Tamron SP AF 17-50mm F/2.8 XR Di-II VC LD Aspherical IF Review

I went out and picked up Tamron's newest offering, the Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 with Vibration Control (VC) today. I was looking for a lightweight alternative to the Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8G for my DX cameras when out kicking around town. This lens also offers Tamron's relatively new built-in micro-motor which allows focus with Nikon's smaller cameras the D3000, D5000, D40, etc...

Generally, I prefer Sigma lenses for the superior focusing motor to Tamron's offering. Sigma's Hyper-Sonic Motor (HSM) is almost as fast and quiet as Nikon's Silent Wave Motor (AF-S). Sigma also has a sturdier build quality that any other third party lens. So anyway, I must admit I was taken in by marketing and even though I was pretty sure I didn't need VR with a lens of this focal length I decided to just go ahead and buy it. I can't hurt, right?

Well, first things first. This lens is pretty expensive as far as third party lenses in this focal length range go. At $650 it takes a good bite out of your wallet, especially in this economy. That's $150 more than the non VC version.

Is Vibration Control it worth the extra $150? I guess it depends on what you shoot. It doesn't help for moving subjects, but if you shoot a lot of still stuff at night without a tripod it could be beneficial. Does Tamron's VC work? Absolutely. I find that I'm able to consistently hand hold at 1/2 second at 50mm and still get a pretty sharp image. That's pretty good. That is probably the absolute limit though. I will say that I have pretty steady hands so your experiences may differ.

Before I go into this I want to put this out there. This is just a quick test. I shot these images outdoors with no tripod. It is not a scientific test of the actual sharpness of the lens but it will give you an idea of how this lens performs in the everyday circumstances under which the lens will most likely be used.

OK, let's get to the sharpness. I shot two sets of images: 17mm at all apertures and 50mm at all apertures. I then cropped at 100% on the top left corner and in the center. The lens was used on a Nikon D300s.

Here's the original shot:




17mm f/2.8



17mm f/4



17mm f/5.6



17mm f/8




17mm f/11 top left corner:



17mm f/16



17mm f/22



17mm f/32


As expected the lens was a little soft in the corners wide open. Although I will say it's not bad at all for a relatively wide setting this is very good. By f/5.6 it's pretty sharp and from f/8-f/16 it's sharp as a tack all around. At f/22 you see some softness of the whole image due to diffraction and f/32 is very soft all over. Of course the sweet spot of this lens is f/5.6-f/16. I don't recommend using this lens at f/22 or smaller, but I wouldn't recommend using ANY lens stopped down that much.

As far as center sharpness goes, the lens is tack sharp from f/2.8-f/16. although it does get a little sharper at f/5.6. Again due to diffraction f/22 and f/32 are pretty soft.

At the 50mm setting everything was pretty consistent with the 17mm setting, so I'm not going to bother posting those up to save space.

As we all know lenses at this focal length tend to vignette at the wide open setting. The Tamron isn't any different, but the vignetting is very slight wide open and is pretty much gone by f/4. If vignetting bothers you it's a quick fix in Adobe Camera RAW by adding about +50. No big deal. I did notice however that at f/2.8 the exposure was consistently off by about -0.75 EV. Shooting wide open you may want to add some exposure compensation.

Another thing third party lenses have issues with is distortion. I'm pleased to say that this lens has very good control of the distortion. At the 17mm setting you have a bit of barrel distortion, but it's barely noticeable unless shooting straight lines near the edge of the frame. Using the Photoshop Lens Correction filter adding +3.5 takes care of it. At the 24mm and 35mm settings there is little to no distortion and at the 50mm setting you get a very minor pincushion that can be fixed with a -1 using the Lens Correction filter.

I didn't really have a chance to check for Chromatic Aberration, so I'll get back to that later.

Bottom line is that this is an extraordinarily sharp lens, on par with the Nikon 17-55mm at half the price with Vibration Control. It has very little distortion and what distortion it does show it can easily be fixed in post. It's light-weight and has a fast maximum aperture of f/2.8 for shooting in low-light. It's got a built-in motor for use with all levels of Nikon cameras.

The drawbacks? Well, the lens is obviously plastic and it feels like it. It's not built like a tank like either Nikon's or Sigma's offerings.

While I like the built-in motor for focusing on my D3000 it does have a major problem. Tamron's built-in motor is SLOW. And it's pretty loud. The built-in motor is actually slower to focus than the screw-drive motors on the older models. So, if you're looking for a speedy lens this might not be the one for you.

I do not hesitate to recommend this lens for anyone who wants a fast, constant aperture, light-weight standard zoom lens. The image quality is great and the VC works good.

Adobe updates Camera Raw and DNG

Adobe has updated it's popular RAW file converter to version 5.5. This update allows you to open RAW files from the soon to be released Nikon D3000 and Nikon D300s.

This is very good news since more often than not users have to wait for Adobe to catch up once the camera is released. This might mean that Adobe and Nikon are working together more closely than they have in the past.

Maybe in the future we'll be able to apply Custom Picture Controls in Adobe Camera RAW. I wouldn't hold my breath on that one, but it sure would be nice...

Get the ACR and DNG updates here:
Mac
Windows



Here's a fun picture I shot this week.



This is a picture of smoke from a stick of burning incense. It's a simple technique that allows you to get some cool abstract shots. Basically, I set up a stick of incense in a holder on a piece of black poster board. The poster board was gaffer taped to a table at the bottom and to the wall at the top giving me a nice seamless background.

Next I placed a Speedlight behind the burning stick of incense. I used a snoot to direct the flash at the smoke and to keep the flash off of the background which I wanted to stay completely black. The Speedlight was controlled by an SU-800. If you don't have an SU-800 you can use the built-in flash with the SG-IR3 or another Speedlight commander with the flash disabled.

This technique is easiest when using a tripod. Focusing manually, set focus on the end of the stick of incense. You'll want to set your aperture to a very small setting to be sure that the smoke is completely in focus since it's not going to be flowing perfectly in the plane of focus. I suggest f/11 or smaller.

It's not very hard, but it does take quite a few shots until you get a smoke pattern that's interesting. I used my hands and fingers to gently guide the smoke in different directions.

Have fun!

Nikon announces the D300s and the D3000

Although this has hardly been a secret Nikon has finally announced the upgrade to the the D300 and has also announced a brand new entry-level camera the D3000.

D300s



Of course we all expected D-Video to make an appearance on the D300s, but I think the shocker was that Nikon has finally implemented Auto-Focus with the D-Movie mode. This is a serious breakthrough and of course Nikon was the first company to do this as they were the first manufacturer to add video to a DSLR (D90). Of course I don't expect the AF to be fast at all, but it's better than nothing. They've also included a way to edit videos in camera which is a great feature for folks who just don't have the time or energy to spend hours using video editing software

Another great thing that Nikon has added to the D300s is the addition of an external microphone input. Nikon shooters have been wanting this since the release of the D90 so it goes to show you that Nikon does listen to their customers. Then again they have also added the crappy latch-less card door that was a major complaint from D700 users such as myself.

Nikon has also added a dual card slot that accepts both SD and CF memory cards. This is a nice feature that's similar to the dual CF card slots of the D3. Of course you can customize what information is written to which card which is a pretty handy feature. You can shoot RAW to one card and JPEG to another, backup your images as they're shot or record stills to one card and video to the other.

The D300s shares most of it's ket features with the D300 such as the sensor, the monitor, the EXPEED processor, the AF module, and the battery. The D300s does get a boost of one frame per second continuous shooting up to 7fps from 6fps. With the MB-D10 you can get an extra boost allowing you to shoot at a blistering 8fps. I assume that an EN-EL4 battery will need to be used as with the D300 and D700 to get the extra speed.

While the D300s doesn't appear to be a major upgrade from the D300 there are some significant changes which should allow the D300s to do pretty well and I think it will be a pretty good buy for anyone looking to get into shooting video with a DSLR.

D3000



Nikon's newest entry-level camera, the D3000 appears to be a severely crippled version of the D5000 with an additional feature that's brand new to Nikon's line; the Guide Menu. This menu supposedly helps you to understand the settings making it easier for novices to understand and learn while taking better shots.

Surprisingly, the D3000 has lost video and Live View. For an entry-level camera I'd expect Live View to be a big selling point considering the majority of buyers are making the step up from a point and shoot. Another disappointment is although the LCD is 3 inches (up from the 2.7 from the D5000) it's a 230,000 pixel screen. The D90 has a 920,000 pixel screen and it's amazing. The lower resolution is very apparent. I don't think it would have been a problem to stick a D90 LCD screen on the D3000.

On the upside the D3000 has 11 AF points, which is better than the D60 or D40 offered. It's also got 3D AF tracking which is a good feature especially if you've got kids that are always running around. This is just conjecture, but I imagine that it has the D5000 imaging processor which probably gives it decent images in low light.

All in all, I think the D3000 will be great for first time camera buyers, but I probably wouldn't recommend it to someone looking to replace a D60 or even a D40.

Possible Nikon D5000 recall...

The following is an excerpt from a notice that Nikon has issued to D5000 owners:

Notice to users of the Nikon D5000 Digital SLR Camera

While Nikon takes great measures to assure high quality in its imaging products, it has come to our attention that an electronic component related to power control in some Nikon D5000 digital SLR cameras does not meet factory specifications and may, in certain circumstances, prevent the camera from turning on, thus preventing operation of the camera.

D5000

Indications of this issue include:

1. The camera cannot be operated when the power switch is on, even with a fully-charged battery.
2. The camera cannot be operated with the EH-5a AC Adapter connected through the EP-5 Power Connector and the power switch on.

The solution:

Nikon has isolated the issues related to this and is effectively resolving them. Preparations are under way at a special Nikon repair facility to streamline the processes associated to the solution and Nikon will be equipped to correct D5000 cameras at this facility, beginning July 23, 2009. Service related to this issue, including the cost of shipping affected D5000 cameras to Nikon, as well as their return to customers, will be free of charge. To further minimize customer inconvenience, Nikon will return serviced cameras to customers promptly, employing (whenever possible) transportation that limits transit time to two days.

Is your D5000 affected?

Your D5000 serial number will make it easy to determine if your D5000 is affected by this issue. A serial number look-up tool will be available on our Service Advisory page beginning July 23, 2009. Therefore, we kindly ask D5000 users to visit this page on the Nikon USA website or after July 23 to establish whether or not your camera requires the complimentary service related to this Service Advisory.

If your serial number indicates that your D5000 requires service:

Beginning July 23, 2009, the D5000 Service Advisory web page will include easy-to-follow instructions for customers whose D5000 cameras have been identified (by serial number as noted above) as needing service related to this Advisory. The instructions will include shipping tips and a shipping label generator will be provided. Using the Nikon-generated label is both convenient and relieves you of the expense of shipping your camera to Nikon.

We apologize for any inconvenience that Nikon customers may experience as a result of this issue. Nikon remains committed to providing only the highest quality photographic products and hopes that you will continue to choose Nikon for your imaging needs.

For additional information, please see the Frequently Asked Questions provided with the Service Advisory on the NikonUSA website.

Bonnaroo 2009

I just got back from Bonnaroo 2009 in Manchester TN. It was 4 days of music, art and craziness. Bonnaroo is pretty much a 24 hour festival. Music starts at about noon and goes until 6:30 am sometimes. It was a pretty crazy experience to say the least.

Basically, being a photographer for a wire service you are either shooting or editing and uploading. You have no time for anything else. There were days that I never even got a chance to eat!

That being said, I had a lot of fun and also got to see a lot of great music.

Here's some of the highlights:

Public Enemy. By far this was the best act I saw all weekend. Chuck D and Flavor Flav were on the top of their game. Complete with the S1W's and a full band they performed the entire "It Takes a Nation of Millions" record. It was simply amazing.



Jenny Lewis. A member of Rilo Kiley, her music is kind of in the alt country / indie rock vein. She's got a great voice and stage presence. I'll have to admit that I had never listened to her before, and this was a nice surprise for me. I'll definitely be checking her at when she plays at Stubb's BBQ in Austin next week. Another cool thing was that Elvis Costello was grooving to her and singing right along!





Al Green. Yep, that's right the legendary Al Green. This dude looks great and puts on a hell of a show. His voice is phenomenal, he belted out the tunes just like he did in his 20's. He was impressive to say the least.




There were many, many more great artists and I wish I could cover them all, but as always I'm way too busy! Some of my favorites were: Merle Haggard, Booker T, Todd Snider, Robert Earle Keen, Elvis Costello, and Bruce Springsteen.

Adobe releases Camera RAW 5.4

Adobe has released a new version of Adobe Camera RAW. This is version 5.4 and now supports the Nikon D5000 NEF files.

Note that this version of ACR only works with Photoshop CS4.

You can find the updates here:

Adobe Camera RAW 5.4

Here's a recent shot from my Nikon D5000

Nikon 35mm f/1.8G tested on the D700 in FX mode.

A lot of people were a little peeved when Nikon introduced the 35mm f/1.8 as a DX only lens. Nikon is lacking in AF-S primes and there are no wide-angle AF-S primes at all. A lot of folks were expecting an AF-S replacement for the 35mm f/2D, but nope. It was all DX.



To be fair Nikon needed this lens. There was no standard fast prime that could be used with the D40 / D60 / D5000. It made total sense from a marketing standpoint. Making it DX kept the price low which allows for more sales.

Anyway, the 35mm f/1.8G is a great lens on DX. It's relatively sharp wide open and seriously sharp stopped down. It does suffer from moderate barrel distortion (this can be fixed in PS by adding +2 to +3 using the Lens Correction filter). There's quite a bit of Chromatic Aberration as well and not all of it can be fixed easily in post.

At the $200 price point you can't really complain though. It's a great little lens and I highly recommend it for anyone with a DX camera that wants a great little lens for shooting in low light.


What I really wanted to do though was to stick this thing on my D700 and see how it fared using it in FX mode. What I discovered was that it works pretty well, all things considered. I spent a couple of days roaming around Cleveland with nothing but the 35mm f/1.8G and came up with some interesting stuff.

First and foremost, if you want to use this lens with an FX camera, you MUST shoot wide open. Shooting wide open gives you a slight vignetting which is reminiscent of a Holga or Lomo LC-A. Personally, I like this effect and I think it looks pretty cool.

If your image has a dark background the vignetting isn't quite noticeable as you can see in the photo of Morty the Rooster above, however when the scene gets brighter the vignetting really stands out. Below are two shots, one taken at f/1.8 the other at f/11. You can see that at f/1.8 the vignetting is very mild and nicely fades. The shot at f/11 however shows very abrupt vignetting.


One thing you need to be aware of is that your exposure should be spot on or slightly over-exposed. If your image is under-exposed the vignetting gets progressively worse and it's not a very pleasing effect.




I found the Nikon 35mm f/1.8G to be a great little walking around lens. It's small and light and as long as you're willing to work with the inherent quirks of using a DX lens on an FX camera you can make some great photos. Personally, I like shooting wide open and taking advantage of selective focus, although in bright daylight you can be pushing the limits of your cameras settings. I found myself at ISO Lo-1 at 1/8000 at times. If you're the type of person who needs to stop down to get the maximum depth of field you probably shouldn't use this lens in FX mode, either switch to DX mode or buy the Nikon 35mm f/2.




Bottom line. The Nikon 35mm f/1.8G is definitely usable on a FX camera. Is it perfect? Of course not, it wasn't made for FX. Given the right situation and used as a sort of toy camera for a Holga or Lomo like effect this lens is fun. The 35mm focal length is great. Not to wide, but not too tight. Perfect for street photography.

Shooting on a dark background renders the vignetting almost invisible as you can see in the food shot above so it can definitely be used for more practical applications. If you DX users are skeptical about buying this because you're thinking of upgrading to DX in the future, don't worry about it. It works fine and at $200 you can't beat the price.

Coming soon , my review of the brand new Nikon 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5G ultra-wide lens. Stay tuned!