Camera Labs

Here's the folder to collect all my full-resolution test-shots.
There is currently one shot at f2.8 each from 24mm, 35mm, 50mm, and 70mm.
First observations:
You can produce sharp shots below 70mm.
70mm was the hardest to get sharp shots. Perhaps the lens has a decentering defect, because the left side looks worse than the right. But might be the effect of the image stabilization working. For final test-shots I'll switch off the VC just to be on the safe side.
VC looks pretty effective in the viewfinder, albeit it seems to have a slight lag at startup. But what is most astonishing: the image stabilization does not produce any sound: no clacking, no whirring, no nothing. That was unheard of before (pun intended ).
Just keep in mind that my initial observations are nothing conclusive so far.

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

thanks for sharing your observation Thomas. How about AF speed and accuracy especially in low light/low contrast situation. I always have this problem with Tamron lens without USD before.

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AF-Performance cannot easily be judged. I have to gain more experience with this lens first.
Speed seemed to be OK.

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

Thomas, thanks for sharing this information.

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Canon 7D/5D/40D/1D2N; Nikon F6, FM3A, & Coolpix A; Canon 40mm Pancake, 135L, 50L, 35L, pre-II 50mm 1.8, 100mm 2.8L Macro, 10-22mm EF-S, 28-135 EF, 400mm 5.6L; Nikkor 50mm 1.2 AI-S, 50mm 1.4G, 50mm 1.8D, 16mm 2.8D Fisheye, 180mm 2.8D, 100-300mm 5.6 AI-S; Tokina 17mm & 100mm 2.8 Macro

Puh, 167 shots later with the Tamron and the Nikon at the Siemens-star test-target I can say that the Tamron seems to perform better with VC=OFF on a tripod and contrast-/liveview-based AF than yesterday out in the wild. It comes pretty close to the Nikon.
Now I only have to find out what was I have to do to make the lens perform well outdoors. Maybe try to get better focus, or is the image stabilization the culprit? IS systems tend to reduce image quality because they shift/tilt a lens-group which may produce an effect like a decentered lens.

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

Thanks Thomas for testing the lens.
The price of this lens where i live is 1050$, and the price of the tamorn 28-75 is 400$. I don't need the VC that much. The lens would be used on FF body, so I'm looking for the sharper one when wide open and stopped down. I also don't like that even at f.8 the new tamron still has vignetting, but i'm not sure if the 28-75 has the same problem. Any recommendation, is the new tamron worth the extra 650$?

Sorry, but I don't have personal experience with the Tamron 28-70.

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

Unremarkables shot today - although not the usual sunny style and thus a little less contrasty than I would have preferred them.
I uploaded the f2.8 results here.
All shots from a tripod with mirror-up and contrast-based AF at the center (as usual with this scenery).
At 70mm the left third of the image looks pretty weak, while the right side is clearly better. So there is clearly some degree of decentering present in my copy of this lens. Bit at 50mm and 35mm both sides look more equal and at 24mm the right side seems a tad weaker than the left.

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

Overall are you satisfied with this lens Thomas? Do you think the price tag is justified? Can you compare it with any other lens, let's say the sigma version, or how does it compare to the Nikon/Canon offerings ? Thanks

I'm not through with comparison, will finish next weekend with the Tamron but have still work to do to get comparable results from the Nikon 24-79/2.8.
So a little patience is still required to get some answers from me. But in a week the picture should be clearer...
But here's an image, shot with the Tamron at 48mm, f4.0. 1/250 sec, VC=ON:


The bespectacled Blacksmith by Thomas, on Flickr

Available in full D800 36MMP resolution - if you click through the image...

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

It looks very good. I also don't see the vignetting many people are complaining about. Keep us posted with your work

Hi Thomas,

I decided to purchase this lens too and give it a go.
One thing I can say is that I also think the left side is far softer than the right side. It may be due to the fact that the camera might have not been parallel to the wall, or it is the de-centering problem. Can you please have a look a the images and let me know? I have done test shots at 24mm 50mm 70mm at 2.8; 4; 8 and f/11. Is it too soft? I can not judge because i am no professional. Can you also give me a link to the Siemens star you are talking about?
P.s. Now i had a look at another image i did and actually the left side is sharper than the right...
This is the link to the boring brick wall shots:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22285064@N ... 553470686/
all images shot at ISO 100, mirror lock-up on tripod, VC is Off, camera is 5dm2, image size is M, image profile is Standard: Sharpness:3 Contrast: -1 color and tint: 0. If you can judge the sharpness and IQ of this lens by the provided images, please let me know if you think i should replace the lens.

Well sorry, but an image-size of only 2048 x 1365 = 2.8MP is not very helpfull to see issues. So please upload only f2.8 at full size.
Otherwise it does not make much sense for us to look at your images.
The Siemens-star test-target is here.

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

Thank you Thomas for letting me know, I thought that my images would be saved at 11 MP but I just read that I need a Flikr Pro account to save the images at full resolution. I tried printing out the Siemens star, but I only have an A4 printer, and I don't think the size would be adequate for the test, or even the quality of the print(used laser printer). Correct me if i'm wrong. My wall shots where mixed. Some where sharper, some less and I can't figure out why they turned out that way, since i didn't move the camera, and shot with MF + mirror lock up with self timer. I browsed Photozone, and I came up on a simple test chart(the newspaper chart) for testing the lens in a post made by Klaus.
I tried to keep everything as straight as possible, I did 3 shots and picked 1 that seemed to be the best.
This is the link to the RAW file: http://www.mediafire.com/?sli3l6a82g20mkk
The RAW file is 30 MB , and you will also need to have a RAW editing program to view it.
This is the JPEG file saved in Digital photo professional (Canon RAW converter) I only tweaked Contrast:1 and Sharpness: 5(out of 10)
Jpeg quality set to Max and output resolution is 350(by default)
http://www.mediafire.com/?3sk3x3gbxf58gif

I also did the centering quality test. I have provided one image that is slightly defocused, as Klaus says it is easier to spot the issue that way, and a focused image, though the two seem pretty good.
Defocused: http://www.mediafire.com/view/?vxthwuuu4wjzryc
Focused: http://www.mediafire.com/?jrh81w992wxqgdi


I just read the newspaper test again, and i see that i have forgotten to mark the red corners, and i wasted over an hour on the setup :/
Anyway, I think i did the best i could, and i couldn't keep all corners perfectly aligned due to the field curvature of the lens.
If the test image is not sufficient i will redo it again...

You may want to upload crops to flickr: 1024x768 or even 800x600 is e very nice format for viewing at 100%. You just have to select two crops from the same image to make your point. That way it is much easier for us to help you.

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses