Camera Labs

Hello Everyone,

Im hoping my input can maybe help anyone whos looking at buying a Tamron 70-300mm lens for there Nikon D-SLR.

I brought my Nikon D40 with an additional lens (Tamron 70-300mm) back in October and since then the lens has been of very good qaulity to use, The RRP of the lens when i brought it was £259.99 but now you'll be able to pick one up for around £150 i'd imagen, And if you have £150 to spend on a telephoto lens i'd seriously suggest looking at the Tamron 70-300mm lens, My first impressions when i mounted it to my camera where that it was a typical cheap telephoto, And i was rather put off by that noisey AF motor that can be abit sluggish and slow to focus, But after a while i dident mind the noisey AF motor afterall its not effecting picture qaulity, just wouldent be ideal i spose if you where into wildlife photography, The image Qaulity this lens produces is very good for the price tag, even at the highest 300mm end, Although images will be pretty soft when at 100% on your computer, its nothing that isnt fixable via photoshop by adding a little sharpening, Images taken with the tamron 70-300mm attached have a good colour and contrast to them, at all focal lengths, Maybe abit to much chromatic abrasion at the 70mm and 300mm ends against brighter subjects but nothing that will ruin a photo, and nothing that isnt fixable with most editing software programmes, The lens also has a fantastic Macro Focus mode (180-300mm) Which allows you to get close to subjects and be able to realiy capture some amazing detail (Again the only downside is the motor makes quite abit of noise). The lens isnt the best proformer when it comes to taking pictures in low light, infact hand holding a shot at 300mm when the sun has set can be an impossable task, This is where you'd realiy appreatie Some sort of Vibration Reduction, As images taken at longer exposures will be soft, and details seem to be lost, But you can always use a tripod to combat this, My verdict would be if you had £150 for a telephoto lens, This is definatly one to consider, But remember to have a look at Sigmas 70-300mm or maybe lose a 100mm and have alook at a nikon 55-200mm VR.

Pros - Cheap affordable 70-300mm lens, Good contrast at all focal lenghs, Doesent suffer from creep, Nice and smooth to zoom in and out, Quite lightweight, Good aperture range considering the price, Nice Macro Focus mode.

Cons - Doesent have OS or VR (Can be problematic at 300mm when shooting in lower light or shooting far subjects), Lens Suffers from chromatic abrasion at 70mm and at 300mm and purple fringing on far subjects (Usally fixable with most editing software), Autofocus motor is abit loud, Autofocus can 'swim' and be very sluggish, and sometimes doesent want to focus, Soft at 70mm end and 200ish onwards (what do you expect from a budget lens though ?).

Competitors ?

Look at the following before buying

- Sigma 70-300mm
- Nikon 55-200mm VR (Yes you loose 100mm but for £150 you can pick one up and the qaulity is alot better)

Hope this helps any potential buyers.

Kind regards

Michael.

I happened to have tested this lens too (at a store), but have to disagree on a few points:

First off, chromatic abberation is not easy to fix. You can reduce it, but not completely remove it.
Secondly, the softness. I found the lens to be really soft at 300 mm (at least wide open). Photoshop's sharpening can only fix so much. Stopping down the lens certainly helps, but you'll be looking at very slow (impossible to handhold) shutter speeds then.

But then again, you're getting a 70-300 lens for a very small amount of money, which is a great lensfor the money. Sure, stabilisation would be nice. Same story for extra sharpness, a tripod collar and a quick autofocus motor. Which is all available, but at a higher price.
The macro (although not a true macro) is also a nice thing to have, I believe it focuses at one meter from the sensor?

Conclusion: Very good lens for the money, but be sure to test it yoruself, and know it's weaknesses before you buy it. Don't intent to buy this for indoors sports shooting

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I take pictures so quickly, my highschool was "Continuous High".

i think its a great lens for the price, takes a while to get decnt pics with it if your a beginner, remember to up the shutter speed to atleast 1/500, if you have capture nx, its great for fixing chromatic abrasion. i find that because of the problems with softness etc, its best to shoot in raw so you can fix stuff later.

dont know if its just my lens but i find the auto focus to be a bit weak, it hunts quite a bit and on some ocasions wont focus unless i put my hand right in front of the lens then focus then focus again on the subject.

this lens is designed for beginers for you to improve your compositional skills. its no way near as good of the more expensive lenses, but is a good starting point.