Tamron Lens

[logi]

Thinking of picking up a wide angle lens for my d90.

Ive been looking around and found this one on Adorama for 500us.

Tamron 10 - 24mm f/3.5-4.5 DI-II B.I.M. (Built-in Motor) LD Aspherical (IF)


Anyone have experience with these lenses that can shed some feedback?

thanks

[Mitsu3000gt]

Basically the obvious choices in the ultra wide category are as follows:

3rd Party:

Sigma 10-20/3.5 (older version f4-5.6)
Tokina 11-16/2.8
Tokina 12-24/4
Tamron 10-24/3.5-4.5


Nikon:

12-24/4
10-20/3.5-4.5
14-24/2.8


The Sigma 10-20, Tokina 12-24 , Nikon 10-20 and even Nikon 12-24 are all very similar in performance if you get a good copy of the 3rd party lenses. The Tamron is a step below the others in this category.

The Tokina 11-16/2.8 is the best of the 3rd party bunch, has a constant f2.8 aperture, but has the smallest zoom range.

The Nikon 14-24/2.8 is miles ahead of all these lenses but is large, by far the most expensive, and isn't as wide on DX because it's designed for full frame.

The 3rd party ultra wides *can* vary a lot from copy to copy in sharpness, particularly edge/corner sharpness. Lots of people buy 2 or 3 copies, keep the best one and return the others. I've personally seen some large variation between copies. Of course most lenses are going to be fine, but I do suggest you buy from somewhere you can return the lens if necessary just to cover your bases, or at least try it out in-store on your camera body. If that doesn't bother you, or you don't mind sending it out on warranty should there be a problem, then it's a non-issue.

[Xtrema]

Have a Tokina 11-16/2.8 with my D90.

Great lens to have when I was strolling NYC @ night. Pretty good for car shows and exhibition halls and such with the 2.8 aperture.

Zoom is narrow but you can't really argue about the price.