Customer Reviews

Tamron Autofocus 28-200mm f/3.8-5.6 XR Aspherical (IF) Lens for Minolta and Sony Digital SLR Cameras (Black)

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

 

 

If you are looking for a decent walkaround that does 95% of the ranges, and hate lugging loads of lens with kids for zoo trips or travel, this will be perfect. Folds to a amazing skinny size that is even smaller than the Sony Kit lens! Big PLus- Pictures actually turned out better than the kit lenses after some workouts.

I did some research before buying this lens and read about the struggling at 200mm. I verify it does struggles, but not something as unbearable as some made it out to be. Maybe we are more impatient in this age, and cannot tolerate a delay of a split a second. If you can bear with your 70-300, this will not be an issue for you.

However, please note that although it says F3.8, your camera will show maximum of F4.0.. According to the Tamron Customer Service, this is inherent for Sony Cameras only; so don't be alarmed..

Sans the prime lenses and CZ, this's gotta be the best purchase I've made. And it is dirt cheap (<150)!! I'll highly recommend to novice and pros. Try it and you'll soon dump your kits like I did!!

This is a solid excellent quality lens that will work on both your conventional and digital cameras. The price was very good, so buy if you can get a good deal, and are not worried about having the latest model!

This may be a slightly different lens review than most would write, but maybe someone will benefit from my experience. I was as interested in weight and handling as I was absolute image quality. My search was for an all-around and relatively light weight lens.

When I finally ordered this lens, it was after a pretty long internet search for something that would handle well and be more manageable on my relatively small a55 Sony camera. I already had a Sigma 18-250mm that is simply a GREAT lens. I enjoy using it, but not on an everyday basis. The Sigma weighs 22oz alone. When mounted on my camera, the total weight is 40oz or 2.5 pounds. Believe me, that's a load hanging around the neck. It takes some of the fun out of a day at the zoo or other activities where you are carrying the camera any distance. My first choice for a "walk around lens" was a Sony 55-200mm. It's the lightest long zoom available that I could find. By all reports, the Sony is a great lens but I reluctantly decided the 55mm on the short end was just not wide enough to make it an all-around lens.

I finally found this Tamron 28-200mm. The 28mm is wide enough for my use and the weight is only 2 oz more than the Sony. It feels great on the camera. At only 3" long, it balances so much better than my Sigma and is a pleasure to use. It feels like it was made for the Sony a55!

Initially, I thought I had a problem. I tested the Sigma 18-250mm and Sony 18-55mm with flash in the house. My purpose was to see if the Tamron 28-200mm would serve as an indoor camera for Christmas etc. What a shock when I looked at the pictures. The ones from my old lenses were great. The pictures taken with the new lens were almost totally black. I did some resets etc., but nothing worked. A friend suggested I post my problem on the DP Review forum. Within an hour, a member suggested I change the flash mode from ADI to Pre flash TTL. I did and the flash pictures are now excellent. Apparently some lenses only have five contact points and TTL mode must be used. Sony lenses and some others have eight contact points.

Optically, this lens seems to at least the quality of my other lenses. I don't pixel peep but I did take several shots at various focal lengths and briefly compared them to similar pictures I had taken with my other lenses. To my eye, they are equal in image quality. I take a lot of zoom pictures with my other lenses at 250mm so I was anxious to see if the 200mm shots from this Tamron still looked good after heavy cropping. They do. This is a quality lens.

My first real test of the lens came on a trip to the Orange County, CA, Zoo, a challenging place to take pictures, due to the lighting and the various forms of fencing around the animals. This was my third trip to this Zoo, the first two using other heavier zoom lenses. I received several comments that the pictures I got with the Tamron 28-200 were my best yet. I am totally pleased.

As I understand it, this is an older version of the 28-200mm lens. In fact, the name Sony does not appear on the Tamron box. I must say, however, that it seems to be an ideal lens for the small a55. I can honestly recommend this lens. The price is right and the quality is there.

The lens advertised for Sony A330 but it does not work. I sent the item back and a replacement item sent but later on found out that it does not work for the camera. Poor product knowledge from the seller worst customer service.

Bad out of the way:
1. Not particularly strong at flare control
2. Like all zooms with this range, low light situations aren't that great.

Good stuff:
1. I would love to upgrade to the 18-250 from Sony... but... I keep asking myself if the extra 400 is worth the marginal increases on the wide and long side. With the quality images I'm taking with this particular lens - I can't say it is.
2. Very very light compared to lenses with VR or IS built in. Sony/Minolta doesn't suffer this issue due to built in stabilization.
3. My copy was nice and tight. Haven't had to use the switch to prevent lens creep - yet I could still very easily move it by hand.

Would definitely recommend as the first lens for anyone starting photography. Bring a flash, or a 1.8 prime for indoor situations.

Great lense.. Work well in place of several lenses. Very pleased. Price , quality , and service was wonderful.

Description of this Tamron lense was accurate--excellent condition. Delivery was prompt. The lense operates smoothly and produces quality pictures. This one lense allows me to take a ranges of pictures with my Konica-Minalta Maxuum 5 in both low and bright light conditions so that I don't have to take multiple lenses along. Well pleased with this purchase of a used lense.

this is a Useful, inexpensive, durable lens, considering the price it is a goood deal to buy one of this specially for travelling and using it when we don't have space to carry different lenses or even more when we want to take pictures in conditions that we feel the equipment must be damaged (rain, snow). It is a good all purpose lens, the quality is good the only cons is since it is not compatible with TTL features for digital cameras, so you cannot use that with your hot shoe flash. If that is not a problem for you the it is not a bad choice.