krolsasuke

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Very soft images at wide aperture, noisy autofocus, average buoild quality

In my opinion, this lens is not worth the money paid. I bought this lens last winter after reading numerous praises regarding it's capability to capture sharp images with excellent IQ even at wide aperture. However to my dismay I later find out that images taken at f2.8 were very soft and certainly not up to my expectation. Even after stopping down to f5.6 the sharpness only improves a little. I send it back to Tamron Service Centre (UK) for recalibration and it took another 3 weeks before they returned it back to me. However to my diasppointment there doesn't seems to be any differences in IQs. I continue to use this lens until I bought the EF-S 17-55mm f2.8 IS and the IQs produced by this lens just blew me up! When compared side by side images taken at f2.8 with the EF-S lens were much sharper and richer in colour. In fact it almost rivals my EF-s 60mm f2.8 Macro lens (but not quite near the quality considering that this is a prime). In conclusion I would recommend people to look away at another alternatives if you're looking for a fast zoom lens. Although they are much more expensive, in the long run the IQs produced are way better and worth every cents spent.

Poor image quality and sharpness Noisy autofocus Poor build quality

I bought this lens for my EOS 40D last winter after reading numerous praise about the IQ produced by this lens and its capability to produce sharp images even at f/2.8. However to my disappointment images taken at f/2.8 came out very soft and certainly not up to my expectation. Even after stopping down to f5.6 there were only minimal increase in image sharpness. I ran some quick focusing test and found that this lens suffers from back focusing. I sent it back to Tamron Service Centre (UK) for recalibration, explaining about the problem and it takes 3 weeks before the lens is returned back to me. However, to my disappointment (again!) there doesn't seems to be any changes at all interms of image quality/sharpness. I continue to use this lens for a while before buying a second hand Canon EF-S 17-55mm f2.8 IS and the resulting images were like heaven and earth! Images taken with the Canon lenses are extraordinarily sharp, almost as sharp (probably up to 70% at comparable aperture) as my EF-S 60mm f2.8 Macro prime lens. Therefore is you're looking for a fast general purpose zoom lens, I would suggest to look at better alternative (like the amazing EF-S 17-55 f2.8). Although other alternatives are more expensive but in the long run the IQ worth every cent spent.