Tamron AF 70-300 Macro a good buy?

Does anyone know if the Tamron Zoom Telephoto AF 75-300mm f/4.0-5.6 LD Macro Autofocus Lens is a good buy or a lemon?

-Joe

I had that lens and found a little CA with it in certain shots, but otherwise it was very good. I preferred it to the much applauded Sigma APO II 70-300mm. It was also £60 cheaper I returned the lens, not because I didn't like it but because I preferred the extra flexibility of Tamron's 28-300mm lens.

Don't know the price point, but the general thought is that the Sigma 70-300 APO II is the best lens in this class.

I have the APO I and think it is wonderful - not a low light lens - but very light and versatile when one wants to carry a tele but not the weight and size.

I have this lens and find the AF extremely slow and noisy. If you want to get pictures of birds flying or some moving objects, forget about it. The AF will never deliver proper focusing and the lens will be going back and forward trying to find the object in a very irritating way.

I've had this lens for about 6 months and i'd say i'm 60% happy with it mainly because most pictures i end up wasting because of focusing problem. I guess i need to get tripod to make a proper evaluation.

The lens allows you to focus closer to the object when set to Macro. However, magnification is nowhere close to what you'd get with a macro lens. Alos, i find very difficult to produce sharp images when on macro mode.

I bought this lens because it was the cheapest of the bunch (Canon and Sigma) and to be honest with you i'm just waiting the first opportunity to auction it on ebay so that I can get a Canon with IS. Focusing speed is essential in my view

Some samples:







you can see more at http://www.pbase.com/leandrouk

hope this helps

all the best

Thank you all for your input on this.

-Joe

Here are 3 pictures from the Tamron 70-300 I have had it for 1 year and I am happy with it. I have also the DL version of the Sigma 70-300 and it´s garbage if you get the Sigma then go for the APO







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Best Regards
Gisli Kristinsson

The Sigma has just got the Best Buy award in the new edition of Practical Photography magazine (UK mag).