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Forum: Lens Clubs
02-03-2013, 11:13 AM
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I am new to this forum and found the images and dialog on Mirror lenses very interesting and informative. I have been playing with these lenses now for the better part of 2 years in search of a small easily carried lens with good reach and good optical imaging. While this group is mainly interested in the Pentax cameras, I have a Canon full frame 5Dmk2 and was seeking something to replace a Canon L Series 100-400mm lens. While that lens is and outstanding lens in every way, it is just too heavy to carry around and too big and noticeable when walking around with it. Over the two year period I tried out several different Mirror Lenses and will in this report compare two samples of the Tamron SP 500mm lens. One is the 55B (Older model) the other is the 55BB (Newer model). Since almost all of my telephoto shooting is at moderate distance I did not test them for focus at infinity or at the closest focusing distance. Distance here in this test is 18 feet. The crop factor is shown In each frame the lower lest portion and as you can see the crop was105%. Lighting is by floodlight and the image is the OOC JPG with no post processing. The images shown are selected as best of a set of three from each lens. In view of the earlier dialog concerning the superiority of the later Tamron to the earlier one, at least for these two samples, the older Tamron appears to me to be marginally sharper than the later one. The difference is not very large and both lenses are equal to or superior to almost all of the 500mm lenses I tested. The results frankly surprised me. As for build quality, I prefer to the older lens because the hood attaches in collapsed position to the lens and the lens has a tripod socket, otherwise the lenses are very similar. Based on my testing of several different lenses, i will be using the Tamron 55B as my carry telephoto lens, at least until I find one that can yield better results in my testing. I hope others may find this of interest.
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