Lee (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Tamron SP AF 17-50mm F/2.8 XR Di-II LD SP Aspherical (IF) Zoom Lens with Built In Motor for Nikon Digital SLR (Electronics)

First, rumors have it that this lens is made in two locations:
China and Japan. Amazon gave me a Japan model which I hear is supposed to have gone through more rigorous quality control. The lens is light and feels much cheaper and clunkier than any Nikkor/Nikon I've ever used. The autofocus is slow (not sure if it's slower than the old screw-drive version), but accurate. I have a Tamron 28-300 VC that autofocus similarly (in little baby steps). I use it at indoor parties and it's tolerable so long as people aren't dancing around. The optics are very sharp and I'm USUALLY satisfied with shots at f2.8.
There have also been, however, some unusual problems:
When I first got the lens, I occasionally got the f - - on my D80 indicating a poor electrical connection. I need to wriggle the lens around. Secondly, sometimes when I didn't see that error, the lens would not respond (try to engage autofocus with the shutter but no response). This has happened twice out of the maybe 30 times I've used it so far. Nevertheless, I haven't encountered these problems recently. It's probably nothing to be afraid of.

This is a great alternative to it's competitors. Nikon 17-55 2.8 aside, this lens' closest competitor is the Sigma 18-50 HSM. If you are REALLY bothered by the autofocus, you might want to consider the Sigma. I went with the Tamron after seeing so many good shots at f2.8 and b/c of the 67mm filter size :).