DSLR Lens Reviews Submission Form

[Jason25]

Is this lens worth the price? Yes
Would I buy this lens again? Yes
____________________________________

Pros: Very sharp, even wide open. Very inexpensive. Nice bokeh. Focusing is fast enough since there's not much glass to move.

Cons: None.

Would I buy it again? Absolutely. This is a nice lens that's easy to get great results with.

[aparmley]

[QUOTE=Rex914]Is this lens worth the price? Yes
Would I buy this lens again? Yes
Rating | 9 out 0f 10

Pros: Large aperture. Sharp wide open. Quick to focus. Accurate focus. Very consistent performer! Great color repoduction for a non L lens. Price is good too, I will always be happy to pay less for everything! Great Great! A must have!

Cons: I have not experienced any Cons thus far. I've owned the lens for 3 weeks with probably 1000+ images. Fantastic lens!

Would I buy it again? In a heart beat.

[noyjimi]

Is this lens worth the price? Yes
Would I buy this lens again? Yes
Rating: 9 out of 10
Price: ~$380

Pros: Versatile: Use it for true 1:1 macro, portrait or short telephoto. Very sharp and consistent: Wide-open or stopped down, this lens will deliver very consistent results rivaling the well-praised 85mm 1.8 prime; find yourself using a softening filter in PP if you use this for portrait work. Sturdy build: Feels solid with a smooth focus ring. Focus: Autofocus is quiet with USM, with the added bonus of FTM which is extremely useful for macro; focuses internally and designed to work with ring flashes. Colors: Good colors and contrast, not susceptible to CA and decent bokeh. Weight: Light enough to be handholdable at lower shutter speeds for macro work, but heavy enough to balance with the EF-S bodies. Overall: Versatility combined with very sharp and consistent results makes this a fun and great lens!

Cons: Only compatible with EF-S bodies (well, it does make sense since general macro work is probably around 100mm or so). For the price, it could have included a lens hood. WD may be a little short for those who shoot more of skittish, live macro subjects, but the longer macros such as the 100mm F2.8 are more difficult to handhold at lower shutter speeds due to the added weight. Autofocus will hunt a bit in low-light and somewhat slow when refocusing to an extremely different distance, but this is not really practically significant. Those who get hooked on this lens may want to purchase other accessories for macro work that could quickly snowball into an uncontrollable spending spree on ring flashes, diffusers, off-cam shoe cords, tripods and water spray bottles.

Would I buy it again? Yes. I gave it a 9/10 instead of 10/10 because it should have included a lens hood for the price, but it is still worth the price for its performance and versatility.

[JTL]

Author: JTL
Is this lens worth the price? Yes
Would I buy this lens again? Maybe



Pros: Great range. The perfect walk around lens for a 1.6x crop camera. Lightweight and small. Reasonably sharp (especially above f/8). Excellent color and contrast. Capable of outstanding creamy smooth bokeh with larger apertures. Nice 1:4 macro functionality...especially when paired with the close-up mode on the Canon 350D. Very little CA and PF (so far). Inner focusing mechanism means the lens barrel doesn't turn...great for use with a polarizer, split filters, gradient/graduated filters and petal hoods. Smooth manual focus. Lock switch prevents zoom creep. Metal mount. 62mm thread means filters cost less than for comparable lenses. Price includes lens hood. Great quality/value for the money.

Cons: Not a very fast lens (f/5.6 comes quickly...at 75mm). Noisy AF. Some AF difficultly with low-contrast subjects and especially at the tele end. Sometimes the bokeh is ugly at smaller apertures. A little soft at full zoom (200mm) when wide open (f/6.3). The zoom ring turns counter-clockwise (why?). No image stabilization. The red ring is a cheap idea and is, quite frankly, embarrassing (do they think we want to fool other people?). Only works on cameras with APS-C size sensors...does not work on full frame film or digital SLRs.

Would I buy it again? Maybe.

I wasn't happy with the first shots I took with this lens and even considered sending it back. Also, I kept going back and forth between this lens and the Canon 28-105 and the Canon 28-135. But, when I re-attached the Sigma, all of the subsequent shots looked great. I can't explain it, but now I'll be keeping this lens. Surprisingly, the build quality appears quite good. I paid $339.00 (US) at Sigma4Less. For that price, you can't beat it. Its being used on a Canon 350D.

Canon is rumored to be coming out with a competing lens. When that lens is available, this lens will probably be history.

Specs:
Filter Size: 62mm
f/Stop Range: 3.5 – 22
Minimum Focus Distance: 1.5' (45 cm)
Magnification: 1:4.4
Angle of View: 69.3 - 7.1°
Groups/Elements: 13/15
Length: 3.1" (78mm)
Maximum Diameter: 2.7" (70mm)
Weight: 14.3 oz (405 g)

Sample pictures:

Creamy bokeh...


Excellent contrast & color with good sharpness...

[mkgago]

re the 50mm prime:

Cons: Mechanically and optically none. May be too long for interior shooting when used on digital cameras (75mm equivalent).

If that's true, is the 50mm lens on a digital camera still thought of as the best equivalent to human vision?

[JTL]

Not on a camera with a 1.6x or 1.5x crop factor (APS-C). 30mm would be the equivalent.

[DonSchap]

TAmROn SP AF17~50mm f/2.8 XR Di II LD Aspherical (IF)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Author: Don Schap
Is this lens worth the price? Yes
Would I buy this lens again? Yes (at this price... you could have a second one on hand)
Price: $449.00

------------------------------------------



Pros: Snappy and awesome AF for the most part. Very sharp, good contrast, very low CA. Lightweight (14 oz) & good build quality. Continuous f/2.8 thru the entire focal range, unlike its 17~35mm f/2.8-4 Di predecessor. 17mm-minimum (27.2mm equivalent full sensor) is perfect for those "up close & personal" group shots and 50mm (80mm eq. FS) gets the portrait shot. My copy offered minimal (if any) detectable barrel-distortion at wide open. I also see this as an excellent "on-the-fly" architectural lens.

Cons: Perhaps some dim-lighting AF difficulties, yet offers nearly the same performance of a low-end prime. There is a slight color change toward red, when compared to the Canon prime lenses. I have tended to see this same "warm" color shift with many other TAmROn lenses, though.

Comments: This lens was purchased to replace the notorious "kit lens" and would have been purchased then, had it been available when I picked up my Canon EOS 20D. As a "walk-around" lens... it's obviously missing any telephoto capability. Use of a T/C with this lens is not recommended and would offer little, if any, real advantage.

Specs:
TAmROn Model A016
Lens Construction (Groups/Elements): 13/16
Angle of View: 78°45' - 31°11' (APS-C size equivalent)
Type of Zooming: Rotation
Diaphragm Blade Number: 7 (Circular apertures)
Minimum Aperture: F/32
Minimum Focus: 10.6in. (0.27m)
Macro Mag. Ratio: 1:4.5 (at f=50mm MFD 0.27m)
Filter Diameter: ø67
Weight: 398g (14oz)
Diameter x Length: ø2.9 x 3.2in. (ø74.0 x 81.7mm)
Accessory: Flower-shaped Lens hood
Mount: Canon AF, Konica Minolta AF-D, Nikon AF-D

BANG FOR THE BUCK? Yes!

SAMPLE SHOTS: Outdoor, direct Sunlight, Oshkosh, WI... Indoor... interior lit Doll Mansion, also WI

30mm f/13 1/500sec ISO-320


50mm f/11 1/800sec ISO-400


17mm f/2.8 1-sec ISO-100 Shutter Priority


17mm f/4.5 8-sec. ISO-100 Aperture Priority


100% crop from f/2.8 above


100% crop from f/4.5 above


Dark is tough... no doubt.

[Rex914]

Thanks to everybody for their reviews. I have added them all to the pertinent review threads. Keep them coming.

[Jason25]

Is this lens worth the price?
Yes, especially on the used market.

Would I buy this lens again?
Yes, if I don't need f/2.8.
____________________________________

Pros:
Lightweight, very fast AF-S focusing, good focal length range for a walkaround lens. I may have a good copy, but the color and contrast is very good, and the lens is sharp!

Cons:
Very mild barrel distortion on the wide end, but that's to be expected in this price range. I've seen worse copies than mine, though. There seems to be above average sample variation for this lens.

Would I buy it again?
I would buy this lens again because it's a great walkaround lens that has more range than f/2.8 lenses in this range. The AF-S focusing is very accurate, silent and fast.

[Rex914]

I've been perusing some of the reviews, and I'm wondering if anyone is interested in updating them with sample pictures. Some users did this, and it really adds credence to the review. If you do go ahead, let me know so that I can tag your review as such.

Secondly, I would like to see more Nikon lens reviews. I know that the Nikon community here is small, but we can do better than 3 reviews, can't we? Even a kit lens review is fine. The purpose is to bolster the ranks a little, and that will help this resource grow slowly but steadily over time.

Finally, I'm pleased with the Canon section, but we could add more reviews on some of the newer lenses (24-105L, 17-55L) as well as more third party lens reviews (particularly ultra-wide offerings like the Tokina 12-24). i know that at least 2-3 users have these lenses, so if you're interested, please submit.

Thanks!

- Rex914