 |
Tamron 17-50mm F/2.8 XR Di II LD Aspherical [IF]
|
|
Review Date: Jul 12, 2009
|
Recommend? |
Price paid: Not Indicated
|
|
Pros:
|
fast, fairly light, sharp
|
|
Cons:
|
|
|
|
Got this lens at Christmas 2008 to replace the kit 18-70 that I sold when I sold my D70.
My first impression was that it was good, but not really good, seemed a touch soft. Then, over a period of 6 months it started misbehaving, basically the auto-focus stopped working, and also the lens would not initialise properly when I turned on my D300, which led the D300 to think there was no lens attached.
Emailed warehouse express (UK dealer) who sold me the lens, and arranged for me to take it to Intro in Maidenhead. Advertised turnaround is a couple of weeks; they had it ready in 4 days! Great service.
When it came back, the focus and sharpness were superb, a level up from when I first had it. Now, for me its 10/10 for image quality.
Build quality still a little suspect since the thread that holds the lens hood has gone wobbly, so it'll be back for that to be fixed.
|
|
|
|
|
Tamron 17-50mm F/2.8 XR Di II LD Aspherical [IF]
|
|
Review Date: Jul 12, 2009
|
Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 10
|
|
Pros:
|
sharp, wide, fairly light, good value
|
|
Cons:
|
|
|
Got this lens at Christmas 2008 to replace the kit 18-70 that I sold when I sold my D70.
My first impression was that it was good, but not really good, seemed a touch soft. Then, over a period of 6 months it started misbehaving, basically the auto-focus stopped working, and also the lens would not initialise properly when I turned on my D300, which led the D300 to think there was no lens attached.
Emailed warehouse express (UK dealer) who sold me the lens, and arranged for me to take it to Intro in Maidenhead. Advertised turnaround is a couple of weeks; they had it ready in 4 days! Great service.
When it came back, the focus and sharpness were superb, a level up from when I first had it. For example,
http://picasaweb.google.com/quitetall/Sardinia#5349363253719604066
and I used the lens all the time during a recent trip to Sardinia
http://picasaweb.google.com/quitetall/Sardinia
Now, for me its 10/10 for image quality.
Build quality still a little suspect since the thread that holds the lens hood has gone wobbly, so it'll be back for that to be fixed.
|
|
|
|
|
Nikon D300
|
|
Review Date: Dec 15, 2008
|
Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 10
|
|
Pros:
|
Auto settings are rarely wrong, super image quality, excellent autofocus, very useful dust off
|
|
Cons:
|
NX software is dire
|
|
Bought the D300 as an upgrade from the D70. Its night and day. In 3 years of owning the D70 I took about 3000 images. In 7 months with the D300 taken 2000.
You can see a good selection at www.fire-horse.co.uk.
I usually shoot raw+basic to conserve card space and normally the jpegs are good enough for proofing.
Would buy again.
|
|
|
|
|
Tokina 12-24mm f/4 AT-X 124 AF PRO DX SD
|
|
Review Date: Feb 25, 2008
|
Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 9
|
|
Pros:
|
Very good value for money, very good zoom range though would prefer a touch more at the long end
|
|
Cons:
|
With then lens hood on, and a skylight, adding a polarizer causes cut off at the wide end. The rubber zoom and focus grips broke and fell off.
|
|
This is my second Nikon-fit lens for my D70, and its been a good buy. On a recent trip to Montreal I deliberately used it all the time. Pictures are here http://picasaweb.google.com/quitetall/MontrealFebruary2008.
With a 77mm filter you can add skylight, pola and ND for reasonable money.
|
|
|
|
|
Nikon D70s
|
|
Review Date: Jun 15, 2005
|
Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $900.00
| Rating: 10
|
|
Pros:
|
fast AF, but sometimes fooled, latest firmware gives improvemets to AF, changes frames remaining algorythm, 18-70 lens is great
|
|
Cons:
|
AF sometimes fooled, the exposure bracket system needs a re-think
|
|
|
It does everything I need, but I have only I gripe (so far): when you select exposure bracket you have to manually press the shutter release for each exposure,and you can keep going. I would rather it worked list P+P cams where you press once and it takes as many exposure as you asked for, without further user intervention.
The 18-70 lens has nice bokeh (IMO) and out of focus green backgrounds have a nice (to me) kodachrome feel
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
