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Tamron AF XR Di LD Macro SP 28-75mm F2.8 Review RSS Feed

Tamron AF XR Di LD Macro SP 28-75mm F2.8

Sharpness 
 8.6
Aberrations 
 8.6
Bokeh 
 8.4
Handling 
 8.9
Value 
 9.1
Reviews Views Date of last review
77 276,639 Tue July 5, 2022
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Recommended By Average Price Average User Rating
94% of reviewers $355.82 8.79
Tamron AF XR Di LD Macro SP 28-75mm F2.8
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Description:

Tamron claims that this lens is the most compact and lightest in the history of fast zoom lenses.

The Tamron 28-75mm is a versatile "walk-around" lens suitable for landscape/scenery, low light and night photography, portraits, sports/action, and weddings.      


Tamron SP 28-75mm F2.8 XR Di LD IF AF
© www.pentaxforums.com, sharable with attribution
Image Format
Full-frame / 35mm film
Lens Mount
Pentax K
Aperture Ring
Yes (A setting)
Diaphragm
Automatic, 7 blades (rounded)
Optics
16 elements, 14 groups
Mount Variant
KAF
Check camera compatibility
Max. Aperture
F2.8
Min. Aperture
F32
Focusing
AF (screwdrive)
Quick-shift
No
Min. Focus
33 cm
Max. Magnification
0.256x
Filter Size
67 mm
Internal Focus
Yes
Field of View (Diag. / Horiz.)

APS-C: 54-22 ° / 46-18 °
Full frame: 75-32 ° / 65-27 °
Hood
Included
Case
Lens Cap
Included
Coating
Multi-coated
Weather Sealing
No
Other Features
Zoom Lock
Diam x Length
92x73 mm (3.6x2.9 in.)
Weight
510 g (18 oz.)
Production Years
to 2018
Pricing
USD current price
Engraved Name
Tamron SP 28-75mm F2.8 XR Di LD IF AF
Product Code
A09
Reviews
User reviews

Price History:



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Site Supporter

Registered: February, 2022
Posts: 14
Review Date: July 5, 2022 Recommended | Price: $110.00 | Rating: 9 

 
Pros: Sharpness, versatility, weight, macro, f2.8, aberration control
Cons: Not weather sealed, slightly muted colours compared to Pentax glass, sometimes slightly soft edges
Sharpness: 9    Aberrations: 9    Bokeh: 7    Handling: 8    Value: 10    Camera Used: K-1 ii   

Really impressed by this lens. I bought it for $110 off eBay after balking at the $400 K-1 kit lens (which admittedly has a more useful zoom range and is weather sealed, but still!). This Tamron is tack sharp in the centre and very sharp around the edges at all focal lengths unless you're shooting wide open, at which point the edges suffer a little. It's quite large and feels a little plasticky, but it's light and, while it's not weather sealed, mine fared just fine in some light Colorado rain. Colours are a little muted if you're used to Pentax glass, but this isn't necessarily a bad thing - sometimes I find Pentax lenses a little too saturated. Besides overall sharpness, the most impressive thing about this lens (especially compared to Pentax glass) is how well it handles chromatic aberrations. I've had no fringing whatsoever with this lens, even shooting in challenging and high-contrast environments. I've been shooting recently with the FA 77mm limited, which, while a lovely lens overall, fringes like there's no tomorrow (and costs about 4 times as much!), so it's been a great relief to shoot with this Tamron (a zoom no less!). And it has "macro", meaning the minimum focusing distance is nice and short (this is an important one for me - I've been put off using the otherwise rather charming old F zooms by their super-long minimum focusing distances). It's not quite the best $100 I've spent on photography stuff, but it's up there. Have attached a couple of edited pics to show what the lens is capable of, but the site has compressed them to death. Rest assured it takes good shots.
   
Pentaxian

Registered: December, 2007
Location: In the most populated state... state of denial
Posts: 1,845
Review Date: May 23, 2022 Recommended | Price: $250.00 | Rating: 9 

 
Pros: Constant aperture, good IQ
Cons: soft wide open, needs hood
Sharpness: 9    Aberrations: 10    Bokeh: 6    Handling: 10    Value: 10    Camera Used: K5-II, KX, K3-iii   

Very good overall lens, I use it for portraits and indoor pictures
Sometimes contrast can be low, and using a lenshood helps
Image quality is good, not major aberrations, color transmission tends to be colder but still very good.

K5ii has trouble focusing in low light, but the K3-iii doesn't.
   
New Member

Registered: February, 2014
Location: Tennessee
Posts: 20

1 user found this helpful
Review Date: April 14, 2021 Recommended | Price: $180.00 | Rating: 8 

 
Pros: light weight, constant f/2.8
Cons: no wr
Sharpness: 8    Aberrations: 9    Bokeh: 8    Handling: 8    Value: 10    Camera Used: K-1 mark II   

My video review with image samples

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ag0EpL08Pqg
   
Senior Member

Registered: September, 2013
Location: Indianapolis, Indiana
Posts: 190

1 user found this helpful
Review Date: February 18, 2021 Recommended | Price: $167.00 | Rating: 8 

 
Pros: Quick to focus, colors, lightweight for an f/2.8 zoom
Cons: Soft wide open, some vignetting at the short end
Sharpness: 7    Aberrations: 9    Bokeh: 9    Handling: 10    Value: 10    Camera Used: K-1 II   

This lens is a nice all-around performer for an f/2.8 zoom. It's quick to focus and captures colors well. It's quite lightweight for what it is, so even on a K-1 II it doesn't feel like a weight to carry around. The bokeh is quite pleasing, especially at the long end.

Personally, I would not shoot it wide open. As seen in the night shot below, even at ISO 6400 and 1/320 second, the shot just comes out very soft. Fortunately, that clears up by stopping it down, but it does make shooting with it in low light less than ideal. It also vignettes slightly at the corners on the short end, but it's not that noticeable and is fairly inoffensive. CA seems to be low to nil and is easily correctable in post. The same goes for distortion. Overall, I'm pretty happy with the lens, though I'd love to get my hands on a DFA 24-70 and see how it compares. I recommend it, I just wouldn't use it wide open, unfortunately.

   
Pentaxian

Registered: June, 2011
Posts: 485

1 user found this helpful
Review Date: August 18, 2018 Not Recommended | Price: $220.00 | Rating: 7 

 
Pros: sharp portraits with good depth of field
Cons: Wide angle shots are almost unusable unless stopped down
Sharpness: 7    Aberrations: 6    Bokeh: 8    Handling: 9    Value: 7    Camera Used: Pentax K-1   

I should make sure it's clear that I was shooting this lens on my full-frame Pentax K-1. The biggest issues I have had with the lens may not be as noticeable on an APS-C camera.


The pros:

This lens works pretty spectacularly as a cheap full-frame portrait lens. Zoomed in all the way at 2.8 produces some really sharp results and pleasant background blur. The focusing is as accurate and fast as I've experienced on a Pentax (so, not excellent, but no lenses I have used on my Pentax have performed any better, at least not noticeably).

The cons:

I have owned two copies of this lens so far (the first one I dropped, oops), and both had this problem. All the way zoomed out at 28mm and all the way open at 2.8 is pretty much unusable on full-frame. There is strong vignetting and quite strong loss of sharpness all around the frame. This has ruined several shots for me because I forget to stop down. Stopping down to 5.6 gets much better, but still is only OKAY and not great in the corners.

So, the strength of this lens comes in that it's one of the cheapest good quality lenses you can get for full-frame with this range. 2.8 aperture all the way zoomed in is also very nice. But the lack of sharpness and overall image quality when used zoomed out and wide open makes me never want to shoot wide angle anyway, making me wonder if I'd be better off with a cheap 85mm manual lens. Except that the auto-focus (especially if you do single point and aim for the eye) produces great portraits.

If I had to do it again, I wouldn't buy this lens, and instead save up for a better quality lens with similar focal ranges, or just grab a prime lens around the same price.
   
Senior Member

Registered: May, 2016
Location: Duluth, MN
Posts: 141

1 user found this helpful
Review Date: April 16, 2018 Recommended | Price: $175.00 | Rating: 9 

 
Pros: Very sharp in center, light, good contrast wide open
Cons: Some softness at 75mm on far sides at infinity
Camera Used: K-1   

Just got this lens a few days ago so these are initial impressions, but my initial impressions are very good. It is a like-new made in Japan version. It has exceptional sharpness on the K1 throughout much of the frame. I only noticed some irritating edge softness in a couple shots at infinity at f8 when at 75mm. I didn't notice the softness when focusing closer at f14 on some trees (also at 75mm). Wide angle shots seemed pretty sharp across the frame as well as long as I was stopped down to f8 or so (which is common for me doing landscapes). I will have to shoot a lot more to fully judge it at 28mm.

Wide open, it's still plenty sharp in the middle, with good contrast, as in the cat photo.




It also has very nice close focus ability. It says macro on the lens, but this is more like the close focus ability of a modern lens like the Olympus 12-40 2.8.




To me bokeh looks good...




and sharpness at 100% looks excellent on both the long end and wide end...




I was surprised how good these shots looked at 63mm and f14...







and extreme corner sharpness was not bad...




All in all I am quite pleased so far. This feels like a nice kit lens in size, with the ability to get decent (in the center) f2.8 shots when needed.




Click through to see images at a larger size on smugmug.
   
Senior Member

Registered: May, 2014
Location: Galway - Ireland
Posts: 213

4 users found this helpful
Review Date: December 26, 2016 Recommended | Price: $220.00 | Rating: 9 

 
Pros: Price, Range on FF, Light
Cons: IQ in the corners, build quality

WHO IS IT FOR ?
This is a good cheap 'kit' lens on FF. The constant f/2.8 aperture makes it a very capable lens overall for everyday life pictures. It is a go to lens for anything like travel photography, basic portraits, even wedding photos.
On APS-C the lens is nothing short from excellent. The wide end is not really wide anymore, but overall still useful.

HANDLING
The lens is made of plastic mainly. It is thus fairly light, but the quality is far from the one of a Pro-zoom. There is an aperture ring which makes the lens usable on film cameras and a zoom lock. The manual focus ring is neither precise nor comfortable to use.


FOCUSING
Auto-focusing is fairly fast and rather precise. I have noticed that the AF can hunt at infinity at 28-30mm even in good lighting.
Manual focusing is not easy, with a very short focus throw. Definitely not enjoyable in this regard.

IMAGE QUALITY

>SHARPNESS
APSC
This lens is quite sharp. On the 24MPx K-3 the sharpness is good starting at f/2.8. Specially in the middle of the range (35mm-60mm). The long end tends to be a bit softer wide open. Starting at f/4-f/5.6 it is really great.
FF
This is a very different story. Looking at edges and corners, they are soft at almost any aperture on the wide end. Shooting a landscape with the lens is not really suitable under f/5.6-6.3. The long end behaves better and shows a decent image quality even wide open.

>BOKEH
Bokeh is soft and good enough for such a lens. It is not going to compete with a good prime but will satisfy most users.

>CHROMA ABERRATIONS
Fairly low. Even on FF it is not a major issue.

>FLARE
Very good. Unless very extreme conditions, there is nothing to worry about.

>COLOR RENDITION
Slightly cold, not as pleasing as some primes.

>DISTORSION
Visible at the wide end but not a blocking point.

>VIGNETING
A bit strong on FF wide open, very low on APSC.


COMPARING TO SIMILAR LENSES

>16-50mm f/2.8 Pentax
Tried on APSC : The Pentax lens is really good. The range covered is different but the build quality and image quality is above the Tamron lens. However, if you are short on budget the Tamron will do 80% of the Pentax for half of the price.
>18-55mm kit lens Pentax
On APSC : If you have the kit lens, well this lens is worth the upgrade. Only the WR is missing.
>17-70mm f/2.8-4 Sigma Contemporary
On APSC : The Sigma is better than the Tamron. The f/2.8 constant is a great option, but the image quality of the Sigma is simply better, especially for the Macro option.

A WORD ABOUT THE 'MACRO' OPTION

The Macro option on this lens is not really worth it. It is casually handy if you don't have the time to switch to a macro lens, but it is nothing like a macro lens. It is really soft (even on APS-C), especially wide open and I would not consider using it for macro photography if you are really into it.


CONCLUSION
This is an easy, cheap, light and good all around lens. If you need to go for a trip and can only carry one lens, this may be it. However the image quality is not stellar and the build quality is on the low side. Take it as a great improvement over the kit lens, but not as a Pro zoom.
   
Inactive Account

Registered: September, 2014
Posts: 4

1 user found this helpful
Review Date: December 23, 2016 Recommended | Price: $400.00 | Rating: N/A 

 
Pros: Sharp, fine details, macro. lock function
Cons: Not a low light lens, sometimes slow af
Camera Used: Pentax K-30   

Hi,
I bought that lens with the intention of having a new "alround" lens.
The aperture of f/2.8 through all the focal ranges kept me hoping that I could shoot in twilight rooms without tripod or flash. That was a mistake, but it was mine, and not the lens' fault .
It is not a prime lens like a 1,7/50mm or a 2,8/28mm, it is definitely a zoom lens.
Why should I need another lens with all that stuff in my pocket : the 18-135mm WR (that with the bad reputation, you know),the nearly unusable Pentax a 24-80 (a gift), the good Sigma 70-200.
It is smaller and gives me a more practical zoom range than the 18-135, it could be a perfect lens.

My first shots were taken in that twilight room I mentioned and I was shocked. The autofocus did not find his aim, and there was no acceptable picture. Soft, blurring, crazy. I really thought the camera was down, but the simple 50mm took good shots.
I tried the manual focus and the results were much better.

On next day - daylight - I took those indoor shots

f/2.8 - 75mm
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/members/73445-oberlutz/albums/11440-tamro...ture105042.jpg

f/4 - 75mm
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/members/73445-oberlutz/albums/11440-tamro...ture105044.jpg

f/8 - 75mm
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/members/73445-oberlutz/albums/11440-tamro...ture105043.jpg

Compare Pentax 18-135mm f/6.3 - 68mm
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/members/73445-oberlutz/albums/11440-tamro...ture105045.jpg

The Tamron seems to be better. Warmer. Finer details.

That was the first part. Outdoor shots will follow



My first conclusion
   
Veteran Member

Registered: January, 2013
Location: Kansas City, KS
Posts: 1,612

2 users found this helpful
Review Date: August 31, 2016 Recommended | Price: $350.00 | Rating: 9 

 
Pros: Good zoom range, constant aperture, sharp
Cons: Ugly flare, uncontrollable ghosts, large diameter

I have bought very few lenses new (just the Rokinon 8/3.5 and the 18-50 kit lens that came on the K-S2), so the purchase was pretty special and I wanted it to be a good one. I bought the lens with the intention to use it at a wedding I've unfortunately promised to shoot on October 1. (I'm counting down the days until my doom.)

Physically, the lens is pretty large. The diameter is significant, although it's not the lengthiest lens I own. It is reasonably light weight, as far as I'm concerned, but I do have a lot of experience carrying around old vintage zooms that are metal and glass, so "light" to me may not be defined the same way to others. It feels well-balanced on the K-S2 and never seemed to be an awkward match. The lens is plastic, but it feels solid and not cheap. I appreciate that this is a lens with a physical aperture ring... 'cause it's better to have it and not need it than not have it at all. I'm kind of a "doomsday prepper" for aperture rings. My lenses that don't have them are really the red-headed step-children of my lens collection. Anyway! Full marks, there. The focus throw is short but surprisingly, satisfyingly workable as a manual focus operation, probably owing to the bright f/2.8 aperture - subjects snap into focus without much guesswork. Infinity is reliable as marked. The lens is advertised as "macro" and MFD is about 5-6 inches from the front element, which is pretty satisfying, but I did find myself using one or the other of the Raynox snap-ons to get truly CLOSE. The lens is a twist-to-zoom, and I gotta admit, it feels chintzy. It's not particularly smooth or well-dampened. Instead of feeling like rolling on ball-bearings (like some of my glorious old manual zooms), you can really feel (and hear) the plastic dragging across plastic. It's probably my second least favorite thing about the lens.

My FIRST least favorite thing about the lens is the awful, awful ghosting and total lack of pretty flare. I have never had a lens create such horrid, vivid ghosts in my whole (short) camera-owning life. I found no way to control it or turn it into anything more attractive (like a controlled, directional flare), and it made me very sad, especially because I spent a lot of nights shooting at the Missouri State Fair this month and bright, in-your-face lights were part of the game. As much as I could, I cloned out the ghosts, but a lot of images got binned because it was just completely trashed by big stupid ghosts.

It may seem like I'm totally overreacting, but trust me. You'll never see the ones that were really really really bad. Really bad.

MOVING ON, all other performance by the lens was pretty delightful. Colors were great, any CA isn't worth mentioning, it seems quite sharp at all apertures and the rounded blades made every bokeh beautiful. Not being an auto-focus person by habit, I was very, very pleased with the speed and accuracy of the auto focus (I used back-button focusing) when using the viewfinder, but I'm still kind of shocked at how slow and terrible it is when using liveview. But, I don't really use liveview all that much, so I was barely effected. Even on APS-C, the zoom range seemed excellent to me, walking around at the fair for 11 days in a row. I'll bet its even more delightful on full-frame. Obviously, I loved having the constant aperture.

All in all, yeah, it was an excellent buy. It's a great all around lens, fast aperture, very good zoom range for my typical application, and it's not overly large, in my opinion. This is definitely a walk-around zoom for me for when I don't know what I'll encounter, and I think it's going to be perfect for the wedding... I just need to remember to be mindful of my light and to bring a lens that flares pretty. :-)

See my Flickr album with images from this lens by CLICKING HERE.
   
Senior Member

Registered: May, 2012
Posts: 161
Review Date: July 19, 2016 Recommended | Price: None indicated | Rating: 8 

 
Pros: Great walk around lens for multiple purposes
Cons: Soft around the edges, autofocus isn't always the best
Sharpness: 8    Aberrations: 8    Bokeh: 8    Handling: 8    Value: 8    Camera Used: Pentax K-5   

This is a great multi purpose lens. My biggest complaint is this is currently my best lens for taking landscape photos and I always have to crop them due to the edges being way too soft & blurry. I prefer to use manual focus with all of my lenses, but if you prefer autofocus you may have some occasional issues with not focusing properly. Overall though I've gotten some great shots from people to animals to flowers so if you're looking for a lens that will do a little of everything, this is a good choice in the price range.

Here are some sample photos taken with this lens:

https://scontent-ord1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/t31.0-8/976339_10151444273227045_1354900087_o.jpg
https://scontent-ord1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/t31.0-8/1009411_10151466598992045_1825153346_o.jpg
https://scontent-ord1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/t31.0-8/1265862_10151663472977045_2135607165_o.jpg
https://scontent-ord1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/t31.0-8/s960x960/919451_10151669753922045_921709049_o.jpg
   
Veteran Member

Registered: June, 2015
Location: South West UK
Posts: 1,493

1 user found this helpful
Review Date: May 22, 2016 Recommended | Price: $350.00 | Rating: 9 

 
Pros: Sharp, Fast, Good AF, Well built
Cons: Spinny focus ring, bit noisy, hood fitting a bit poor
Sharpness: 9    Aberrations: 9    Bokeh: 9    Handling: 9    Value: 10    Camera Used: K-3II   

This is a really cracking general portrait or walkaround lens. Fantastic value for a lens of this quality.
My copy is very sharp throughout the range, right from 2.8, and extremely sharp when stopped down a little.
CA/PF are minimal. There is a little distortion, but in practice is not noticeable and is easily fixed in LR.
Overall I love the rendering, including the bokeh - although in certain circumstances it can be a little busy...a background of leaf litter for example usually benefits from a narrower aperture, although this is a difficult subject for many lenses. Colours and contrast are very good and flare is reasonably well handled unless shooting directly into strong sun...even so it flares 'attractively'.
Zoom and manual focus feel good and fall easily to hand. The manual aperture is nice to have.
On the down side, the hood is a bit fiddly to fit, but it can be fixed.
Also, the focus ring spins with AF and there is no quick shift.
Oh...and slightly odd filter size, but filters can be found.
   
Digitiser of Film

Registered: March, 2010
Location: North East of England
Posts: 20,505

2 users found this helpful
Review Date: January 23, 2016 Recommended | Price: None indicated | Rating: 9 

 
Pros: Great IQ in centre and borders, constant aperture, good build quality, aperture ring
Cons: No manual focus override, bayonet hood fitting too tight, plastic filter thread is fiddly
Sharpness: 9    Aberrations: 8    Bokeh: 8    Handling: 7    Value: 9    Camera Used: K3   

I bought this as a portrait lens to use on my K3. The 35mm equivalent focal length range of 42 - 112mm (approximately) covers everything from full length to head-and-shoulders portraiture, while the fast and constant f/2.8 aperture is great for low light use and supports creative use of depth of field.

The lens is solidly built. The exterior components and main barrel are very high quality plastic moldings, but the weight of the lens suggests there might be some metal construction inside (or maybe it's just those 16 lens elements and the metal mount). The zoom ring is nicely ribbed and operates quite smoothly, with no stiff or loose spots. The barrel has zero wobble or play in it even when fully extended - it feels like a well engineered product. There is a button for locking the lens at the 28mm fully retracted position, presumably to prevent zoom creep. At present, I don't find I need this, but it may come in useful if the lens should ever "loosen up".

Sadly, there is no manual focus override facility, so auto / manual focus must be selected on the camera body. In manual mode, the focusing ring (also nicely ribbed) operates smoothly with a pleasing amount of resistance - however, it's a mechanical smoothness rather than damping. Auto-focus is generally fast and accurate (and noisy - it uses the screw drive), although in low light / low contrast situations, it will sometimes make numerous micro-adjustments before obtaining focus lock (in those situations, I use AF-S mode rather than AF-C, to avoid constant focus hunting). My copy required a "-5" AF fine adjustment to achieve optimal accuracy on my K3 (all of my DA Limited lenses required no AF fine adjustment, by way of comparison).

Optical performance is impressive, with very good and surprisingly consistent centre AND border performance throughout the focal length range from f/4 onwards, and stellar performance from f/5.6. At the wider end, sharpness is excellent even at f/2.8. From 50 - 75mm, though, I find it a little too soft wide open - especially at 75mm, and it needs stopping down to at least f/4, which is a shame if you're looking for maximum creative use of depth of field (NOTE: see edits below - problem solved). Bokeh is just what you'd want from a portrait lens - beautifully smooth, with no distractions.

This lens has a manual aperture ring, should you wish to use this instead of the in-camera aperture selection (or if you might want to use the lens on a body that requires it). It feels a little plasticky - less solid than the rest of the lens - but works well enough. Unfortunately, due to the overhang of the prism housing on the camera, it's a little difficult to get at the button to unlock the ring from the "A" setting. Those with big fingers might find this bothersome.

I have just two minor gripes with this Tammy:

1) The 67mm filter thread is plastic, and - on my copy, at least - I found it quite tricky to get my usual Hoya HMC filters to screw in. On at least one occasion I have come close to cross-threading. I wouldn't want to have to swap filters on a regular basis.

2) The supplied bayonet-fitting lens hood is *very* stiff and quite tricky to fit and remove, requiring a bit of forceful fiddling about.

Overall, I'm really impressed with this lens. It's nicely built, and optically excellent, with the only weak spot being at the longer half of the focal range when used wide open.

EDIT #1: After a *lot* of testing, I finally found that my copy of the lens needed -7 fine adjustment on my K3. Quite a big adjustment, but not right at the limit, so I'm OK with that. I can now use the lens throughout its entire focal-length range wide open, which is *great*.

EDIT #2: Using 600 grit sanding paper, I smoothed off the bayonet fixing areas on the hood just a little bit. Took three or four attempts, 15 minutes work in total. The hood now attaches and detaches smoothly, without requiring excessive force. Much better now

EDIT #3: Auto-focus is fast, but not always 100% accurate - this is only an issue with very shallow depth of field at f/2.8. Generally, I find the AF to be acceptable.
   
Veteran Member

Registered: June, 2010
Location: Tromsø, Norway
Posts: 886

2 users found this helpful
Review Date: December 7, 2015 Recommended | Price: $405.00 | Rating: 9 

 
Pros: Sharp, fast, decent AF, manual aperture ring
Cons: Noisy AF, flare-y, short focus throw
Sharpness: 10    Aberrations: 8    Bokeh: 9    Handling: 9    Value: 10    Camera Used: Pentax K-3   

I finally admitted to myself that for a lot of the shooting I do, it was time to get a fast zoom, especially after killing my kit zoom about a year ago, and then later taking up concert photography semi-professionally.
I decided on this lens above the sigma 24-70 as it is slightly smaller and cheaper, was rumoured to have slightly better AF, and has a manual aperture ring (i appreciate this as it allows me to use it on my LX and P3). Being a broke student, I can only dream of the new FA 24-70. Overall, I'm happy with the lens. It's consistently sharp and mostly focuses accurately and well (I did have to calibrate it, but since then it's been on point), although it occasionally hunts in extreme lighting. Going from mostly using either manual or silent AF lenses, the AF is VERY noisy, but as I've pretty much exclusively used it at pretty loud concert venues and for shooting action sports, that doesn't matter too much. The only issue I've had with the loud AF was at a choir concert, where I felt like the AF was disturbing to the performance.
I find it to have little to no distortion or CA, but, much as it pains me to say, it has bad flaring issues. And I'm the type of person who enjoys a good flare. And although it can be workable, I've occasionally had otherwise awesome shots be unpublishable due to unattractive/badly placed flaring.
Overall, I find this to be a great value lens that mostly works incredibly well for me. I'll include some shots taken with it below.

IMGP7043 by Zoe Bazilchuk, on Flickr

IMGP8224 by Zoe Bazilchuk, on Flickr

IMGP7922 by Zoe Bazilchuk, on Flickr

IMGP7642 by Zoe Bazilchuk, on Flickr

IMGP7358 by Zoe Bazilchuk, on Flickr

Example of a badly placed/unpublishable flare:

IMGP8124 by Zoe Bazilchuk, on Flickr
   
Review Date: October 30, 2015 Recommended | Price: $250.00 | Rating: 9 

 
Pros: Sharpness, Light, Useful range
Cons: nothing really - the autofocus is "old-school" but efficient
Sharpness: 8    Aberrations: 8    Bokeh: 8    Handling: 9    Value: 8   

This a review of my second Tamron 28-75mm. I use it on 5D MarkII. I've an old "made in Japan" sample. Due to the choices on 24-70mm, this lens is no more considered as really an alternative... Well it should!


If the focal range beginning at 28mm doesn't bothered you, you can take a deep look at this lens.


There could be sample variations (as many zoom, even with Canon L) but my 28-75mm:
- Is very sharp across the range, even @f2.8/75mm. I'm not a "corners pixel-peeper" but I can say you for portraits this lens is sometimes too sharp!
- Focuses accuratly (I've tuned the Micro Adjustment of my 5DII to -4, and the focus is spot on with every focal length)
- I like the colors, with a nice contrast
- Out-of-focus blurs render nicely (the bokeh @f2.8 is for me very good - with only 7th blades when stopped dows it could more harsh but if you want bokeh, use it @f2.8 or @f3.2)
- Costs me few bucks (200€ in 2nd hand - mint condition). The best 24-70mm for Canon costs 2000€, the stabilized Tamron 24-70mm 850€, and are really heavier/bulkier.
- Very good performance at minimum focus distances for near-macro shots.
- Is correctly built and light, unobtrusive.
- For the transport & durability, the lock at 28mm is a nice plus.


The minus are the audible Autofocus, the zoom ring not really smooth, the not-so-good flare & ghost when light is pointed to the lens. Use the lens hood to limit this effect.


To summarize, it's a very good performer, and it's sufficient light to put it often in your camera bag. My favorite lens is the 24mm TS-E II, and this Tamron 28-75mm compliments well it during trips/holidays.
   
Senior Member

Registered: August, 2013
Location: Prague
Posts: 272
Review Date: May 1, 2015 Recommended | Price: None indicated | Rating: 10 

 
Pros: Sharp, great low light tone and colour, price, relaibilty
Cons: a bit heavy

Wonderful and reliable. An excellent performer for portraits or as a walk around. Will not let you down or disappoint. Make you sure you do have a good copy, though. I had a used one with issues, but I think that was the owner not the lens.
Add Review of Tamron AF XR Di LD Macro SP 28-75mm F2.8



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