[photoleet]

This is a new lens that I got. Tamron 70-300 F4-5.6 Silver. Took a lot of shots at PAX naval airshow today. In the blue angels performance, it has purple fringing on almost all the 200 shots which have reflections. Is it the lens fault or something in camera ?

Here's a sample


There are some with more purple some with less, but almost all of them have this. I got the lens from KEH, should I return it ?

Also the pics seem really soft at 300mm. Not sure if they are a bit out of focus because I had the AF.C on instead of AF.S

Any ideas ?

[JeffJS]

I had the Tamron LD Di 70-300 1:2 which is notorious for CA or Purple Fringing. :



The good news is, it's easily fixed.



The bad news is, it Has to be fixed. A few things you can do to avoid it is not shoot wide open, especially at the longer FLs. Mine was sharpest at around 260mm and fell of slightly beyond that. The fact is, I can make any lens in my kit with one or two exceptions display this behavior (fringing) and they are All upper end lenses. If you feel unhappy with your Tamron, return it and try something else.

[joe.penn]

Took a lot of shots at PAX naval airshow today

South of me, right across the bridge. So many things were going on today around here and I made it to none of them...

About your post - the sigma 70-300 also has severe CA on the long end...



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[photoleet]

I had the Tamron LD Di 70-300 1:2 which is notorious for CA or Purple Fringing. :



The good news is, it's easily fixed.



The bad news is, it Has to be fixed. A few things you can do to avoid it is not shoot wide open, especially at the longer FLs. Mine was sharpest at around 260mm and fell of slightly beyond that. The fact is, I can make any lens in my kit with one or two exceptions display this behavior (fringing) and they are All upper end lenses. If you feel unhappy with your Tamron, return it and try something else.

Thing is I don't even notice it in the small sized pic you posted, but in mine it is really obvious.

South of me, right across the bridge. So many things were going on today around here and I made it to none of them...

About your post - the sigma 70-300 also has severe CA on the long end...

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Haha, the show was awesome. It was my first trip to southern MD, normally I stay in DMV area.

Hmm, Sigma was my other option. Might have to go DA 55-300. Hows that ?

[BirdDude007]

Its probably the lens, read the tamron lens reviews and you will see that some folks in there mention PF (purple fringing)
I just bought a Tamron 75~300mm myself and havent really taken any shots with it yet, but I knew that they most likely will have purple fringing, but with my knowledge of Lightroom and Photoshop I have no problem removing PF, you will learn the limitations of this lens but when you do then you will have it mastered and will know how to work around the shortcomings.

[JeffJS]

Thing is I don't even notice it in the small sized pic you posted, but in mine it is really obvious.

You don't see all the purple branches in the first pic?

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4005/4461130910_691f28d55e_o.jpg

and it's still there to a degree in the 'fixed' image (done before I knew How to fix it properly).

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4064/4461762122_70913a773f_o.jpg

[photoleet]

You don't see all the purple branches in the first pic?

They seem invisible after the PF I saw in all the pics I took today. I'm just shaking my head after I saw them.

[Edgar_in_Indy]

Also the pics seem really soft at 300mm. Not sure if they are a bit out of focus because I had the AF.C on instead of AF.S
Any ideas ?

Or maybe the softness could be caused by the fact that YOUR SUBJECT IS MOVING AT MACH 2!!!

Ha ha, just kidding. But seriously, you may want to do some test shots of a stationary subject with your camera on a tripod to determine how sharp 300mm really is. But for the most part, you shouldn't expect too much sharpness out of an inexpensive 300mm zoom lens at its extremes. I've had a Pentax DA 55-300mm, and Tamron and Sigma 300mm zoom lenses, and none of them have been all that sharp at their long end. Tamron does have a new 300mm zoom lens (Tamron AF 70-300mm f/4.0-5.6 SP Di VC USD XLD) that actually is pretty sharp throughout the range, but unfortunately it's not available for Pentax. Bastards!

As far as the fringing on highlights, I would say it's probably the lens, assuming you haven't seen this with all your other lenses mounted on this camera. I have a Sigma 50-150mm f/2.8 HSM II that is a wonderful lens with outstanding image quality and sharpness, but its big weakness is color fringing along blown-out highlights, just like in your picture of the jet. The good news is that people always say it's easy to correct the fringing. The bad news (at least for me) is that I never seem to have much luck when I try correcting it, so I've stopped trying.

[JeffJS]

They seem invisible after the PF I saw in all the pics I took today. I'm just shaking my head after I saw them.

Ok. Return the lens and get the Pentax. It's probably a better lens anyway though I have 0 experience with it.

[interested_observer]

I use to live in the Seattle area, and during the Emerald Cup races, the Blues would perform. One of the clover leaf turns was right over our house, a couple of blocks up from the lake. I would say 30 feet (or so) off of my roof line - so close I could read the lettering on their helmets. I would have loved to have one of these lenses and a 3+ FPS body then - purple fringing and all. Oh by the way, my three year old at the time, we found hiding down in the basement closet, because of the noise - down town Beirut - and the shaking of the house - he is 23 now....

[Mr. B]

No wonder the Tamron is called The Purple Monster

[Philoslothical]

About your post - the sigma 70-300 also has severe CA on the long end...

Perhaps I just got a good copy, but mine is much much better than the Tamron I had before it. It still happens, but very occasionally, and I do shoot a lot at 300mm.

[Ex Finn.]

Might have to go DA 55-300. Hows that ?

I took this 2 years ago at Pax-River with K100D and 55-300 at 300mm, there is some pf in it but not much.

[Lowell Goudge]

I see two things

true purple fringing in the picture of the jet, where the highlights are burned out, and longitudinal CA in the bird shot, where OOF items have purple hailos because the point of focus for purple is not the same as green, .

I usually ignore longitudinal CA and only really worry about pure PF which I think is part sensor part lens

[rparmar]

The off-brand zooms do not touch the quality and value of the DA 55-300.