subroto mukerji Loc: New Delhi, INDIA

Page 6: jfantas : That's mainly why I never bothered with the 40mm or 60mm f 2.8 micro-Nikkors (the 85mm is a damp squib)...while the af-s 105mm f 2.8 VR micro-Nikkor, truly a phenomenal lens, is beyond my reach. I make do with the Coolpix P510's macro function. :-)
Am thinking of getting a close-up lens attachment or two, if I doget into more macro work. They are relatively inexpensive, and centers are sharp, which is what really matters. Used them in film days...OK results. Best compromise might be an auto extension tube set.

Georgiann Loc: La Pine, oregon

so sorry Annette that's really awful for all poor man so sad.

Clicker2014 Loc: Canada

Can you only vote once?

Frankie Loc: Florida

Nice shots...the first one is my fav...you can see his little face! Love the caption on the 2nd shot..perfect!

Frankie Loc: Florida

Whew, :roll: that's a relief...I knew I could count on y'all not to rat me out!! :lol:

subroto mukerji Loc: New Delhi, INDIA

Page 7: It's an excellent lens, Double R (whether the older non-VC one or the newer VC version). Like any piece of equipment, experimentation will reveal the sweet-spots / quirks.

http://www.kenrockwell.com/tamron/17-50mm-f28-vc.htm

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http://www.bythom.com/1750lens.htm

Here's an abstract from Thom Hogan's review (Nikon oriented, but the facts don't change). Please ignore the caveats, reviewers need to add them to sound authoritative :

"Performance

Everyone's probably scrolled past all my other comments to get down to this section, so let's cut to the chase: this is a very good lens in almost every respect; but it's not perfect.

Distortion: The lens has very visible barrel distortion at 17mm (about 3% by my measurement). There's a tiny bit of bow-tie component to the barrel effect, but the majority is correctable via simple methods. By 24mm, this is all but gone (I can't measure it reliably it's so low). A tiny bit of pincushion distortion appears as you move to longer focal lengths than 24mm, but generally well under 1%, so most people won't have any issue with that. Even at 50mm the pincushioning distortion is still a bit under 1%. (For those just joining us, anything under 1% tends to be invisible in pictures except to pixel peepers.)

Sharpness: I was surprised at how well this lens performed, actually. Moreover, optically it appears best around f/5.6, which is quite good for a fast, complex lens like this. Center performance is best in the wider focal range (~17-28mm) with a very slight drop-off by 50mm. Corner performance is about the opposite: best at the mid-range apertures at the longest focal length (and almost the same as the center by f/8), visibly less so at the wide end.

While the central area of the frame is almost always excellent on any current DX sensor camera, the corner performance wide open is only what I'd characterize as "good." Indeed, in the central regions, this lens is about as good as it gets on the 10mp and 12mp DX cameras, even at f/2.8. By f/5.6 at almost any focal length, I'd call the performance of this lens "excellent" (though the corners will still be a tad softer than "excellent" at 17mm). Here's my new short-hand cheat sheet for sharpness:
Wide Open (f/2.8) Optimal Aperture (f/5.6)
Corner
Center
Corner
Center
17mm
good
excellent
very good
excellent
24mm
very good
excellent
very good
excellent
35mm
very good
excellent
excellent
excellent
50mm
excellent
excellent
excellent
excellent
Overall, I'd put this lens in the same category as the Nikkor for sharpness, though I did feel that the Nikkor produced a bit more contrast, especially at the wide end.

Aberrations: A bit of a mixed bag here. At 50mm you can pretty much ignore them. Ditto for the mid-range focal lengths once you get to f/5.6. At 17mm, however, I still see visible aberrations at f/5.6, though they're not obnoxious. At wider apertures, you will definitely want to consider doing some sort of chromatic aberration reduction in software for your 17mm shots, as I see obvious problems there.

Light falloff: Well, you can't win them all. This lens has pronounced falloff at f/2.8, easily over a stop in the corners at all focal lengths. Stopping down to even f/4 dramatically lowers this, by over half at all focal lengths except perhaps 17mm. By f/5.6 falloff is well controlled at all focal lengths except 17mm. Unfortunately, 17mm never really seems to get better than about a half stop of falloff in the corners, no matter what aperture I use within the diffraction limits (f/13 on the D200 on which I did most of the testing for this lens). This, coupled with the softer corner performance at the wide end, are the Achilles heel for the lens and the reason why I'm undecided whether it stays in my kit. After all, I'm typically always at the wide end of this lens. Thus I have to worry about the corners, even at small apertures. Fortunately, a lot of recent software can deal with vignetting--Capture NX and Lightroom in particular--which is why this lens is still in my bag much of the time (it after all, is smaller and lighter than the only alternative I'd consider at the moment).

Focus: For a lens without AF-S, focus is actually fast and hunt-free. I suspect that the focusing elements in this lens don't move much (note the short throw on the focus ring).

Flare: I had no obvious problems with this lens (I should note that I always used the supplied hood). In direct comparisons with the Nikkor, I did sense a very small bit less contrast overall to images shot towards the sun, but not enough to worry about.

Flash exposures: It appears that the lens is reporting the wrong focus distance value to the camera, which causes the camera to tend to overexpose the flash in TTL BL mode. Due to the way light works and the incorrect values that are reported, the overexposure will be more obvious the closer your subject is to the camera. I didn't see this at first because I typically shoot in Standard TTL and at longer flash distances for my testing.

Overall: For the price, the Tamron performs well, though not perfectly. The primary trait that stands out is the sharpness, which is quite good and in the arena of that Nikkor that costs more than twice as much. If you're in the middle of this lens' focal range most of the time, and at mid-range apertures, there's very little to complain about. At the telephoto end, there's little to complain about at any aperture. It's that wide end that keeps this lens from being a five-star lens: the corners are going to be darker and softer than the center at any aperture, and have visible chromatic aberration in them if you're shooting at wide apertures. That could be enough to put some off this otherwise fine lens.

Wither the Sigma 18-50mm? I haven't used it enough to review it, but I have used it enough to know that it doesn't beat the Tamron.

Wither the Tokina 16-50mm? Again, I haven't used it enough to review. It's a larger and heavier lens.

Drawbacks

Corners at 17mm. Vignetting, softness, and aberrations, oh my.
Not AF-S. While the focus is nearly AF-S fast, the big issue is that you can't override focus manually.
Positives

Sharp as a knife, mostly. Outside the corners at 17mm and at 24mm wide open, this lens posts resolution numbers on my D200 that are about as good as they get.
The affordable 28-80mm for DX users. Considering the price differential between this and the Nikkor 17-55mm, there's little tradeoff being made. Indeed, this lens is smaller and lighter than the Nikkor, yet except at 17mm, holds its own against that lens."

Frankie Loc: Florida

Thank you, Georgiann. I couldn't believe how much detail showed....he was sooooo small.

subroto mukerji Loc: New Delhi, INDIA

Page 7: PATo: Spiderman would have been envious !

Smokenmirrorss Loc: WV

The first picture is fantastic.

Clicker2014 Loc: Canada

Thanks Smokenmirrorss![quote=Smokenmirrorss]

subroto mukerji Loc: New Delhi, INDIA

Page 7: An exciting moment .. 1st shot with a new lens !! I have a good feeling about this one...who benefits? UHH members ! More fantastic landscapes for us to relish...you'll soon learn how to get around any residual idiosyncrasies.

Smokenmirrorss Loc: WV

That last picture is unreal. Great shot. Publish, promote and share :thumbup:

Smokenmirrorss Loc: WV

Last one looks like the Star Wars Emporer!

subroto mukerji Loc: New Delhi, INDIA

Page 7: Good job, Janice ! :thumbup:

subroto mukerji Loc: New Delhi, INDIA

Page 7: Fantastic shots, Clicker2014 :thumbup: :thumbup: