For a long time I've been using the lens that came with my Canon DSLR along with a fixed 50mm f/1.8 and a 75-200mm telephoto lens. And that combination is great but it does require a lot of changing, not only of lenses but settings after you've changed lenses since the f/stops are different. It's okay but it is a lot of work.
I really wanted something that could do a lot of the same things in one lens. Enter the Tamron 18-270mm lens. It has the best of both worlds in terms of zoom beginning at 18mm (closer than my standard lens) and ending at 270mm (further than my telephoto lens). I can get very close (ie the top photo of a yucky cupcake the girls made was taken at only 2 feet above.)
And then here are some really fantastic examples of how extreme the 15x zoom lens is.
In comparison to my fixed 50mm f/1.8, the Tamron lens has an f/stop of 3.5 however with a zoom of such a wide range I can still achieve the blurred background effect of my f/1.8. If you're new to photography one of the great bonuses to having an f/stop around 2 is that you can get good perspective. That is, you subject is in focus and your background is not. The lower the f/stop the less distance you need between your subject and the background to achieve blurring. BUT, you can ALSO get that effect if you have a camera with a long zoom.
Just stand far enough away from your subject that you will be extending your zoom very far and you will get the same great background (or foreground) blur. I took this pic of Molly at around 15 feet away. I took the lower pic at about 5 feet away of Eloise who had been playing in the dirt and managed to get all the messy details on her face.
So really, this lens IS the best of all my lenses.
For an example of a night shot, I took this picture in VERY dark lighting (twilight), holding the lens in my hands, while keeping the camera as still as I could. One very important feature which helped to reduce blur at this low shutter speed was the Vibrator Compensation mode. With the VC (Vibrator Compensation) you can do handheld shots at as many as four shutter speeds slower than would otherwise be possible.
Another benefit from the VC (Vibrator Compensation) is when you are shooting from far away. When you have a heavy lens with a long zoom your photos would very often suffer from the movement in your hands especially when focusing on a subject a couple dozen feet away. But with VC you have far more image stabilization for sharper images
. I took this pic of Molly jumping out of the baby pool at 35 feet away. Pretty impressive. This lens retails for $650 compared to other similar brand name lenses which cost $2000+ it's a great deal! And the Tamron lens fits on both Canon and Nikon cameras.
I think that calls for a celebration! PS. Molly's birthday was yesterday;) Happy fourth!
So in my opinion this lens gets a thumbs up! Great in price, great in versatility and great in picture quality. Can't wait to show you all the more great photos I'll be taking with it:)
Like not spending money? 
9 {comments}:
Now that is really "capturing the moment"!
Beautiful quality to your photography, and how lovely to be able to catch the smooth softness of baby skin...!!
Well worth the investment - enjoy your new possibilities and have lots of fun with them.
Happy birthday Molly! This lens is definitely on my wish list. :)
I actually looked at this lens this last weekend and I fell in LOVE! I am trying to figure out a way to work this into my budget for next month. Wish me luck!
I've been lusting after this lens. :) Thanks for the review!
Hmm I'll pass this review onto he BF. He's always looking for new lenses and this one looks pretty decent. He was afraid to go with Tamron until recently.. they actually have great lenses and they're a lot less expensive than the brand names.
xo katie elizabeth
ohheyylife.blogspot.com
thanks for all the photography pointers! i tried the piece of white cardstock in front of my flash trick the other day, and it is like a miracle! i think for christmas i might have to ask for a new lens. you are awesome - thanks!
I had a great zoom lens for my SLR, and I miss using that camera, but don't think I want to go back to 35mm. As I'm reading your post, I'm thinking maybe I should finally splurge on a DSLR so I can get back into this...but got a little bit of sticker shock when you gave the price of the lens :( I'm sure it's a great value though, if I had an income!
I really do appreciate all of this information on photography. I'm a new blogger so all of this information is just what I need!
Thanks for review, it was excellent and very informative.
lenses walkaround, nice post
it was excellent and very informative.
TAMRON :)
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