Customer Reviews

Tamron AF 18-270mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC LD Aspherical IF Macro Zoom Lens for Canon Digital SLR Cameras

5 star:		(107)
4 star:		(70)
3 star:		(32)
2 star:		(24)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

Length:: 4:13 Mins

Tamron's new lens offers a 15X zoom range, the most you will find for a DSLR. But do you have to give up too much image quality as a result? I was looking for a lens for travel and for casual shots that could replace my need for both wide angle through the telephoto range and hopefully replace several other lenses that I typically have to bring with me.

Overall, I'm very pleased with this new lens, it did better than I was expecting. The quality of the photos is almost on par as my Canon 70-300mm (but of course not my 70-200 f/2.8) with a much more usable range for an everyday lens. I also tend to have back problems, so the less weight I carry on vacations, the better!

A few negatives: the lens does not zoom smoothly through its whole range, particularly when zooming from wide to tele, and you only have f/6.3 when fully zoomed (common with superzooms). The zoom was nice and tight when I got the lens (as shown in the video) but after a few weeks of use, it creeps pretty badly. The lens hood is fairly small, may not work as well at the 150mm+ range (but nice that they include one at all!) Also a typical issue for super zooms, as the hood has to be designed to minimize vignetting at the wide end. No full-time manual focus, which I don't use enough typically to be bothered about. The focus ring is located at the front of the lens and it's pretty easy to switch back and forth and use it as needed, but this is definitely not a great lens for using manual focus on. Some distortion in images at both ends as you would expect for a super-zoom, the barrel distortion at the wide end in particular is fairly obvious, but correctable in most situations. CA and vignetting on my copy are reasonable for a lens in this price range, with CA most apparent at the upper end of the range. Macro feature is nice to have, but somewhat underwhelming performance and certainly no substitute for a true macro lens. The lens has a nice, solid feel to it, while still being fairly lightweight. I've used the Canon 70-300mm DO lens in the past which was comparable to this in size, but MUCH heavier. The focus is fairly quiet as well, not USM quiet, but considerably better than some other off-brand lenses I've used. As I usually find with off-brand lenses, the autofocus is not quite as fast and accurate as Canon lenses, but it seems considerably better than some other Tamron lenses I've used and not enough to be a problem for casual use.

I give the lens 5 stars, not because it takes the greatest photos you will ever see, but because it is the first super-zoom I have tried that performs good enough that I am willing to use it, as a best-in-its-class lens. It's a perfect lens in particular for any new DSLR owner that can't afford to invest thousands in really high quality and/or multiple lenses, or for someone like me that is often limited in the equipment they can carry at one time. The lack of smoothness in the zoom ring and the creep are the primary annoyances for me, but I've yet to use a long telephoto lens in this price range that doesn't creep, so hard to be really tough on it for that. I wouldn't use it as my primary sports lens (my f/2.8 will do that job far better) nor as an architectural wide angle lens but for a general all-purpose casual lens, it's got a great feature set and well worth considering.

I've had mine for three weeks now and have taken several hundred pictures under a wide range of conditions. I read all the reviews here and on other sites, both for Canon and Nikon mounts before I made a purchase. I hope to compare and contrast my experiences with what I've read here and on other review sites. My camera body is a Canon XTi.

I read some reviews that complained of chromatic aberration (CA). Yes, there is some at the edges, at some focal lengths and apertures. If you look at the test results ([...]) you will see that the lens performs excellently at around f-6.7 to f-8. Almost no CA and excellent sharpness. This lens simply wants to run best at about f-8. So, I've taken to using my camera in Av mode at f-8 when I'm using this lens. Excellent results with no visible CA.

I read some reviews that complained of 'softness' of the images in some situations. This is attributable to two issues. One is that if you let the camera program mode choose an aperture, you may get a very high number. At very high-number apertures (f-16+) the lens is limited in sharpness, not by any design fault, but by a basic law of physics. It's near the diffraction limit for that aperture. The second issue is that at long focal lengths the adaptive multi-point auto-focus algorithms mess up. If you're not watching carefully they may focus on a bush that's 50 feet away leaving the landscape that you were trying to capture out of focus. Blame the camera and not the lens. What I've been doing is using spot focus at longer focal lengths. Focus lock on what is supposed to be in focus and then frame the scene. Do that, and run Av mode at f-8 so you don't get high f-numbers, and 'softness' will not be an issue.

I've read some complaints of slowness or inconsistency of focus. This seems to come mainly from Nikon owners. For me, it focuses very quickly and quietly under all lighting situations. No problems at all. I've taken it out on a dark night and pointed it at a star and had focus lock within two seconds. I think the issue is more related to the focus algorithms running in the microprocessor in the camera body than to the lens itself. With my Canon XTi, I couldn't ask for better performance.

I've read complaints of 'lens creep'. That's the tendency of long-focal-length lenses to extend to their maximum focal length when hanging down, due to the weight of the front elements of the lens. Mine doesn't do it, yet. This could develop in the future. I don't expect it to be an issue, though. There's a simple lug that can lock the lens at the short focal length for carrying. While shooting I tend to support the weight of the camera and lens with my hand on the lens, and use the other hand on the body to work the controls and point. So lens 'lens creep' would not be an issue.

I've read some complaints of inconsistent force on the zoom ring required to zoom through the entire range. That's true. It does take a bit more force to zoom between the 70mm to about 120mm range. It's noticeable, and I wish it wasn't there, but I know why that is. Somewhere about 70mm the cams in the zoom mechanism go into a range where large amounts of extension occur with small zoom ring movement. While it's not desirable, it's also not at all a problem.

This lens is heavy, especially if you're used to the kit 18-55 lens. You'll get used to it and you'll be delighted if you're a Canon owner. If you're a Nikon owner you may have issues with focus in low light.

All-in-all I'm quite happy with the purchase and I don't hesitate to recommend this lens. But, to be really happy with it, you have to understand the compromises that are part of its design and how to work around them.

Edit: Almost a year later.

I've now had the lens for just about a year and I've taken thousands of pictures. Just about everything I initially said I would say again. Two things I'd add:

First, barrel distortion is quite noticeable at short focal lengths. This can be objectionable where there are things near the edges of the scene that should be straight lines (roof lines, highway bridges, etc.) that appear curved. This is expected with any lens at "fish eye" wide angle, and so it is with this lens. I've found that this effect can be entirely removed in a decent photo editing program like Gimp or Photoshop. Look in the menus for the tool for lens distortion effects.

Second, there is strange focusing behavior using this lens on my Canon XTi when using a circular polarizing filter. One should never attempt to use a simple polarizing filter on a digital SLR because they mess up the camera's auto focus. But circular polarizers are supposed to work, according to the literature. Still, the circular polarizer that I've been trying to use seems to cause the camera some focus indecision, especially with far focus. Don't count on being able to use a circular polarizing filter with this lens if you have a camera similar to mine. Of course, Nikon might behave differently.

Edit: Almost two years later.

This lens has become my primary lens. It's the lens that stays on my camera in the bag, with the other lenses in the pockets. It's just a fantastic general-shooting lens.

I've come to really appreciate the optical image stabilization. It's giving me an extra stop or two of usable range in low light. I would never have considered using an f3.5-6.3 lens in low light before this. But, Tamron's stabilization works. If the subject isn't moving, hand-held slow-shutter-speed photography is possible where it never was before except with a wide aperture lens. Just two days ago I was out in the boonies of Arizona shooting telephoto pix of javelina in low-light conditions that would have been impossible with any other lens.

After a considerable amount of use the lens has developed some tendency for 'lens creep' (see above). It's not a problem, but it does happen. Use the locking lug.

I remain delighted with this lens.

Like the previous reviewer, Y. Fukunaga, I too bought this lens last week and I am also using it on a Nikon D300. I agree with just everything in the previous review, so I will not repeat it again. The reason the zoom ring doesn't move smoothly between 70 and 150 mm is to prevent lens creep, a notorious problem with the Nikkor 18-200 and that is one of the main reasons I did not get that lens. The Tamron got a very good review in the October issue of "Popular Photography and Imaging" and I tend to believe the reviews I read in that magazine. I have also had very good experiences with the Tamron 90mm macro and Tamron customer service which is well known for being responsive and efficient.

I bought this lens because I wanted a good walk around lens. I do a lot of walking and often don't feel like carrying a bag and changing lenses. Also I wanted a all-in-one lens to use when traveling. I was pleasantly surprised by the sharpness of the lens at both at wide 18mm and tele 270mm and in my opinion the distortion and vignetting of the lens are minimal and really only noticeable a little at the high end. The lens could have a more solid feel to it, it fells plasticky, but then it would not be as light as it is. Also f/6.3 at 270mm is quite slow, so don't expect to use it in low light situations. The VC, vibration compensation seems to work well.

So far, so good. I can recommend this lens as a general walk around or travel lens with no hesitation. I am very satisfied and I'm glad that third party lenses are giving the Nikon glass a run for their money. I would like to note that I purchased this lens on October 4, so I will add to or edit this review as I use this lens more.

Update October 15. The lens started developing lens creep a few days ago starting at about 50mm. (Lens creep is when the lens will zoom in or out if you are not holding the zoom ring to stop it from telescoping in or out.) I returned it to the photo dealer today to exchange it. Two other lenses they had, had the same problem out of the box. The third lens was a little tighter, so I took it with me for observation. Hopefully this will not be a recurring problem.

Review by Walter O. Koenig

I'd like to start by saying that my lens does not suffer from the "zoom creep" or slow focusing when zoomed in that just about everyone mentions when critiquing this lens. Maybe I'm just lucky, but the zoom feels strong and just stiff enough to keep the lens from folding out/in when tilted up/down (perhaps a little too stiff, but this is much more welcome than creep). As for focus speed, this lens focuses no slower than I would expect (in fact it is much faster). It's really quite satisfactory, even in moderately low light. It helps (for any camera/lens combo) to make sure you are pointing at an area of contrast the AF sensor will be able to detect. Remember to focus (on a high-contrast area of your subject, in the very center of the frame), then re-frame the shot to your pleasure. The focus is also extremely quiet, though not quite as much as Nikon's AF-S.

Pros:
- Good image quality; quite sharp given its incredible zoom range (at least as good as Nikon 55-200mm VR, which I am planning on reselling)
- *Generally beats competition in areas of sharpness, CA, vignetting, across majority of zoom range (yes, even the venerable Nikon 18-200)
- Quiet, fast (to lock, generally) focusing; WILL focus on D40/60/5000 etc. For the record, I use a D300.
- Vibration Compensation (VC) works very well! (surprisingly much better than my Nikon 55-200's VR)
- Excellent value for the price
- No zoom creep on mine! (yet...)

Cons:
- Quite slow (f/6.3) from 200mm on (f/5.6 only takes you to 120mm)
- Too little distance between min and max focus on focus ring, making precise manual focusing a challenge (though I've yet to require MF for a shot)
- Rear lens cap not compatible with Nikon lenses (which I found not only weird but annoying)
- No lens pouch/case included, but who uses those anyway?
- Not sexy
- Other cons are negligible/ shared with all lenses in this category

Which superzoom/vacation lens to buy?

Buy the Nikon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 G ED-IF AF-S VR DX Zoom-Nikkor Lens if Nikon quality/ brand loyalty is important to you, or if you need the extra light at the end of the zoom range. This lens may also have the best focusing and VR of its competition.

Buy the Sigma 18-250mm f/3.5-6.3 DC OS HSM IF Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras if you're on a limited budget, and can't spring an extra $20-70 for the Tamron. Also, the Sigma handles distortion slightly better at 18mm. Other than that, the Tamron just trumps it in just about every respect, including zoom range, sharpness, and CA.

Buy this lens, the Tamron AF 18-270mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC LD Aspherical IF Macro Zoom Lens with Built in Motor for Nikon DSLR Cameras if you want longer telephoto, better sharpness, lower CA and vignetting than the competition, without making any major sacrifices or breaking the bank.

Why I purchased this lens: I decided on this lens when shopping for a "vacation zoom" to take with me to Spain and be able to leave some lenses at home/ in the hotel. I decided on the Tamron NOT for its unmatched zoom range (frankly I could care less, I'm more of an ultrawide person myself). I chose this model for its image quality first, features/comparison second. I was very skeptical about spending so much on a Tamron with no experience with this brand, but so far this lens has thoroughly met my expectations. It's not magic, but I am quite pleased with my decision.

Thus, this lens comes highly recommended.

*I got much of my image quality information from slrgear dot com's technical lens reviews.

I just got this Tamron 18-270VC lens a few days ago.
My D300 and 16-85VR work well, and I needed a telephoto zoom.

I chose this lens from Nikon 18-200VR, 70-300VR, Tamron 28-300VC,
and 18-270VC. This focal length range attracts me, because I mainly
take photos of my son. I usually don't have enough time to
exchange lens.

Pros;
1) Great focal length range. Multi-purpose walk around lens.
This covers 27-405mm on Nikon DSLR with APS sensor.
2) VC works very well. You can notice that a view through
finder looks "completely stopped."
3) Small size and inexpensive price.
4) Made in Japan ;)
5) It has a zoom lock mechanism. No zoom creep is found at
both wide and tele ends even if the lock is off.
6) Easy macro.

Cons;
1) Not Nikon.
2) Zoom ring doesn't move smoothly between 70 and 150 mm.
(This may work for no zoom creep, though.)
3) Apparent distortion and moderate vignetting at the wide end.
4) AF speed is slow at low light condition.

In conclusion, the Tamron 18-270VC is one of the best lens for
everyday walk-around lens. Nikon 18-200 is still a strong competitor
against Tamron. The 70mm difference of the focal length
between Tamron and Nikon may not be a big deal for some people, but
when I compare these on APC sensor, the difference becomes 105mm
(equivalent to Nikon 300mm and Tamron 405mm at the tele ends.)
If you don't have 18-200VR, it's a good idea to add this lens to
your candidates. Highly recommended!

Hi Guys - I just got the 18-270 for Nikon (D80 here) and am NOT happy with it. I guess the other guys got better 'copies' than I did (my normal luck.)

The Good:
Feels and looks very well made
Quiet - might not by USM, but is VERY quiet, and would be perfectly fine at a wedding. You can barely here it, honestly
6 year warranty (Don't buy grey-market, and ONLY buy from an authorized dealer!)

The BAD:
Image quality - Virtually all of my pictures are soft! I even set the d80 to maximum sharpness - better, but still not enough. Focus lock was VERY slow (typically) sometimes even taking 8-9 seconds, and this was in outdoor light around 5pm. Even then, the pics are just not sharp. Inside, even with decent lighting, it just won't get focus-lock in half my pics. Manual focus worked fine, but there is not a lot of barrel movement between out of focus and in focus, so its tough to get it just right.

Lens Creep - its there - if you point the camera up, my lens falls back in. Fortunately, you do have the lock swith , which is great. Also, when you extend the zoom, it feels "ok," but the resistance changes as you extend it. You can tell there is a lot rotating inside the lens.

Try it, and write write back your own findings. Make sure whovever you buy from has a good return policy. My thoughts are the Nikon 18-200 is probably the right way to go, but I'm going to try the Simga HSM OS 18-200 just cause the price is $200 bucks less. Good luck.

UPDATE:
I have now compared the Sigma 18-200 vs the 18-270. IMMEDIATELY, I noticed much quicker focus-lock (at any focal-length) with the SIGMA, and upon viewing them on the PC, much sharper results. I'd have to try another 18-270 to be sure if I got a bad one or not, but at this point, my sale goes to Sigma.

Ok. I recently got a D90 and had bought the 55-200 Nikon lens with it. But I wanted to get a good walk around lens for an upcoming trip through CA & NV. So I finalized the Nikon 18-200 (5 yr warranty) & Tamron 18-270 (6 yr warranty). I had to eliminate the Sigma (1yr warranty) due to significant number of users having their lens go bad in 2-12 months.
I bought the Tamron from Amazon last week hoping to keep it or return it for the 18-200 Nikon if there were significant problems. I find that after 400 photos, I see excellent photos and great Vibration Compensation (VR or VRII on Nikon). On low light (maybe 1 candle light equivalent) it takes a tad longer (extra 2-3 seconds) to focus, but I can't comment about it unless I can compare against the Nikon 18-200.
However I compared the Tamron against the 55-200 Nikon that I already have and whenever the Tamron struggled to autofocus, so did the Nikon under the same parameters. At improved lighting, the Tamron was better than 55-200. The Tamron did better than the Nikon 18-55mm too in similar lighting. I know I cannot extrapolate these results to the Nikon 18-200, but I have to wait until I can borrow it from my friend to compare.
Compared to the Nikon being another three-hundred&fifty more, I don't know if it is that much better.
I'm very impressed with the build quality of the Tamron lens. Seems well made. I like the autofocus locking speed and pic quality is crisp in most lighting conditions,zoom, shutter & aperture settings. The motor is slightly more noisier than nikon lens, but it does not even bother me. I think is is something that will bother someone who really wants to find fault with this lens. I do feel that people with D90 & D300 have great experiences with this lens while d80 and d200 and older bodies, people complain. So maybe that might be a factor in less stars? I have another 28 days more to evaluate this lens or exchange for the Nikon. I will come back and edit this review if I find anything to the contrary. But so far it is a great buy and looks like a keeper. I reviewed thousands of pictures in pbase & flickr before I felt this lens even merited a try and so far hasn't failed to impress me.

2009-Nov-14: Its been almost 2 weeks with the Tamron. I also purchased a Nikon 18-200 from Amazon hoping to keep one of them. There is lens creep in both the Nikon and the Tamron. I took a few pictures in low light of the same subject, hand held, VR/VC ON @ 200mm, 0.63 secs exposure, ISO 1600. f5.6 on Nikon & f6.3 on Tamron. I did a side by side compare in Paintshop at 60% zoom of the 4288x2848 image and I see the Tamron has better details, sharpness. The setting was indoors with two 3 w bulbs about 10 feet away at night. I have to try the same on a tripod though. I'm thinking why not spend the money saved when buying a Tamron (almost three-thirty as of today) towards a high speed lens for specialized night shooting if/when needed and/or a Nikon SB-600 flash. So far I like the Tamron. I'm an amateur, but comparing pics side by side with the two lenses is slowly convincing me to keep the Tamron. Will update again if I find anything more to add.

Of course be sure to read the reviews at DPReview for both lenses where they rate the Nikon slightly better. Also look at pics taken at pbase & flickr for the lenses.

Dec 31, 2009: I finally went with the Nikon 18-200 in Nov before my vacation just because I wasn't sure about the Tamron's performance in low lighting and if it will bite me if I end up taking some low light pics. Looking back though, I feel like I should have stayed with my Tamron and netted the difference in money and enjoyed! :-( I looked at some older pics taken by Tamron when I first bought it and one thing I really liked was the bokeh in closeup pics. It is very smooth compared to the Nikon 18-200. I for one usually hunt for value in any product and in this I might have not done so by not sticking with the Tamron. I highly recommend this lens.

I have always owned Canon lenses, primarily the 17-85 IS and the 70-300 IS. For travel convenience reasons, I wanted a single lens. My quality expectations were not that high for the Tamron, but I decided to take a chance. The price at Amazon is one of the better ones I found including shipping.
After using it for almost a week with my T1i, here are my thoughts.
1. Zoom. The range of course is amazing. Initially, I too noticed that turning the zoom was tricky as it gets tight in the middle. That loosened up after a few days. It does slide out and in when pointing down and up, but so did my Canon 70-300, and I always have my hand on the lens so I am totally fine with that. I don't even bother to use the lock.
2. Picture quality. It's at par with my Canons. I did three things to get sharper pictures. Firstly, adjusted the little dial next to the view finder to make the dots rounder - I noticed it needed adjusting. I don't know what it's called, but it allows you to set the lens with the camera properly, looking through the view finder to make the dots small and round (instead of fuzzy-vertical or fuzzy-horizontal). Secondly, I changed focus to spot instead of evaluate, and I do the same with metering. That made things sharper. Thirdly, I increased the picture quality settings in the camera and increased sharpness, contrast, and color saturation. And lastly, I do use the largest aperture available, but noticed that f/8 gives good pictures at the entire zoom range.
There is visible barrel distortion at 18mm - I am OK with that.
3. VC (Vibration control/optical image stabilization). Wow. I can take hand-held pictures at 270mm indoors at 1/10 seconds with no visible blurring! I get lucky at 1/5 seconds sometimes as well. Needs practice - you observe the slow stable movements and click when it is at the end of range for such low speed clicks. Of course at such speeds if you have moving subjects you get blur from that, but that is not the fault of the camera. I HATE using flashes, although I have the Speedlight 580 II which rocks - I prefer natural light handheld photos - I like about 1/50 with normal movement to capture a little bit of motion blur. Anyway, the VC on this lens is great and above and beyond what I need.
4. Overall feel and issues. It feels solid and of high quality. Manual focus is hard as its turn range is pretty small. Sometimes automatic focus fails, especially in very low light. You can help it by turning the focus ring (it does turn with some force, even when in auto focus mode) to get it close, then it locks. Focusing is a little slower than my Canon lenses. Chromatic aberration does not seem to be any worse at 270mm than my Canon 70-300. It is quite acceptable to me.
What a great value. I plan to use it for 3-4 years until something better comes out, like a 17-400 perhaps! :-)
I highly recommend this lens.

I hesitated about ordering on-line after reading about the zoom-creep and the slow focusing under poor light conditions. I bought the lens locally where I could easily return it if there were problems. I have never been happier with a lens. The photos have been very sharp throughout the range of focal lengths. I am using it with a Nikon D60 which I bought to use as a lightweight SLR/Lens combo. I have not found zoom creep too be a significant problem.

Having used other (Nikor) VR telephoto lens, I knew that auto-focus could be slow under poor light conditions. This can be frustrating if you are trying to capture an action with quick shots.

The solution has been simple and has helped me to get better photos than if I was using auto-focus. Turn the VR switch to the on position, and turn the AF switch to the off position. Simply, focus the old fashioned way. I zoom in on the subject and adjust the focus so the subject is in sharp focus. Then I zoom back to compose the photo. When I hit the shutter release, I get an instant exposure, under the poorest light conditions.

By using manual focus, I have regained control over my photos to a degree that was never the same when using an auto-focus lens. No longer is the lens focusing on some far away object when my subject was off center in the composition. All of us would be better photographers if we quit depending upon auto-focus to do all the thinking for us. It never knows exactly what we are trying to do.

Update:

I've found that the lens consistantly back focuses when shooting close-up at 270mm. It's unfortunate because otherwise I think the lens performs well. But I can't live with a lens that can't focus correctly. I don't know if this is a function of the design or just this copy. Either way, I'll have to return it.



First thoughts:

1. The lens is smaller than I thought, based on initial comments I read. It's much smaller (at 18mm) than my 17-55IS.

2. The focus ring moves smoothly in manual mode.
3. The VC does jump a bit at first but stabilizes quickly

4. The zoom seemed a bit stiff when I first tried it but I didn't notice it when actually shooting.

5. The zoom ring moves in the opposite direction as my canon lenses!

6. There is significant distortion at 18mm -- no big surprise. But at 35mm, I noticed an unusual distortion as well. This isn't a lens for architecture images.

7. The lens produces warmer images than my canon lenses.

8. Looking at my first few images, they look pretty good at 50% crop. At 100%, you can see issues. But I don't expect a lens of this range to be perfect at 100%.