Tamron SP AF300MM F/2.8 LD (IF)

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A decent amount of fringing in high contrast areas

I've had this lens for a full season of sports now and have to say that I absolutely love it! I bought it off of ebay and it came with the collar, a UV filter on the front (112mm holy crap!), and a UV and CPL drop in filter. One of the greatest things about this drop in fliter is that it comes with one that rotates (no need for specialized CPL drop ins).

As for actual performance, it works great on both my 7D and 5DIII with very accurate AF. The AF makes a nice whir as it focuses from one place to the other, but it actually moves very fast for me. It just sounds slow due to the noise, much like an old sigma 24-70 2.8 I used to have. It works great in low light with great sharpness in the center which becomes a little soft at the edges at 2.8, especially on the full frame. By f4 it is very acceptable and by 5.6 it's awesome! This lens has performed for me very will both indoors and out, even in not-so-great lighting.

Last part? The price. It certainly cannot be neglected. Would I love a Canon 300 f2.8 L IS II? Of course! That being said, even the Canon non-IS used in terrible shape would've cost me at best 2.5x the money and a brand new Canon everything would be 10x the money. For that savings, this is one of my best bang-for-your-buck lenses and is used very often.

Purple fringing in high contrast areas, slower AF than Canon

Picked this up for a steal in outstanding condition, including original box, collar, hood, case, filters, etc. I've seen some contradictory reviews on this lens online, but I must say, my copy is very sharp, straight from f/2.8, all the way to the edges (on full frame). It sharpens up a tiny bit more at f/5.6; f/4 increases contrast a little bit.

Bokeh is nice and smooth and specular highlights are evenly lit, though they do get a little cat's eye look at the edges of the frame wide open.

AF speed is not blazing fast, but it's quick when you are in the same focus area. I have found AF accuracy to be excellent.

The only negative on image quality is purple fringing in high contrast areas. However, I don't find it in enough images or to be bad enough to really cause any real issues, but it is there.

Overall, especially considering the price, I am extremely impressed.

Auto-Focusing feels slow.

I picked up this lens used on ebay. When I received the lens I was nervous at first as there were some difficulties using the lens with my digital bodies. My Nikon N90s was fine, but the digital cameras were having focusing issues. A call to Tamron later and I found out the lens had an out-dated cpu-chip in the lens; shipped lens to Tamron in NY and two months later I got the lens back. Works better now.

Okay so how about that lens? I like the lens, the cost of the lens was a major factor in its purchase. I would have liked to purchase the Nikon Telephoto AF-S f/2.8G ED-IF VR lens at this time, but alas no funds do I have for such a purchase. At the time of my writting this review I had the Tamron lens in my possesion for almost a month (since being repaired). The weight I do not notice, as the lens is attached to a monopod when I use it. The switching between manual-focus and auto-focus I like since there is no button to accidently switch, you must instead rotate a cover out of position in order to mess with the fine-focus adjustment wheel. The auto-focus feels slow, this is a subjective statment at this time since I have not rented the lens available from Nikon to do a side-by-side. Depending on which camera body I use, determines the amount of extra searching for the auto-focus.

I think that actions speak louder than words so here are some images that I have taken with the lens. <a href="http://www.mystphoto.com/reviews/tamron/af300mm">http://www.mystphoto.com/reviews/tamron/af300mm</a>