Author: | | Pentaxian Registered: February, 2015 Posts: 12,177 | Review Date: April 6, 2015 | Recommended | Price: $350.00
| Rating: 8 |
Pros: | Image quality, relatively cheap, full frame lens | Cons: | Build quality, sharpness on edges | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 8
Value: 8
Camera Used: K-5
| | This lens is similar to the Tamron 17-50 in terms of built quality and image quality. My copy may have an issue because it lacks sharpness on the edges of the APS-C frame. I see this lens, as a future full frame standard zoom if it is a good copy. Given that images are blurred on the edges of the APS-C frame, I wonder how bad it would be when used with a full frame body. But for now, I'd only write the pros and cons of this lens as I used it on APS-C.
Pros:
- great sharpness in the 2/3 of the frame (center)
- fast f/2.8
- sharp when closed 1 stop, tack sharp when closed two stops
- cheap
- reliable AF
- works with 24x36 image circle
- Tamron 5 years guarantee
Cons:
- a bit heavier that 17-50 (feels like 28-75 has more glass)
- noisy AF
| | | | | Forum Member Registered: January, 2010 Location: Akershus Posts: 69 | Review Date: March 8, 2015 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 9 |
Pros: | value for $, size, reasonable sharp | Cons: | weight, lens hood fitment | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 7
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: K-3
| | I picked one second hand, but in spotless condition. For the money, and size, it is really great value. Reasonably sharp, and unlike other reviews here, no problems with AF, at least doesn't seem to hunt any more than other lenses. Zoom ring is smooth, and has nice weight to it. Only thing which irritates me is lens hood fitment, tolerance while putting it on/off is really small, on I always knock off lens cap while at it, and that lens extends while zooming/ focusing. Focal length is everyones personal preference, I wish it would be bit wider, but it might suit you just fine.
| | | | Site Supporter Registered: March, 2007 Location: San Francisco Bay Area Posts: 2,915 | Review Date: January 5, 2015 | Not Recommended | Price: $300.00
| Rating: 6 |
Pros: | sharp above f5.6 | Cons: | very soft at f2.8, heavy | Sharpness: 6
Camera Used: K20D
| | I purchased this lens and planned to use it as a walk around lens. I especially wanted the option to use f2.8 in low light situations. My Tamron 28-75mm was always very soft at f2.8. It was good at f5.6 and above, but that wasn't what I needed. Plus I found the lens to be too heavy and bulky for a walk around lens.
| | | | Veteran Member Registered: August, 2011 Location: Austin, Texas Posts: 328 | Review Date: December 11, 2014 | Recommended | Price: $250.00
| Rating: 9 |
Pros: | Size, Speed, Sharpness, Focal Length Range | Cons: | Autofocus can hunt a bit | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 9
Value: 10
Camera Used: K-20 and K-3
| | I picked my copy up for only $199 (it had a broken filter ring, missing shade, and a small scratch on the front element). I was able to find the replacement filter ring at my local camera repair station and found a shade online. Overall it ended up costing right at $250 and is very much worth it. I was looking for a match to my Tamron 10-24 and it is perfect. Those two lenses can do 99% of everything I photograph with excellent performance. I am a long time Leica rangefinder user (B&W Film) and my lens kit has been 24, 35, 50, 90 and the two Tamron lenses feel equivalent on my Pentax SLR. Only addition in mind is a true macro prime.
| | | | | Senior Member Registered: July, 2011 Location: Mississippi Posts: 282 | Review Date: December 5, 2014 | Recommended | Price: $300.00
| Rating: 10 |
Pros: | Size, weight, price, IQ, FF compatible | Cons: | Tamron QC, indecisive focus, OEM lens cap | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 9
Value: 10
Camera Used: Pentax K-x, Pentax K-5
| | Easily my most well used lens, going on it's 2nd body now and performs just as well..........possibly even better on my new K5 than previous K-x. Nothing more really to add to previous reviews other than I went through two to get a good one. If it were not for the reviews here and elsewere, I'd probably never known my first was sub-standard, as it was pretty good out of the box. But my 2nd one is in a word, "EXCEPTIONAL"
Image quality rivals the primes I have, and therefore saves much time without the need to swap lenses most of the time. Only reason this lens comes off nowadays is when doing longer tele or tripod work where I have time to compose and use my manual primes (that are within it's focal range) instead.
| | | | New Member Registered: June, 2014 Location: Singapore, Singapore Posts: 8 | Review Date: November 29, 2014 | Recommended | Price: $250.00
| Rating: 9 |
Pros: | Sharpness, Price, Value | Cons: | Auto Focus | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 9
Value: 10
Camera Used: Pentax K-30
| | This lens is pretty sharp for what its worth. Auto focus hunts a bit. And the focusing distance being 33 cm, its quite good for a casual macros. If focused properly, its damn sharp. Here is a sample shot to show how sharp it is. This was shot at f2.8. | | | | Veteran Member Registered: July, 2014 Location: Paris Posts: 1,939 | Review Date: October 9, 2014 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 9 |
Pros: | sharp, color | Cons: | slow AF | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 9
Value: 9
Camera Used: K5 IIs
| | this lens is sharp...if you can focus right, the IQ has nothing to discussed about, just the AF is slowwwwwwwww, yeah, in low light you may want to switch to MF !!
| | | | Senior Member Registered: December, 2012 Posts: 135 2 users found this helpful | Review Date: May 26, 2014 | Recommended | Price: $475.00
| Rating: 10 |
Pros: | IQ, price, size and weight (for a FF f2.8 2,7x zoom) | Cons: | Some geometric distortion at 28mm, loud AF, focus ring turns on AF | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 9
Value: 10
Camera Used: Pentax k-5II
| | This is my most used lens as the FOV (42-112mm FF), wide constant f2.8 aperture, and top image quality make it a very fine lens for portrait.
It's reasonably small and light (for it's kind) and built quality is very good (for the price, although not on par with other pro f2.8s) as is image quality (although I did have to correct back focusing).
Highly recomended if you don't need a wider FOV and don't mind the AF noise.
| | | | Veteran Member Registered: September, 2013 Posts: 306 | Review Date: September 22, 2013 | Not Recommended | Price: $450.00
| Rating: 6 |
Pros: | Good from f5.6 | Cons: | F2.8 very soft, big cos ff lens | Sharpness: 7
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 7
Handling: 8
Value: 4
| | F2.8 is too soft. Thats whynot recomend this lensbuy sigma 17-70 its better.
| | | | Veteran Member Registered: August, 2009 Location: Southeast USA Posts: 390 1 user found this helpful | Review Date: June 5, 2013 | Recommended | Price: $308.00
| Rating: 9 |
Pros: | Inexpensive, constant 2.8, versatile, reasonably sharp | Cons: | Rear cap mounting, hood mounting, zoom throw a bit uneven | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 7
Value: 9
| | I've had this lens for about 1.5 months now. It is a great all-purpose lens for my needs, which is mostly candid portrait length shots. 28 mm is wide enough for when I personally want wide. My copy is a front focuser but luckily I have the K-30 which can adjust for this. The pros are listed in the Pros field and I have nothing to elaborate on there.
BTW, for anyone for whom this lens will be the first zoom lens - although it is an internal focusing lens, the length of the lens does change when zooming.
Cons:
On my copy, the snap-on hood is difficult to take off sometimes. I feel like one of these days I'll damage the lens assembly because of the force required to unseat it.
I don't know if it's my caveman intellect or whatever, but I find the rear cap difficult to put on. Usually it takes me a couple of full rotations before I can get the rear cap to go on. It feels like the aperture lever would be damaged if I ever tried to force the cap on the wrong way.
My copy's zoom ring has uneven resistance throughout the zoom range, but this was not a huge big deal for me. It gets better if you "warm it up" by rotating through the zoom range a couple of times.
| | | | Senior Member Registered: October, 2012 Location: Dubai Posts: 144 | Review Date: March 24, 2013 | Recommended | Price: $380.00
| Rating: 10 |
Pros: | Sharp, fast, | Cons: | Hunts a bit in low light | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 9
Value: 9
| | Great walk around lens, great bokeh. | | | | Site Supporter Registered: November, 2010 Location: California Posts: 2,223 1 user found this helpful | Review Date: January 4, 2013 | Recommended | Price: $395.00
| Rating: 10 |
Pros: | Sharp, light weight, easy to use, IQ | Cons: | Hood welds itself to front element | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 10
| | Too bad things first: Hood attaches itself so hard that it is difficult to remove, and a little noise in the AF. Other than that, this is the perfect lens for almost every occasion. For extra wide angle, you have to get another lens. I do recommend it. Tamron33-2.8-Test1-1 by Palenquero, on Flickr Tamron28-75-2.8-Mandarines3-1 by Palenquero, on Flickr
| | | | New Member Registered: October, 2012 Posts: 24 2 users found this helpful | Review Date: November 23, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $425.00
| Rating: 10 |
Pros: | Perfect range on DSLR, perfect size, sharp & colourful | Cons: | Nothing that is the lens's fault | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 10
| | The thing that would make me most upset about "having" to go to a full frame camera, is that there is no 45-135 f2.8 on a full frame (the DA* 50-135mm would be my DREAM on a FF but is only for APS-C image circle).
See, because although this is a full frame lens, 28-75mm makes way more sense on a crop sensor to me. The 28 is wide enough for most things - no, not for landscapes and real estate etc., but that's not "most things", and you have a superwide (like a 10-20) for that stuff, if you're into it. 28 is wide enough to get families at BBQs etc. 75mm is long enough for some portraits and the like... EVERYDAY things. It might be a touch longer (my dream would be like 35-105) - but this is as close as it gets, and it's nice and small too.
I recommend this lens before Tamron jump on the stupid 24-70mm band wagon.
Not much else to say really - it's sharp, we know that, it's contrasty, and you're getting the sweet spot of its FF capability when used on crop.
Comes with a hearty recommendation from moi.
| | | | New Member Registered: August, 2011 Location: Boston Posts: 1 | Review Date: November 13, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $485.00
| Rating: 10 |
Pros: | Most things | Cons: | Not HSM/SDM or something like that | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 10
| | Best everyday type lens on dSLR - parties, gatherings etc. Long enough, wide enough... perfect.
Replacement for the kit lens but about 63 times as good, not expensive either.
| | | | Senior Member Registered: June, 2011 Location: Berlin Posts: 197 | Review Date: August 31, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $350.00
| Rating: 9 |
Pros: | Sharp, FF support, | Cons: | Heavy, soft at f/2.8, slow AF | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 8
Value: 9
| | This is a very good lens, the best alternative for the kit. I can use it on both film camera (full frame) and digital camera.
At f/2.8 the lens is a bit soft. At 28mm the distortion is much visible.
Sample picture (A monkey in a Pagoda in Tay Ninh, Viet nam). Taken at f/2.8, | | |