m-a-x wrote:
Thank you, I like 'em too! I love wide angle landscape shots.
I fully agree. The price difference is just too high.
And there are more things than quality alone:
1) I like the form factor of the Tamron more, with respect to front lens design. It's easy to hold filters in front of, it and also a filter holder for Cokin-P and similar systems is easily self-made.
2) Since we're speaking about UWA lenses: the Tammy is wider
Its a real shame the tammy does'nt have a front filter thread like the Tokina version.
Without a filter thread I cant use my 67mm hood and/or polariser like I can with my Tokina 17/f3.5.
I've just aquired a near mint one for £149.99 from a camera shop whilst visiting Brighton on the S. Coast.
The lens was being sold on behalf of a customer, on a commission basis, for £189.99 but I managed to knock him down from the asking price.
If I'd known it did'nt have a filter thread I might not have bought it but I did'nt notice it in the shop.
I was very supprised to find it had filters already built in but dissapointed that the filters on offer are not what I would have chosen.
For instance I would have like to have had a 80b blue filter built in to cancel out the awful yellow/orange light from sodium street lighting in night shots but instead they included a Y2 yellow filter that would make it far worse!
Wide open its definitely sharper than my Tokina 17/f3.5 so at least the concelation of knowing I have a better WA lens.
I also bought a "mystery" M42 preset lens from the same shop...It had a screw on front lenscap that was totally jammed on so it was'nt possible to see what lens it was...It looked like a slow 80-90mm and it was made in Japan and it had an amazing 15 blade iris giving a perfectly circular pattern, thats all I knew.
Today I finally managed to prise the cap off and it turned out to be a Vivitar Tele 135mm f2.8. Its certainly the smallest 135mm lens I've ever seen, seems pretty sharp even when WO and the best bit was it only cost me £2!
Empire wrote:
Dude that is an awsome place nate. I love the first shot with that yellow bamboo
Thanks, it's this very oddly abandoned house in the middle of the jungle with the most unusual designs. It's super dark too, the 3rd shot was an 8 minute exposure at f/11 in the middle of the day.
I'm getting unexpectedly poor results from my Tamron SP 17mm when compared to my Tokina 17mm RMC...I took a nightshot of some shops near me last night and compared them to shots from my Tokina of the same subject from the same spot...The Tokina seems considerably sharper and has more DOF.
I suspect I have'nt got infinity focus bang on on the Tamron yet...Does anyone know how to adjust the Tamron to get infinity spot on as I dont think its possible to alter the focus at the adapter end unless there is some hidden shim I can remove?
Alf Beharie wrote:
I'm getting unexpectedly poor results from my Tamron SP 17mm when compared to my Tokina 17mm RMC...I took a nightshot of some shops near me last night and compared them to shots from my Tokina of the same subject from the same spot...The Tokina seems considerably sharper and has more DOF.
I suspect I have'nt got infinity focus bang on on the Tamron yet...Does anyone know how to adjust the Tamron to get infinity spot on as I dont think its possible to alter the focus at the adapter end unless there is some hidden shim I can remove?
I had focus issues with my Tamron SP 17 initially, but it ended up being a too thin adapter. These lenses are very sensitive to adapter thickness...makes sense since the elements only move 2-3mm from mfd to infinity. I know it may be obvious, but make sure everything is assembled properly and that you are actually focusing short of infinity, it may that you are beyond and need to shim the adapter.
Nice. I just discovered there are at least two types of hood for this lens. I picked up a metal one today and the one I had previously paid 5,000 yen for was plastic.
TWoK wrote:
Nice. I just discovered there are at least two types of hood for this lens. I picked up a metal one today and the one I had previously paid 5,000 yen for was plastic.
Twok
Can you submit snaps of those two hoods? I'm only familiar with the original Tamron hood.
The clamp on mine is metal, but the hood itself is hard rubber. This new hood I picked up today is much nicer and 100% metal, although the rubber might take an impact better. I've seen a few of those shots before, but nice work!
You know when I said that the poor results I was getting seemed to be down to infinity focus not being spot on?
I was using a cheap Chinese-made M42-Adaptall adapter at the time so last night I took my genuine Tamron-made M42-Adaptall adapter off my 300mm/f2.8 and fitted it to the 17mm/3.5...Its now works ok!
Seems the cheap one is slightly thicker, not allowing the rear element to come back far enough for spot on infinity.
OK results are, the DOF is much deeper now so it now compares quite well with the Tokina. Sharpness wise, the Tamron is good WO, the Tokina is not but the Tokina catches up very quickly when stopped down one stop or more.
The Tamron suffers from flare more than the Tokina, with the flaring around bright light sources looking quite harsh on the Tamron but much smoother and nicer with the Tokina. The Tokinas ability to use screw on 67mm filters makes it far more usefull for nightshot work with 80b filters and it can also use a screw on hood too whereas the Tamron cannot take either, which is a right PITA.
I dont have a hood to fit it at the moment so I have to watch where the sun and other bright light sources are in relation to my subjects so I dont risk ruining any shots with flare but if I can rig up a filter thread adapter on the Tamron then it will become much more easy to use and much more user friendly.
I love shooting into the sun. I do not find the Tamron bad at all.
pdmphoto, I also like that shot, but it's not anything out of the ordinary performance wise to my eye. I am sure that the Tamron could do that as well.
As far as ghosting goes, I've yet to find any lens wider than 20mm beside the 14-24/2.8G that is amazing. Everything else has had different degrees of ghosting with the Tamron on the low side.
No. There are some bad samples out there, I'd imagine. So, no, not any Tamron 17/3.5 can match a Zuiko 18mm, but a properly performing Tamron 17/3.5 can beat the Zuiko 18mm in many aspects of lens performance.
