Veteran Member Registered: October, 2012 Location: Colorado Posts: 1,437 | | Review Date: August 22, 2013 | Recommended | Price: $125.00
| Rating: 7 |
| Pros: | Light, Good Range, Decent Below f5.6, Color Trueness, Contrast, Macro is Okay, Good Close Focus Shots in Macro Mode, Metal Mount, Smooth bokeh | | Cons: | Slow AF, Slow aperture, Substantial fringing wide open, Plastic build, Dark viewfinder image, Slight vignetting wide open, Softer than acceptable at ALL apertures, Unbalanced on most cameras, | | Sharpness: 7
Aberrations: 4
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 6
Value: 9
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It's important to note that two versions of this lens exist. The 62mm thread is made by Tamron. The 72mm (I think) version is made by Samyang (I think.) This review is for the Tamron lens.
I've taken a LOT of photos with this lens, perhaps more than any other lens I own, photographing my friends' softball games. In bright light or with dark subjects in front of light backgrounds (and vice versa), this lens has serious chromatic aberrations including green fringe and purple fringe. Stopped down below f16 this lens loses a LOT of resolution. From f6.3 to f11, though, this lens performs at its best.
Because it's so light and unbalanced, holding it presents an issue and is actually fairly tiring. Getting sharp images on this lens is tough partly because holding it steady enough for use in anything other than bright light or with a high ISO is difficult. Because I use this lens for sports photography, a tripod is often out of the question as I have to follow action too quickly. In 1,000 photos in a night, I typically get about 50-75 acceptable shots.
I do quite like this lens in "macro" mode, which is actually just close-up mode. I think it performs at its best for close-up shots.
I also find the bokeh non-intrusive. It's very smooth and non-distracting. In my book, that makes it very good.
If you plan to use this lens without cropping images, you will tend to be fine. If you want to crop more than about 8% out of the frame, this lens will quickly become an underperformer.
A macro shot at 300mm (I think)
An anole
Softball Album 1
Softball Album 2
Softball Album 3
Softball Album 4
Softball Album 5 | |
Forum Member Registered: November, 2011 Posts: 52
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: May 27, 2013 | Recommended | Price: $196.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | economical zoom lens with outstandig image quality very "sharp" | | Cons: | Slow on the long end | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 8
Value: 10
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What really bothers me about the lens Reviews on Pentax Forums. Is the lack of understanding of "RE-BRANDED" Sigma Pentax K-Mount lens's and the need for Cross referencing. This lens was made by Sigma and re branded by Quantaray.
The same can be said about Tamaron lenses that are rebranded but this this does not apply to this lens.
The exact copy of this lens review with a Sigma tag can be found in our own Pentax reviews https://www.pentaxforums.com/userreviews/sigma-70-300mm-f4-5-6-dl-macro-super.html.
I have two exact lenses one Sigma and one Quantaray they both work exactly the same. And quite a very good lens BTW at the price this is a buy.
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Junior Member Registered: January, 2009 Location: Coquitlam, BC, Canada Posts: 31
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: March 14, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $70.00
| Rating: 7 |
| Pros: | Cheap, Decent IQ, No Creep, Fairly Smooth Focus Ring, Good AF | | Cons: | poor construction, rotating front element, stiff zoom ring | |
Bottom Line with this lens is that you get what you pay for!
I recently bought this to use while I saved up for a more expensive telephoto lens.
I haven't taken this lens on a proper test shoot yet, but from what I have seen the
Image Quality is surprisingly decent (although I have pretty low standards).
I haven't tried the macro out yet, but I'll edit that in later.
The auto-focus isn't the fastest, but it seems to work reliably.
Where this lens really lacks is construction, it is an all plastic body, and feels somewhat cheap, although it still feels rather solid and decently durable. The zoom right is really stiff, (I have no clue if it just needs a bit of breaking in...) but this also prevents any zoom creep.
The front element rotates on focusing, which bugs me...
There is also very, very slight amount of wobble to the barrel, but it is barely noticeable.
I'll try to edit this as I use the lens more, but the bottom line is:
You Get What You Pay For!
If you get this lens expecting it to compete with higher quality lenses you will be disappointed.
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New Member Registered: December, 2008 Location: minneapolis Posts: 21 | | Review Date: January 8, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $40.00
| Rating: 6 |
| Pros: | lightweight and cheap | | Cons: | does not work with AF, macro switch is a pain, | |
A good cheap lens to sacrifice to learning
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