Originally posted by ChrisA Erm...
Erm...
Please forgive my linguistic inadequacies. I'm from England.
Please explain...
I sense skepticism. Or worse.
Re my comment, "For me it wasn't really a matter of the basic quality of the photos that I took with each lens," I'm not sure what's unclear about it. I readily admit that I'm not a pixel detective. But I don't see a huge difference in acuity or much else between
this picture of a pelican coming in for a landing, and this
picture of a red-wing blackbird. Both were taken at 300mm, which I suspect we would all agree is probably not the sweet spot for either lens - although the ability to go to 300 is why I purchased both lenses, so performance at that focal length does matter. For the record, the blackbird was shot with the Tamron; the pelican, with the Pentax.
As for my comment about lens caps, again, I'm not sure what was unclear about it. I said,
Quote: I like Tamron's lens caps better. Seriously. Tamron lens caps can be grabbed in the middle. This makes them MUCH easier to take off and put on while the lens is wearing a hood.
Seems clear to me. Pentax and Sigma lens caps have to be squeezed from the outside to be released. If the cap is on the lens, and the lens also has a hood on, it's a bit awkward for me to get my big hands to the outside edge of the lens to squeeze it and take it off. With the Tamron lens caps, it's just a matter of poking my finger around to the middle of the lens cap and pinching.
Not sure why anyone would suspect me of this confusion, but again, for the record let me say that I am aware that the lens cap has nothing to do with the quality of the lens. My point was simply that, if two lenses seem about equal in quality, and cost about the same, why not buy the one with nicer lens caps?
In sum, anyone looking for a decent zoom lens that goes to 300mm and doesn't cost an arm and a leg may find either of these lenses satisfactory.
But I believe that I did point out one difference: the Tamron has a macro capability that (if I recall correctly) the Pentax lens doesn't claim.
Will