Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 Di LD (IF) Macro AF Lens for Nikon AF

Comments about Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 Di LD (IF) Macro AF Lens for Nikon AF:

Great! I've used the lens to take pictures at sporting events and have loved it!

Comments about Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 Di LD (IF) Macro AF Lens for Nikon AF:

I use this lens in wedding and portrait photography. It is a great low light long zoom lens without breaking the budget. I highly recommend this to anyone.

Comments about Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 Di LD (IF) Macro AF Lens for Nikon AF:

Such a sharp and great lens

Comments about Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 Di LD (IF) Macro AF Lens for Nikon AF:

I am a professional photographer and I needed to get a telephoto zoom lens for my wedding and portrait photography business. This lens was a great choice! While it is NOT perfect, it is capable of producing professional quality images when using good technique.

My copy had a slight back focusing problem, but I was able to fine tune the AF to get great results, so make sure to do some testing when you get your copy before doing anything important.

The build quality of this lens is not very good, but is better than what I expected after reading reviews. The main issue is its plastic casing. With the weight and size of this lens, if you drop it, it is going to be a hard impact. I am very careful when I handle this lens.

What I like about the build is the zoom and focus rings. They a nice and rugged and very smooth. I don't like the AF/MF swith however as it is very easy to switch to MF without knowing.


This lens is capable of producing very sharp images. Keep in mind this lens has no VR. In my opinion, you need to have at least 1/200 sec shutter speed to get a sharp image when it is being used wide open and handheld. It is a bit heavier than what I'm used to and keeping still (in the same focal plane)while shooting takes some practice, especially when in a fast paced situation (such as a wedding). Usually I can get great handheld shots at f/2.8 with my 85mm f/1.8D with a 1/100sec shutter speed, but not with this lens.

This lens does produce some great bokeh, everything is smooth and buttery! It is a tremendous portrait lens and its macro abilities are a huge plus.

A lot of reviews have been negative when it comes to the AF. Personally, I think the AF is good enough. I am more than comfortable using this lens for a wedding. No problems at all focusing at a dark reception. On the other hand, I have used other f/2.8 telephoto zoom lenses that had much faster AF. I would say the only situation I would be uncomfortable shooting with this lens would be at an indoor sporting event.

If your looking for a lens that fits the budget, gets the job done and gives you professional results--look no further! This lens is the one to get!

If your looking for a lens that is under $1000 and performs like the Nikon $2500 zoom--Good Luck, because you are not going to find one.

Overall, I have dozens of lenses and this one is the best quality vs price lens I have bought. A great purchase!

Comments about Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 Di LD (IF) Macro AF Lens for Nikon AF:

Use: Rodeo (action from distance) from 7 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. July & landscape 7 p.m. July
Camera: D7000 Nikon

I found the lens to be incredibly crisp and easy to manage. Not as heavy as expected. Focuses very well on close objects. Only reservation was that it was a little bit slow in focusing the fast action, with my camera on CL or CH every third or fourth image was out of focus, fifth or sixth were back in focus.
Great Bokeh and worked great in low-light. Overall was a solid purchase.

Comments about Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 Di LD (IF) Macro AF Lens for Nikon AF:

I bought that lens for my Nikon D7000. I wanted to have a 70-200mm lens for portraits and to try out a the Tamron lens because I read a hunderd reviews before to be sure that I´m not buying a piece of ****. The lens has a very flexible range and Tamron would give a 6-year warranty at a very good price. Nikkor lenses are terribly expensive. I worked with the Canon 5D Mark II at a photo studio before, and the D7000 is my first camera that I bought by myself. My opinion: the built quality of the lens is pretty good, aufofocus to manual focus switch scared me a little bit because it would get stock in the middle if not pushed and pulled properly (and a little bit rougher than expected). Motor is not really loud to disturb anyone and I am very satisfied with the optical quality of the lens. Tried out the lens outside and inside under different light conditions. The results were awesome. Even fast moves and jumps on stages with low light came out perfect. Tried it out for wildlife photography as well and am very satisfied with the results. I can recommend the lens to anyone who wants a flexible lens at an affordable price. This lens might be lighter than the Nikkor due to its plastic casing, but is not a lightweight at all.

Comments about Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 Di LD (IF) Macro AF Lens for Nikon AF:

The images are beautiful!

Comments about Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 Di LD (IF) Macro AF Lens for Nikon AF:

This lens is a awesome lens! I mostly use this lens for portraits, Wild-life and sometimes sports, and it fulfills all my needs. Compared to the sigma version theres really no difference in performance wise but i must say the sigma is better by built quality. I have used both of the lens and really theres no difference. But one other thing i did not like about this lens was that the zoom ring was really close to the bottom of the lens. At first you really don't feel comfortable but after awhile you can barely notice it.
pros:
Sharp
lighter than the sigma
Cons:
slow af speed
zoom ring to low
built quality not to great

overall this is a recommendable lens! for the lack of the slow af speed and the zoom ring, your really not buying a lens for the fastest speed your buying a lens to do your job and help you capture the moment and this lens does that! so this lens is a must get for your camera bag.

Comments about Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 Di LD (IF) Macro AF Lens for Nikon AF:

A great product at a much more affordable cost than the Nikon brand.

Comments about Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 Di LD (IF) Macro AF Lens for Nikon AF:

I am a Tamron convert. Now I own my lenses rather than rent them. This lens takes amazing photographs in all light levels, I compared it side by side with the Nikon 80-200 and found color reproduction to be truer and the 80-200 had a tendency to overexpose highlights. The autofocus is fast (I believe the autofocus complaints refer to an older version of this lens) The manual focus is extremely sensitive, which in my opinion is great as it allows me to track insects such as dragon flys much easier.

Do yourself a favor, before spending money on the more expensive Nikon glass, give the Tamron pro lenses a shot, you won't be dissappointed.

Comments about Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 Di LD (IF) Macro AF Lens for Nikon AF:

Image quality is excellent! Very good through out
the zoom range.

Comments about Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 Di LD (IF) Macro AF Lens for Nikon AF:

I use this lens mostly for youth sporting events (soccer, baseball, basketball) and am thrilled with it. Everything about this lens is "top notch"! The zoom action is especially smooth and the optics are very good. If you are accustomed to smaller or slower lenses, this lens will seem heavy - (2+ hour baseball games are tough - leaving me to almost want a monopod - but not really.)

Comments about Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 Di LD (IF) Macro AF Lens for Nikon AF:

Good built quality, great optical.

Comments about Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 Di LD (IF) Macro AF Lens for Nikon AF:

I use the Tamron 70-200mm f2.8 lens for landscape and close up photography. It is a solid, sharp lens, with fairly quick auto focus and a wide f2.8 aperture. I had an older 70-210mm Tamron for many years until it broke and I replaced it with this lens. The only downside is its weight – it is almost a pound heavier than my older lens. When placed on a tripod using the lens' own tripod collar, it delivers good, sharp pictures. A very good lens, which I would definitely recommend.

Comments about Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 Di LD (IF) Macro AF Lens for Nikon AF:

Before actually reviewing the Tamron 70-200 f/2.8 let me get two confessions out of the way. First, I am a die-hard primes fan. I would gladly trade the convenience of a zoom for the quality of a prime and let my feet do all the zooming. My bag includes MF legends such as the 105 mm f/2.5 and 180 mm f/2.8 ED Nikkors, and I can attest to their exceptional quality. Secondly, I am unabashedly a pixel peeper. I routinely examine my photos at 100% to look for lens flaws, among other things. Enter the Tamron 70-200 f/2.8. The specs look great on paper, and the lens itself has received rave reviews, but I ask the question – can it match up to the primes in my bag? For those who want the review in a nutshell, the answer is a resounding yes from 70 mm through 170 mm, and yes with some caveats for focal lengths longer than 170 mm.

Straight off the bat, from 70 mm through 170 mm, wide open on my D90, this lens is razor sharp. At equivalent apertures of f/2.8, this zoom matches my 105 mm and 85 mm f/1.8D Nikkors for sharpness at the respective focal lengths. Stopped down to f/4, the image quality of the Tamron is exceptional, and for most part (unless, for example, I need the f/1.8 specifically of the 85mm) I would not hesitate to use the Tamron in place of the 85 and 105. Also, this lens does in fact have a useful macro mode – one can get close-ups with superb sharpness at focal lengths up to 170 mm. Beyond this focal length, the performance of the lens shows some weakness. Photographs taken with the lens show what I can best describe as "blooming", and some loss of sharpness (think of light Gaussian blur applied to a photograph in an image editing software). Thus, my 180 mm f/2.8 ED manual focus Nikkor (a phenomenal optic by any standards) performs better than the Tamron at those focal lengths, as does my MF 200 mm f/4 Nikkor. That being said, the Tamron's anomalies and indeed the differences between the MF primes and the zoom are best seen at a pixel-peeping 100%, and one could probably get away with careful post-processing and sharpening at normal image sizes and viewing distances. On the flip side, one could argue that the softness at longer focal lengths would make the Tamron zoom a suitable lens for portraiture. Stopped down to f/5 and beyond at the longer focal lengths, the Tamron comes into its stride, giving images with good sharpness and contrast, that stack up well when compared to the prime heavy hitters. Returning back to the macro capability of this lens, I must say I am impressed. Compared to my 90 mm f/2.8 macro lens (also by Tamron), the 70-200 mm gives macro performance that is within shouting distance of the fixed-focal length optic. Note that I base my results on shooting flowers, and I believe that the canonical macro attribute of field flatness would still be better on the 90 mm. In other words, the 70-200 mm may not be the lens of choice for copy work, although it offers great performance for shooting subjects like flowers and butterflies. Once again, optimal macro performance is obtained at focal lengths less than 170 mm; stopping down is necessary to get good image quality at higher focal lengths. This zoom also does very well with extension tubes – I have the Kenko AF set of 3 extension tubes, and these function flawlessly, giving both AF and metering functions.

Color aberrations are low to absent – I see some blue/purple fringing at longer focal lengths that can be easily taken care of by post-processing software (I use Nikon Capture NX2). As far as distortion is concerned, I am sure that there is some distortion, but I am mostly into nature, macro and portraits of my wife and daughter, so I am not that hung up about barreling and pincushioning. Note, however, that online reviews of this lens commend the low levels of distortion, so I suppose that there is not much to worry about in this department.

As far as handling is concerned, I have no major complaints. The plastic fantastic design helps keep weight low and minimizes fatigue. Overall, the lens is very solidly constructed, and the push/pull AF/MF ring design is neat and works well IMHO. Both zoom and focus rings are smooth and well damped. The reversible lens hood makes storing the lens easier as well. If there is one complaint I can direct towards the ergonomics of this lens, it would be the alignment dots for the tripod mount. Sometimes, while trying to mount the lens in a hurry, I do end up confusing the other dot for the tripod mount as the mounting dot for the lens. The lens does not mount in this case, and that does cause some anxiety, especially if you are in a hurry.

Brickbats have been directed towards this lens regarding the focus speed. I agree that it is no speed demon when it comes to focusing, and I would not use it for shooting fast action. The in-lens focus motor is sure and quiet.

Finally, we come to the very subjective part of the review – bokeh. I have a weakness for lenses that have good bokeh, and my Tamron 90 mm macro (affectionately dubbed the "bokeh macro") is one such example. In this department, the Tamron 70-200 mm positively shines, as noted by many reviewers before me. The photos taken with this lens have a buttery-smooth, watercolor-like delicate rendering of the out-of-focus areas of an image, and this is one of the most endearing qualities of this lens. Shoot a portrait with this lens, and there is almost a three-dimensional quality of the image that pops out at you, with the background reduced to mush. Shoot a flower, and there is a delicacy in the way the image is captured (ditto for my Tamron 90 mm macro, by the way). Compared to this lens, the 180 mm and 200 mm lenses have more neutral bokeh – yes, this lens wins over the primes in the bokeh department. The LD glass renders images with good contrast and saturation

So then how do we answer the question that is the subject of this review – can a zoom match a prime in terms of image quality? In the case of the Tamron 70-200 mm zoom, the answer is: for most part, yes, and even in the areas where the primes are better, the results from the zoom are not too far behind. For the price, this lens is a steal. Note that any engineering product has design compromises, and kudos to the Tamron engineers for making a lens that offers excellent all-round performance for a price that cannot be beat.

Comments about Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 Di LD (IF) Macro AF Lens for Nikon AF:

the ONLY downfall to this lens is the lack of VR. If you are tripodding it or have a way to secure your camera, you are going to be thrilled with the photos it produces! The depth of field is AMAZING! SUPER glad I bought this lens!

Comments about Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 Di LD (IF) Macro AF Lens for Nikon AF:

Great Lens Really Sharp And The Price Is Outstanding

Comments about Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 Di LD (IF) Macro AF Lens for Nikon AF:

For my style of creative photo art, four key features about this lens got my attention, and I was not disappointed: 1) closer focusing distance than other more expensive lenses of this focal range (3 feet!), 2) macro ratio of 1:3, 3) wide aperture of f/2.8 throughout the range, and 4) a maximum aperture of f/32 throughout the range (vs. f/22 on more expensive lenses).

All four factors have allowed me to easily go from just taking good photographs to creating great images.

Comments about Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 Di LD (IF) Macro AF Lens for Nikon AF:

I shoot alot of sports photo's for my 3 kids. Some of the problems that I've had over the years is poor lighting in school gyms. Different school gyms have different type's of lighting depending on the age of the school. For the past 2 weekends I've used this lens great results . Good old 2.8. One thing the lens is heavy.

Comments about Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 Di LD (IF) Macro AF Lens for Nikon AF:

This is my second Tamron lens, and as with the first one, it delivers great performance as with its expensive Nikon counterpart. I think I am going to buy my third Tamron lens soon!