Tamron First Timer - 17-50mm F/2.8 & 70-300mm Macro 1:2

[eva2000]

Thanks to reading hinman's blog on these 2 lens, I decided to grab 2 more lens to play with before the after Xmas >15% price rises (In Australia only or worldwide ? )

Also grabbed a Promaster 1.7x AF Spectrum 7 Tele converter off Ebay which should arrive later - also thanks to hinman's blog

New lens

• Tamron SP AF17-50mm F/2.8 XR LD made in Japan
• Tamron AF70-300mm F/4-5.6 Di LD Macro 1:2 assembled in China

Next to my Sigma 18-50mm F/2.8 EX DC Macro lens

[poco]

Why did you pick up the Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 when you already have the Sigma 18-50mm f2.8 macro?

[eva2000]

Curiousity really... everyone keeps going on about the tamron 17-50mm 2.8 over the sigma 18-50mm 2.8 ex macro so thought i'd try the tamron out for myself (good time before price rises on Jan 1, 2009)

[dave sz]

Welcome Eva. Same eva from XS?

[eva2000]

Yup same eva2000

[skaktuss]

eva2000, are You realy the same person from overclocking forums? If so, it's great to see You here!
Only remember that photography and LBA is more addictive than computer HW buying addiction . I'm absolutely cured of overclocking disease.

[stevebrot]

Originally Posted by eva2000

Curiousity really... everyone keeps going on about the tamron 17-50mm 2.8 over the sigma 18-50mm 2.8 ex macro so thought i'd try the tamron out for myself (good time before price rises on Jan 1, 2009)

I guess you are going to have to do a little "compare and contrast" review for all of us.

Steve

[eva2000]

Originally Posted by skaktuss

eva2000, are You realy the same person from overclocking forums? If so, it's great to see You here!
Only remember that photography and LBA is more addictive than computer HW buying addiction . I'm absolutely cured of overclocking disease.

haha overclockers are everywhere

Yup same eva2000 on OC'ing forums. My hardware/ram addiction is still holding my LBA addiction at bay though - just received my Swiftech GTZ waterblock and LGA1366 backplate for Core i7 systems

Originally Posted by stevebrot

I guess you are going to have to do a little "compare and contrast" review for all of us.

Steve

Yeah plan to

[skaktuss]

Originally Posted by eva2000

haha overclockers are everywhere

Yup same eva2000 on OC'ing forums. My hardware/ram addiction is still holding my LBA addiction at bay though - just received my Swiftech GTZ waterblock and LGA1366 backplate for Core i7 systems

I still use my good old Storm and E6300 (my first Intel cpu after S939 period ). BTW I bought my first Pentax camera when I saw OPBs pictures. I remember everyone at OCX forums asked him: what camera did you use? And he said: lol, its the cheapest DSLR on market K100D . Too bad he switched to N*kon later.

[eva2000]

Originally Posted by skaktuss

I still use my good old Storm and E6300 (my first Intel cpu after S939 period ). BTW I bought my first Pentax camera when I saw OPBs pictures. I remember everyone at OCX forums asked him: what camera did you use? And he said: lol, its the cheapest DSLR on market K100D . Too bad he switched to N*kon later.

Yeah Kevin is using Canon 5D now heh

[dave sz]

Originally Posted by eva2000

Yup same eva2000

nice. Welcome...

[hinman]

Originally Posted by eva2000

Thanks to reading hinman's blog on these 2 lens, I decided to grab 2 more lens to play with before the after Xmas >15% price rises (In Australia only or worldwide ? )

Also grabbed a Promaster 1.7x AF Spectrum 7 Tele converter off Ebay which should arrive later - also thanks to hinman's blog

New lens

• Tamron SP AF17-50mm F/2.8 XR LD made in Japan
• Tamron AF70-300mm F/4-5.6 Di LD Macro 1:2 assembled in China

Thank you very much for the kind words. I am surprised that you get both the Sigma and Tamron in similar range. The Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 is wonderful in the wide angel. Very sharp. I used it wide open with good results. It works great for me. But I sold it already to another members in PF. I am a blog writer and I change gear often to test all lens that I can afford to try out. The 70-300 is the best value zoom next to the DA 50-200. It is especially strong in 1:2 close up.

I sold my Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 to prepare to get a 2nd system with a zoom in 16-85mm but that zoom has no competition to the Tamron. The beauty in Pentax system is that the SR in body make every lens in the 3rd party shine the best and 3rd party zoom lens can do as well as Pentax equivalent. It is a plain and simple playing field and it only gives more choices to customers. It is NOT the case with other systems. And you can check my reports on both lens in my blog pages.

After selling the Tamron zoom, I saw a used Sigma 17-70 f/2.8-4.5 and I grab it in an LBA urge. Yes, call me a LBA junkie. I bought good but seemingly less performant lens. But wait, I have my reasoning for all of my LBA purchases. While the Sigma 17-70 is not as fast as the Tamron 17-50, but it has the extra 50 to 70mm that I can count on and the result is less lens change. And it is cheaper. It is in the same vain as some people get Sigma 24-60 for cheaper price but I go for the 17-70 for its wide angle and the portrait need from 35 to 70. When it comes to lens purchase on zoom, it all boils down to one's needs. And in my view, there is no clear winner as it can differ on individual's need -- please excuse my LBA reasoning

Thanks,
Hin

[eva2000]

Originally Posted by dave sz

nice. Welcome...

thanks

Originally Posted by hinman

Thank you very much for the kind words. I am surprised that you get both the Sigma and Tamron in similar range. The Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 is wonderful in the wide angel. Very sharp. I used it wide open with good results. It works great for me. But I sold it already to another members in PF. I am a blog writer and I change gear often to test all lens that I can afford to try out. The 70-300 is the best value zoom next to the DA 50-200. It is especially strong in 1:2 close up.

I sold my Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 to prepare to get a 2nd system with a zoom in 16-85mm but that zoom has no competition to the Tamron. The beauty in Pentax system is that the SR in body make every lens in the 3rd party shine the best and 3rd party zoom lens can do as well as Pentax equivalent. It is a plain and simple playing field and it only gives more choices to customers. It is NOT the case with other systems. And you can check my reports on both lens in my blog pages.

After selling the Tamron zoom, I saw a used Sigma 17-70 f/2.8-4.5 and I grab it in an LBA urge. Yes, call me a LBA junkie. I bought good but seemingly less performant lens. But wait, I have my reasoning for all of my LBA purchases. While the Sigma 17-70 is not as fast as the Tamron 17-50, but it has the extra 50 to 70mm that I can count on and the result is less lens change. And it is cheaper. It is in the same vain as some people get Sigma 24-60 for cheaper price but I go for the 17-70 for its wide angle and the portrait need from 35 to 70. When it comes to lens purchase on zoom, it all boils down to one's needs. And in my view, there is no clear winner as it can differ on individual's need -- please excuse my LBA reasoning

Thanks,
Hin

thanks Hin for your insight

Yeah doubled up in 17/18-50mm range with tamron and sigma lens - will post on comparison photos later

Just curious if most folks' Tamron 70-300mm Macro lens are made in Japan or assembled in China like mine ?

[eva2000]

I have a question for comparison photos at say f/2.8, f/4, f/8, f/11 etc how should i best proceed in resizing (Adobe CS3/jpeg quality dimensions) and cropping to ensure in the post-processing stage that don't effect the images as much ?

i.e. i know if i resized say 640px width and jpeg 60% quality it would of really murdered the original quality of the photo - what's an acceptable in terms of dimensions/image quality for comparison purposes ?

edit: first attempt at comparison test Sigma 18-50mm f2.8 EX Macro vs Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 - Brick Wall test