AF18-250mm F/3.5-6.3 Di-II LD Aspherical (IF)

[compleks]

I'm just after a few opinions on this particular lens. Thanks.

AF18-250mm F/3.5-6.3 Di-II LD Aspherical (IF) Macro; Tamron USA, Inc.

[compleks]

Anyone???

I've had a look on eBay and this lens appears to be fairly uncommon. The 18-270 is everywhere on eBay, but there aren't many listings at al for this lens.
Not sure if that's a good or bad sign though?

[ken1to]

Hello!

I owned this lens. I was very disappointed due to several issues:

The Bad

Honestly it feels cheep, the zoom stuck between 70-150mm and becomes hard to move from 18mm to +150mm. I'm not saying it wasn't working... I'm saying it was not smooth. Also, gravity plays a huge part on this lens, the only lock position was 18mm, and if it was not locked it easily extends while walking.

While on 18-50mm range the image is clear and sharp. Between 50-150 wasn't that sharp and at 270 was simple not good.... Also, this is a very slow lens 6.3 at 200mm is very very dark even with good light conditions this might requires you to boost your ISO.

I always complained about flare, since this lens have such a long range the hood was designed for the widest angle 18mm, therefore for the range between 50-270 it was close to nothing... even when you where in the shadow i usually got "ghostly" images, and that's reflection within the internal optics parts... Particularly when you are shooting towards light sources. For example, I cover music events once in a while, if a light is near (not even in your eye range though the view finder) you get heavy flares on this lens.


The Good

- VC is good though. I have to say it handles very good for shots on hand help.

- Good range for travel, i mean is comfortable to have such a long range on a lens that is not heavy at all.

- Light, why not?... the cheap build quality have some advantages, is a very light lens.

----

I'm a Tamron fan, but not of this lens. Other lenses like 17-50 f/2.8 or 28-75 f/2.8 are great lenses but not this one!!

Is good if you only want to have 1 lens and don't really care for the top-optics in the market. But it will never replace your wide angle, or your prime for portraits or your zoom. Also this lens in my opinion was designed for daylight conditions, on dim light situations it fails.

Edit:
Please note some of other lenses I owned in case you wonder:
Canon 50mm f/1,4 - AMAZING Lens
Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 - Great lens, i love it... I sold it to get this 18-270 and it was a mistake.
Canon 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 - this a real wide angle, i compared same shots on the same 18mm range, this one wins every single shot compared to 18-270.
Canon 50 f/1.8 - Good deal, i love it so much that I got the 1.4
Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 - Best EF-S lens ever!!!

www.kennethrivera.com search by category and i usually tag photos by lenses.

Hope this helps... I got it last May, and I sold it 1 month ago... for 400$.

[compleks]

Thanks so much for taking the time to reply. That was very useful

I may borrow it and see how it goes. But I guess I would probably be better off saving up for a better lens. I guess if you want top quality it's always better to buy a specific lens, rather than one designed to cover such a broad spectrum.

Ideally I would like a D90 too. But I still can't really justify the expense.

One day though...

Thanks again Ken.

[ken1to]

your welcome

My advise is, go slowly... 1 lens at the time but that worth paying for it.
I tried to buy a one-does-it-all lens and didn't work,at least for me.