18-270 Lenses
Chris T
Loc: from England across the pond to New England
There are now two - the tried and true Tamron VC PZD - which has been around, for a while, now. Many have it, many have had good things to say about it. In fact, its only real fault seems to be its tendency to drop out to its maximum extension during use. Aggravating, but - to all intents and purposes - livable with. Pentax also has one. Is this the same lens, with the Pentax name on it? ... I think not, as users do not seem to be affected by the same plague. However, is it as good as the Tamron version? ... Or would the money be unwisely spent?
I've been very happy with a Sigma 18-300, originally $579, there was a recent price drop to $399. I have the Nikon version and it is sharp and would give you a little more reach. The AF is fast, a good walking around lens.
Chris T
Loc: from England across the pond to New England
Actually, Mr PC ... I was going to do another post, regarding the 18-300 class. It will include yours, the two Nikons and even extend to the Tamron offerings - both the older 16-300, and the newer 18-400. I will see how this goes, and after your comment, and, perhaps - others like it - it might not be needed. Now, then ... I read somewhere that Sigma 18-300 vignettes, terribly - at all lengths. I gather, from you comment, you don't have that problem, though. Have you done a firmware upgrade via the USB port, or is this a very recent purchase?
Chris T
Loc: from England across the pond to New England
BTW, I may be wrong, I will check in a bit, but I don't believe that lens is available for Pentax, OR Sony alpha DSLR!
ChrisT wrote:
In fact, its only real fault seems to be its tendency to drop out to its maximum extension during use. Aggravating, but - to all intents and purposes - livable with.
That's common, and you learn to live with it.
I use the Tamron 16-300 on my Nikon D5200, and I haven't noticed any vignetting! Maybe I need to pay more attention!
ChrisT wrote:
There are now two - the tried and true Tamron VC PZD - which has been around, for a while, now. Many have it, many have had good things to say about it. In fact, its only real fault seems to be its tendency to drop out to its maximum extension during use. Aggravating, but - to all intents and purposes - livable with. Pentax also has one. Is this the same lens, with the Pentax name on it? ... I think not, as users do not seem to be affected by the same plague. However, is it as good as the Tamron version? ... Or would the money be unwisely spent?
There are now two - the tried and true Tamron VC P... (
show quote)
I checked on the Pentax Forum. The reviewer for the Pentax 18-270 states the lens is a Tamron design and built in Tamron's China factory and is comparable to the Canon and Nikon versions. It does have the Pentax SMC coating but lacks the ability to manually override when in auto focus mode normally found on other Pentax zooms. He also noted that the lens when new does not suffer from zoom creep. Long term ability to resist zoom creep is TBD.
Mundj wrote:
I checked on the Pentax Forum. The reviewer for the Pentax 18-270 states the lens is a Tamron design and built in Tamron's China factory and is comparable to the Canon and Nikon versions. It does have the Pentax SMC coating but lacks the ability to manually override when in auto focus mode normally found on other Pentax zooms. He also noted that the lens when new does not suffer from zoom creep. Long term ability to resist zoom creep is TBD.
Hmm! The Nikon version specifically states "NOT" to manually over ride the auto focus, you must dis-engage the auto focus first! Is that what you are saying? If so, then things haven't changed!
Lens creep, my Tamron 16-300 is my everyday lens, after 3 years of constant use, over 20,000 photos no creep has been seen!
Chris T
Loc: from England across the pond to New England
MUNDI - thanks for your quite cohesive and extremely helpful comments ... I bow to you ....
Chris T
Loc: from England across the pond to New England
TET68Survivor ... the comment I made regarding vignetting at ALL lengths - referred to the Sigma 18-300. Comments made about LENS CREEP - referred to the Tamron 18-270 - a widely-known phenomenon. However, it is gratifying to discover there are none of these problems in the Tamron 16-300. Thanks for that tidbit ....
Chris T
Loc: from England across the pond to New England
MUNDJ - so, what you are saying is - whilst you CAN override the AF by turning the manual focus ring on the 18-270, this is not advisable on the Pentax version of (roughly) the same lens. Did I read you, correctly?
Chris T
Loc: from England across the pond to New England
MUNDJ ... I don't believe I've ever had occasion to resort to manual focus with the 18-270. But, if I did - I am sure I would have turned off the AF, first - as I always do, when going to manual focus, with any lens.
Chris T
Loc: from England across the pond to New England
TET68Survivor ... you may well have missed it, but MUNDJ indicated that most PENTAX lenses allow you to engage MANUAL focus, without turning off AF ... but that the Pentax 18-270 will NOT allow that ... read what he wrote again .....
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