Customer Reviews

Tamron AF 75-300mm f/4.0-5.6 LD for Pentax Digital SLR Cameras

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

 

 

The Tamron f/4-5.6 75-300 zoom is a great buy at the price. The zoom is very smooth and auto focus very responsive. Very nice optics. For outdoor work you can, almost, get away with this as the only lens. Results are crisp beautiful photos. Quality is vastly superior to the lenses generally included in a Pentax kit.

Personally I find the low end of the focal length limiting (indoors in particular) and it could be a bit brighter (aperture) but the quality is very good at 300mm. As far as cost goes there is nearly a $100.00 price delta between this and an equivalent 28-200mm lens.

I have personally used this lens for several weddings (paid and voluntary) with great results. Lens is light enough that I have been able to do a lot of shots freehand (no tripod) without noticeable "shake" in the resulting photos. In addition to the weddings I have also had good results with equestrian, other "slow" action photos and in particular landscape shots where I use the zoom to frame the shot with different points of view (POV).

In summary this is a very good lens at a very good price. If you need a long lens in your set this is a very good choice.

This Objective is the best in this price range I have used. It works just great, light intensity is good enough, and I found it to be able to accomodate the strangest requests especially at the Cliffs of Mohare in Ireland, Malta and here in my homecountry, the U.S. Even with diffuse light situations, the Tamron still gives you some power to accomplish what you want.

I would personally recommend Tamron Objectives to everybody on a budget. If you need better light intensity you will have to go with a lower spread, which will, depending on the lens you buy, drive the price right up. Tamron is a great Customer Service experience as well.

I just recently bought a Pentax DSLR and this one will be equipped with a Tamron soon.

I've owned the Tamron Autofocus 75-300mm f/4-5.6 LD with Hood for Pentax SLR Cameras for about a year now. I use it on a Pentax DSLR (I am a big fan of conventional lenses on smaller sensor cameras - the sensor picks up the sweet spot of the lens). It was/is my 'go to' lens for far-away outdoor sports, action and even outdoor portraiture. The size translates to 110 to 480mm in 35mm film camera terms, so it will not do for close up work but the reach is awesome!

Pros: great depth of field at wider apertures (even relatively long focus) which makes subjects pop. Reasonably fast focus (about a second from close to far). Solid zoom feel and there is little tendency to creep. Solid build. The lens has 'presence' - when zoomed to 300mm, it looks huge! When used on a DSLR with a smaller sensor (1.6 factor), there is no noticeable pincushion or barrel distortion. It is, especially for the money, fairly sharp.
Cons: Occasionally, aperture control closes down (may be a flaw in my lens as opposed to all lenses). Causes me to turn off camera, partially disengage and then reengage the lens from the camera, turn camera back on (cycle is about 5-7 seconds - I have lost shots because of this). It tends to hunt for focus with some subjects. The lens is somewhat heavy.

All in all, despite the one major issue I have with the aperture, it's a really nice lens at the price I paid. Great value for the money. I rate it a 3 because of my particular issue. Without the issue I would rate it a 4+ or 5-, mostly because of weight.

This lens works smoothly with my manual focus Pentax K1000. I just need to keep off the A (automatic) focus stop.

I noticed a slight amount of distortion at the edges of one picture taken at the 300 mm position, but, generally, everything looks fine.

I bought the lens for a trip to Alaska and I was very satisfied with the operation of the lens.

My feelings about this lens are mixed. I bought it in the hope of extending the range of my Pentax 100D with the same quality and ease of use as the Pentax 50-200mm lens, but it didn't turn out that way. I do like the heaviness of the lens (A little beef makes it feel sturdy), and the image quality is no doubt good, however, this glass has one particular quirk that drives me crazy; in order for the aperture to be set by the camera for automatic exposures, (Pentax lenses do not have aperture rings), the aperture on this lens must be set to the "A" position. But once that is done, the blades close to a pinpoint size opening, minimizing the light entering the camera, and making low-light shots impossible to see. The only way around this is to remove the lens from the camera, and manually open the lens before re-mounting it.

Also, if automatic focusing is desired, no manual fine-tuning can be done afterward, as can be done with the Pentax 50-200, because the Tamron's focusing ring is tightly held in place when in the AF mode, thus making it quite possible to damage the focusing mechanism. The only way to hand-focus at all is to first turn off the AF feature.

All is not bad, however. I have made some dynamite close-ups of flowers with this lens simply by zooming in on them from a distance, and I have found both the color and the resolution to be quite sharp. Considering the price, it was not money badly spent.

I got this lens earlier today and have been playing with it all day. The Picture quality is the best part about this lens. it takes super clear pictures even at 300mm- that's the main thing that matters with a lens-picture quality. When i first took it out of the box, i was impressed at how big it was. not heavy, but big. even more so with the lens hood on it. It looks like a real beast on my pentax k-x. i highly recommend this to anyone. it's extremely affordable and takes great pictures.

I bought this lens at a local store. I compared this side by side with Sigma 70-300, f/4.0-5.6. I was blown away by the picture quality. For the money you pay, life doesn't get any better! Pentax K20D, AF540FGZ.

Lens works well, photos taken have been clear/sharrp except when the operator couldn't use the camera/lens properly. Low light pictures came out dark as expected due to the lens length but were clear and looked good. Using lens at high settings requires support for the operator to maintain control/stop shake blurring. Very good lens especially for the money.

This lens is "ok". For the price that it is you kind of get what you pay for from it. Noticed some shake and lighting was off on some inside shots I took at my daughters cheerleading competition that I bought this for. I have shot on a tripod and off of the tripod...both the same outcome.

Lens works great, zoom is fantastic.