Tuesday, March 16, 2010

New long Tamron lens


I remember when Tamron started their SP "Superior Performance" line in the seventies, it was an attempt at making third-party lenses which could compete with the quality of brand name optics (Nikon, Canon, etc). And they often succeeded.
For their sixtieth anniversary, they reveal a new 70-300mm full-frame zoom with extra-low dispersion lenses, which is very rare.
But 70-300 is a well-covered range, I even have one on my desk here by Pentax. So it must have something special, yes? Tamron says so:
"...the SP AF70-300mm... boasts sharper contrast and greater descriptive performance than all others in its class."
Woa, quite a claim. If it's true, that should be a heck of a lens.
Press release.

4 comments:

Philocalist said...

The lens looks as though it could be a very nice alternative to a marque version ... though I'd personally find it a much more attractive proposition if the maximum aperture was a\ fixed, and b\ faster ... I guess that it was built to a cost though, rather than all-out performance?
I must admit that I think we often lose the plot when it comes to the prices and specifications of cameras and lenses (and, I guess, many other things too!)
Sure, it's nice to own these things if we can afford them, but do we actually NEED them? Probably not! ... if a piece of kit adequately produces the end result that you seek, is there much point to faster, sharper lenses or more megapixels?
Not too many years ago, pre auto-fucus, I ran Canon T90's ... georgeous cameras that I WISH I could locate new today (Yep, it CAN be done!)at anything like a reasonable price.
I had access to a range of Canon glassware, though in fairness this was before I was seduced by their 'L' series porn! :-)
70-210ish zooms were my 'standard' lens at that time, typically fixed with a max. aperture of f4.
The bog-standard Canon versions at that time cost maybe £150 - £180 ... yet out of preference based soley on performance and handling, I prefered (and got sharper, better results from) a couple of Kiron zooms that cost me maybe £40 apiece, and included quirky features like 'zoom lock', and 'focus stop', which were actually very usable!
Now, I'm fortunate; I'm able to buy the glass I want, but if I could get hold of a couple of T90 bodies tomorrow, guess which lenses I would be searching for?:-)

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Cost, and weight! If this lens was 2.8 over the whole range, it would weigh something like three kilos!

Philocalist said...

Guess you are likely correct there, considering the size and weight of a 300mm f2.8 telephoto! :-)
There again, the Canon 200mm f1.8 actually DOES weigh 3 kilos ... and that is without the bucket-sized lens hood!

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Talk about your monster glass!