On the weekend I picked up the Tamron 70-300 Di. Thought I might share my initial impresions.
Build Quality: far better then I expected for a $200.00 lens
Design: nice big zoom ring. Kind of a fat lens and very easy to hold on a K10D. good balance.
Focus Speed: It works for me in dim light. I've only ever used Pentax AF camers, So my opion is not all that worldly. It works. I'm happy.
Macro: Works well, easy to engage, kind of strange to dis-engage. Only took me 4 or 5 times to figure it out. Yup. I learn fast. not bragg'n.
Actual use:
Purple flair. It's there. Stop down to 7 or so and it goes away. Maybe 11 or so for harsh light.
Much sharper then I expected. So sharp I started pixel peeping, and thinking thoughts like "Hey, thats not that sharp, I can't read that liscence plate...I took the photo hand held, wide open, at 300mm, and the car is 3 blocks away from 9 stories up...". Ok. get real. The only lens I have that is sharper is my FA50 1.4.
I need to watch my shutter speed. This is my first long lens. I need to remember that SR only will help so far. hand held 1/100 at 300mm will look soft. I need to remeber this.
I need to remember to stop down. I found that I was shooting wide open, and getting "the purple". Stop down and it goes away.
So, faster shutter, stopped down, this leads to higher ISO. I need to watch the ISO when moving back into brighter conditions. I found myself shooting at 1600 ISO at a shutter speed of 1/1000. Hmmm... got to not do that.
Initial impressions of colour. Very bright. For some reason there was allot of green I my shots today (I was in a park, this is not a lens issue). The colours came through very nice. I think better colour and contrast then my SMC-M 135 3.5. Not the best Pentax lens, but still I think the Tamron did better.
I have found a new respect for those of you that photograph wildlife. I took some photos of ducks. Let me tell you its trickier then it looks. Image a warm sumer evening, a quiet park. I'm so relaxed I'm sleepy. Truly a beautiful night. and a pond full of wild, dangerous ducks. They will swim directly at you! And they look hungry! I managed to get a couple of shots of the ducks in focus. The rest were more or less a write-off. Do you think I could remember "High shutter, Stop down, adjust ISO"? not when the adrenalin is pumping and the duck is bearing down on you. I even forgot to use AFC.
I now understand why wildlife photographers do the things they do. Hike three days into the bush to find ducks that still fear humans. Less danger. Sit in a duck blind for days at a time. Protection from the ducks. Use a tripod, one less thing to think about. It must easier to use a 300mm with a 2X converter on a tripod then have to remember to use a faster shutter. And the cold weather. Now thats how to stay allert. Much easier at -30 then my sleepy day at the park.
I am joking.
I don't see much point in posting the first photos. There are much better examples of what the lens can do. I might put together a collection of mistakes, and fixes. That might be a better use of my duck photos. At least it would help me remember how to drive this lens, and it might be more usefull to others.
Peace.
Respect.
Ducks.
what not to do:
300mm, f10, 1/640, ISO 1600
Last edited by KungPOW; 05-22-2009 at 09:50 PM.