Author: | | Junior Member Registered: March, 2008 Location: Toronto Posts: 30 2 users found this helpful | Review Date: March 17, 2008 | Recommended | Price: $180.00
| Rating: 8 |
Pros: | good contrast, colour rendition, small size, quick AF | Cons: | soft at long end | | Excellent lens for the price. I bought this as my all around travel lens. It's extremely compact and lightweight for it's range. The zoom ring is smooth and well dampened. It also features a Zoom lock button. However, it doesn't suffer from zoom creep at all. The lens provides excellent contrast and colour rendition, almost at par with most Pentax lenses. The AF is quick and is very quiet compared to the Pentax lenses. My only gripe is that it is a bit soft at the long end until you stop down to f8 and then it's sharp.
highly recommend this lens but as the new 18-250 has been released that might be the better choice. However if you don't need the extra length and width you might be able to find the 28-200 for a very good price.
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: March, 2007 Location: Nove Zamky, Slovakia Posts: 7,183 2 users found this helpful | Review Date: April 4, 2008 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 8 |
Pros: | Size, focal range, sharpness, versatiliy | Cons: | slow, reflections | | this lens haven't seen much use until recently. Since I bought Sigma 10-20, this Tamron is my main outdoor walkaround lens. It's a great walkaround lens, with good IQ, though bit soft at long end, but sharpens up nicely when stopped to f5.6 on wide end, and f8 on long end. For indoors it's too slow, but in good light it's very decent and very usable lens, only really bad thing is that it's prone to reflections, so don't point it to sun. AF with K100D is accurate and fast. If you don't have budget for 18-200 or 18-250, and have available 10-20 or 12-24, get this one. For the money you won't be disapointed.
| | | | Forum Member Registered: June, 2007 Location: Belgium Posts: 96 2 users found this helpful | Review Date: September 4, 2008 | Recommended | Price: $180.00
| Rating: 8 |
Pros: | good range, acceptable quality, good build quality | Cons: | a bit soft, some barrel distortion | | This one serves as my travel lens, and for that purpose, it does excellent.
Of course it's a superzoom, so there are bound to be compromises, such as some slight softness and a decent amount of barrel distortion.
I don't really mind these compromises though, because 90% of the time you don't notice them.
And in return you get a great range, in a compact and yet sturdy package.
| | | | Forum Member Registered: April, 2008 Location: Vancouver Posts: 87 2 users found this helpful | Review Date: September 15, 2008 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 8 |
Pros: | Great value, light weight, sharp enough to bring on vacation | Cons: | CA, zoom ring a little tight | | This is a great little vacation zoom from Tamron. It has a good 28-200mm range, it is decent optically, and most important of all, it is lightweight.
I bought this lens as a general purpose "vacation" zoom for me to bring on trips and outings that would be inconvenient to use primes or bring a bag of lenses. So portability and range was important and it lives up to the requirment quite well.
I didn't expect the optical quality to be as good as it is, in fact I was a little surprised. Even at 200mm, the images are quite sharp stopped down to f/8. There is, however, some purple fringing issues with this lens under some bright sunny conditions, but it is a compromise I can live with.
| | | | | Junior Member Registered: February, 2009 Location: Oxford Posts: 28 1 user found this helpful | Review Date: March 24, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $73.00
| Rating: 6 |
Pros: | Focusing speed, build quality | Cons: | Focusing speed, internal focusing causes changes in focal length | | Before I start, I have to qualify my review by saying that this is only after a very short time playing with the lens, and is only on handling and mechanics, rather than actual picture-taking ability.
Firstly, focusing ability. This lens has a very short focus throw (something like 45 degrees from lock to lock), which has a couple of effects. Firstly, focus is extremely fast. On an MZ-5N, this translates to quick and accurate focusing. On my GX20, however, I ran into a problem - it seems to be TOO fast for the camera to be able to cope with. What I mean is, if focusing conditions are not optimal and if the subject is a long way out of focus to start with, the lens will overshoot, go all the way to the other extreme, come back, overshoot and so on ad infinitum. If the subject is nearly in focus, however, it seems to be able to cope pretty well. There is also the expected difficulty when focusing manually with such a short throw to play with.
Secondly, this is an internal focusing lens. This means that the focal length marked on the scale is only reached when focusing at infinity - focusing any closer reduces the effective focal length quite considerably.
Having said all that, I still find this lens quite amazing. It's very compact for such a huge range, and in good lighting, the focusing speed is blazingly fast. Also, the lens feels extremely well built. The end element does not wobble at all, even at maximum extension - I can't say the same thing about my Pentax/Samsung lens!
A word on the pricing. I was lucky enough to snag this as part of a bundle with an MZ-5N (with wonky flash), associated battery pack and a fairly nice bag, so depending on your priorities, I got something for nothing.
| | | | Inactive Account Registered: June, 2010 Location: Toronto Posts: 4 | Review Date: July 17, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $130.00
| Rating: 5 |
Pros: | wide zoom range | Cons: | IQ doesn't meet expectation | | This lens turned out to be a disappointment.
It seems to be well built and it handles really well.
But in terms of IQ, it doesn't come close to my Sigma 28-105.
| | | | Veteran Member Registered: August, 2010 Location: South Florida Posts: 312 1 user found this helpful | Review Date: April 7, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $60.00
| Rating: 6 |
Pros: | Good range, decent results with good light, weight helps with shake, zoom lock, build quality | Cons: | Dark, slow, AF hunted a lot with K100D, heavy | | I bought this lens a few years ago when I had my K100D, and I used it almost exclusively. I had bought the K100D without a lens, and this was my first lens.
Being that it was my first DSLR, I didn't realize what some of the gripes I was dealing with were.
Let's get the bad stuff out of the way first:
For what it is, it's extremely heavy. It's subject to a lot of zoom creep, but fortunately it has a lock for 28mm. But it's too heavy to be a casual all-around shooter.
On my K100D, it read out as having a maximum aperture of 4, not 3.8, though it likely was opened all the way up. At any f/stop, the light this lens transmitted to the viewfinder was dim. It was fine in bright situations but once you went inside, it became a problem. I only realized how bad it was once I got my (admittedly also heavily flawed) FA 28-80 f3.5 . . . for only being 0.3 stops faster, that lens was brighter and . . .
It autofocused faster than the Tamron. The 28-200 would really hunt around, and though the manual focus ring was nicely damped, it seemed slow to focus.
However, in well-lit situations, it was capable of producing sharp images with good color reproduction. The copy I got had a cracked filter ring and the coating was wearing on the front element, but it produced great images. Other than that wear, the glass was clean and the thing was built like a TANK. Very sturdy and hardy.
If you're willing to work with its limitations, and you really want a zoom with THAT MUCH range, this is a good option. But it will fight you a bit.
Once I got the FA 28-80 f3.5 I used that almost exclusively. At the time I didn't know about KEH or Pentax Forums. I wish I had bought a kit 18-50 instead and maybe the 50-200 which I have now.
Here's a shot that was taken in the middle of the range (75mm), with plenty of light (it was a strobe behind him)
And here's one all the way in at 200, with lower light.
As you can see, CA was pretty good, not much PF, but when you go all the way in, the resolution goes down and it gets pretty soft.
| | | | Veteran Member Registered: February, 2008 Location: Lachine, Quebec, Canada Posts: 453 2 users found this helpful | Review Date: August 16, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $125.00
| Rating: 8 |
Pros: | Inexpensive, great walk around range | Cons: | PF and CA | Sharpness: 7
Aberrations: 6
Bokeh: 7
Handling: 8
Value: 9
| | I picked up this lens 3 years ago after moving into the DSLR world to take on a trip to France. I wanted a super zoom to avoid having to lug around too much gear and so that I could hand over the camera to my wife will on the trip.
I'm giving this lens an 8 because I think that given the nature of the beast, it acquits itself admirably.
Yes, it does have some real PF and CA issues, even when stopped down to f/8 or f/11, yes, flair is out of control sometimes. I just try and think a bit if I can do anything to mitigate those problems, and if the shot is golden I'll spend time in post to fix it up.
As well, my rating is in the context of how I use this lens: walking around, primarily daytime, on a K100DS.
For that purpose, especially stopped down to f/5.6 or more, not a lot to complain about. Even from 135-200mm, it does quite well for me (I do try and avoid the range between 175 and 200mm). Internal reflections can also be a bit of a problem here (above f/11), so again I do try and avoid those situations.
Resolution and detail are acceptable on my whopping 6mp K100DS- I can imagine higher spec'ed sensors would seriously show the flaws of this lens.
I do not have any issues with zoom creep- my copy is a little too tight, I find.
I have literally hundreds of photos taken with this lens, but here's a few of those that I found surprising. Of course there's post editing: this is a consumer zoom for the love of Mike. But I find that I can pull some really decent images out of the RAW sources, and I actually trust this lens more than I thought I would after my initial purchase! | | | | Junior Member Registered: July, 2013 Posts: 41 | Review Date: September 10, 2013 | Not Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 6 |
Pros: | durability | Cons: | IQ | Sharpness: 6
Aberrations: 7
Handling: 7
Value: 8
| | I got this lens cheap when I bought my used K20D. This was my first foray into digital SLRs - I still shoot a lot of film.
The IQ of this lens is not very good in my experience but I had it tumble down a hillside in the Canadian Rockies recently and still come up working (along with the K20D)...
For its price - I got it for less than $100 - it is okay - but I'd have looked elsewhere if it had broken...
| | | | Veteran Member Registered: October, 2013 Location: Ontario Posts: 726 1 user found this helpful | Review Date: October 23, 2013 | Not Recommended | Price: $150.00
| Rating: 7 |
Pros: | Nice range, built like a tank, very nice to handle | Cons: | Soft and slow, IQ not so great | Sharpness: 7
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 9
Value: 7
| | This was my first extended zoom lens (28-200). I didn't want to invest too much money and I got what I paid for.
Note that my version of the lens looks a bit different from the one on the pictures but the specs are identical.
This lens is not very sharp from 28 to 50 or from 90 to 200. Between 50 and 90mm sharpness is a bit better but it is still soft compared to other equivalent lenses.
Aberration or fringing most specifically is pretty bad at longer ranges.
Distortion however is lower than expected on a lens in this price range, good to normal levels for a long zoom lens.
Bokeh is decent, seen better but easy to live with.
This lens is actually nice to handle, if feels sturdy, every rings (focus, zoom, aperture) are very smooth and feel much better than the price would suggest.
It was a nice "Starter" lens and I still use it once in a while when I fear I might damage one of my better lens but there are much better options in the same kind of price range (sigma DC 18-200 f/3.5-5.6)
| | | | New Member Registered: November, 2013 Posts: 14 | Review Date: February 15, 2014 | Recommended | Price: $69.00
| Rating: 10 |
Pros: | 571 D much more better than 171 D version | Cons: | sometimes refections of sun | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: k-5 k-200D k-x k-S1 fuji x-T100
| | Great zoom range of improved 571 D version with MUCH MORE BETTER SHARPNESS AND CORRECTION THAN EARLIER 171 D VERSION
PAY ATTENTION: This "sun shine lens" must be stopped down - between f 9 and f 13 best results !
+/O aperture wide open only fair sharpness, especially at 200 mm
+/++ good to very good sharpness with f 11 over the full range
+ high contrast
++ beautiful colour rendition
++ very carefully corrected CA's at 28mm
Try to get the newer 571 D version, The lower evaluation concerns the old 171 D version. It is really a big difference between both versions !
Use higher ISO and stop it down + short 1/500 sec, in order to get wonderful pictures with this lens - FULL RECOMMENDATION
Ps. Close ups with 36mm macro ring at 135mm f 11 possible !
| | | | Senior Member Registered: August, 2013 Posts: 112 2 users found this helpful | Review Date: March 3, 2014 | Recommended | Price: $90.00
| Rating: 9 |
Pros: | Great all around lens | Cons: | Creaky-plasticky zoom control | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 8
Value: 10
Camera Used: Nikon
| | I have this lens with a Nikon mount and after using it a bit, I feel comfortable posting a review. It is definitely not legacy glass; but I won't hold that against it because I'm an old dude who still likes those tank-like Western electric rotary dial phones, pre-1970 American cars built of real steel and I like my cameras/lenses the same way!
I would say this is an excellent value for the money. It does what I need it to do and it does it well. It is my most used lens. It doesn't seem as sharp as some others, but after carefully reviewing my last group of photos with another lens, I think this is more of a color rendition issue. The colors are still very good, and that's just my opinion comparing the two, the way they look to me. My only real complaint is the auto focus has trouble in certain lighting conditions, back lit or bright sky. It also has a little trouble deciding focus on landscapes at times but as I have used this a lot, I know what to expect and its not as big a deal as I thought the day I first stuck it on my camera!
| | | | Senior Member Registered: February, 2012 Posts: 118 2 users found this helpful | Review Date: June 22, 2014 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 7 |
| After years playing with DSLR I start to try to think positive.
EVERY LENSES ARE GOOD AS LONG AS YOU GET A GOOD COPY.
What makes different : one is BETTER than other.
Consider this, you get a bad copy of Pentax DA* 16-50 2.8 and you get a good copy of Pentax DA 16-45 4.
You will make a better pic with Pentax DA 16-45 4!
This lens is cheap, will not make you bankrupt and can make a good pic as long as you get a good copy and you know how to use it.
the sample pics are took with Pentax K30 and the lens has scratch on front optic, all handheld including the candle. https://www.flickr.com/photos/94312009@N02/sets/72157644887191749/ | | | | Senior Member Registered: February, 2010 Location: Adelaide, SA Posts: 273 2 users found this helpful | Review Date: February 21, 2016 | Recommended | Price: $300.00
| Rating: 9 |
Pros: | Lightweight, long zoom range, inexpensive | Cons: | Zoom creep, not quite as sharp as the new modern lenses | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 9
Value: 10
Camera Used: MZ-30, K7
| | Lightweight superzoom that was perfect for my film days and even got some use on my K7.
Surprisingly good image quality given some of the advancements of lens designs in recent years and it being one of the first true superzoom lenses.
Autofocus was quicker on this lens than some of my recent DA, FA and DA* lenses.
| | | | Junior Member Registered: November, 2009 Location: Portland, OR Posts: 42 4 users found this helpful | Review Date: February 21, 2016 | Recommended | Price: $50.00
| Rating: 8 |
Pros: | Built well and handles well. | Cons: | A bit slow, but it's very cheap too. No real complaints from me. | Sharpness: 7
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 7
Handling: 8
Value: 9
Camera Used: Film bodies
| | This is the third edition in the Tamron 28-200 line. Pretty good IQ when you consider its focal range. Shutterbug did a comprehensive review some years ago.
| | |