Buy Tamron AF 200-500mm f/5.0-6.3 Di LD SP FEC (IF) Lens for Canon Digital SLR Cameras (Model A08E)Tamron AF 200-500mm f/5.0-6.3 Di LD SP FEC (IF) Lens for Canon Digital SLR Cameras (Model A08E) Product Description:
- Canon SLR AF mount; telephoto zoom lens
- Internal focusing and low dispersion
- 200 to 500 mm focal length
- f/5-6.3 maximum aperture
- Digitally integrated design
Product Description
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
112 of 114 people found the following review helpful.
Wonderful new lens from Tamron
By netscorer
This new lens, part of the Di (designed for digital) initiative from Tamron is very well built - light and balances well in hand.It compares nicely with much more costlier Canon 100-400 L IS and compliments perfectly 70-200 type of lenses to extend telephoto reach to incredible 800mm on 1.6x crop camera.Very sharp even wide-open from 200mm to 400mm it starts to slightly lose its edge at 500mm but still is very respectable. AF is quick and not very noisy. The lens can be hand-hold in broad daylight but is best used either with monopod or a good tripod (especially if you shoot in dusk conditions). Attaching optional 1.4x extender would allow to bring subjects up to 24 times closer compared to bare eyesight and still get a very high quality shot.From the drawbacks there is slight lack of contrast comparing to 'L' (professional) lenses from Canon and slow F/6.3 apperture at the tele-end, making AF sometimes difficult with cameras that are not designed for AF after F/5.6 (such as 20D or Digital Rebel). Putting extender or/and Polarizer filter on lens would cut light that reaches the camera another 2-3 times, making this lens very slow and forcing Manual Focusing. So if you need the speed at such extreme reach, better consider prime (non-zoom) lenses.The filter size is 86mm making finding an affordable quality filter for this lens a practical impossibility. But if you do manage to get a decent polarizer filter, using it would be much simplier then with any other large lenses due to included filter attachment ring. With any other lens the hood would be blocking access to the filter but thanks to this simple gadget, Tamron 200-500 can be used successfully with both filter and hood on.
73 of 76 people found the following review helpful.I'm betting that this lens gets better with time...
By Paul L. Jakubowski
I got this lens in the same set of purchases when I moved up from a Nikon D80 to a D300. So naturally, I tried it out on both before I sold the D80. Four stars on the D80; five on the D300. What CA I saw on the D80 images disappeared on the images from the D300 - the D300 automatically corrected the CA. This is why I say I think it will "improve" with age - the bodies will continually get better, and compensate for minor flaws.But in its own right, this lens is a significant value. Not only in price, but in utility. I had to ask myself if I would really use a lens in this range enough to want to hump it around (yes), if I really needed a fast lens in the 200-500mm range (no), or practically, if I could afford same (no). I decided I didn't want to deal with the weight and bulk of a multi-thousand-dollar fast pro lens, and I certainly had better places to put my already out-of-control photography spending in relation to what would be my least used lens.Since I wanted this lens primarily for cruise side trips (whales, bears, bridges, foilage, etc) which usually take place during the middle of the day with lots of light, convenience/cost was much more important than sophistication. I didn't need low light capability for sunrise/sunset landscapes, or to be sure to capture that one rare bird that only ventures out in the evening twilight. Further, portability was important. So, even though it's still the biggest space hog in the backpack along with four other lenses, all of which I use more than this one, the weight/bulk/cost to functionality ratio of this lens is still very acceptable to me. One other thing - it comes with a high quality, very usable, padded case of its own if you don't have a dedicated photo backpack.Advice? Use it on at least a monopod. Even though it's light enough to be shot handheld, the images are highly dependent on good support.One small negative. I've not found software yet which will automatically correct its barrel/pincushion distortion at various focal lengths. Neither PTLens nor DXO have it in their databases, and I've not seen the compensation factors published for Photoshop. While I am good enough to plug in factors that somebody smarter than me has figured out, I am not good enough to figure out those factors myself. So if any readers here ever find them/figure them out, could you share?
51 of 52 people found the following review helpful.Your get more than what you pay for
By Q. Chang
I could give it a 4 stars, but I decide to add one more to offset another reviewer's 1 star, which I think is not fair. I've used this lens for several months and very happy about its performance -- Well-taken bird pictures are good enough for at least 11X14 prints.I'm providing some technical tips here for long end (500mm) use --* Use a (light) monopod, which could save some treasure at 1/100 sec. On the other hand, even at 1/1000 sec, monopod still could help sharpness sometimes;* If light is ok, use f8, which is significantly better than wide open at 500mm and may reach the top of this lens;* Make good use of the light weight and 2.5m focus distance, approach the objects -- it's the key to get great bird pictures, although 500mm is also important;* Don't use teleconvert -- I found even 1.4X Kenko Pro 300 makes the image soft. Croping is better for this lens.You pay $800 for this 500mm. If you use it correctly, you will get more than what you pay for.
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