I bought this lens a few months ago to use as a wide-angle lens on a Canon Digital Rebel. I haven't been disappointed. The pictures that I've gotten out of it are quite nice, especially group shots. The sharpness tends to not be so great below f/5.6, but it has only really bothered me when set to f/3.5. The color has been perfect as far as I can tell and I haven't had any trouble with fringing. The construction actually seems a lot sturdier than what I had expected after reading these boards.
The lens is, however, rather prone to flare, even with the supplied lens hood. There is also appreciable barrel distortion at 19mm. The autofocus is also fairly noisy.
Those are my only complaints, though. Overall I have been very satisfied with this lens.
I've only had this lens for two days, so take this for what it's worth. The first copy I received showed severe purple fringing at all focal lengths and stops. Purple bleed at the edges was 3-4 pixels, and 5-6 pixels in the corners, on my 6.3 Mpix DSLR. There was some green fringing as well on opposite edges. I took the lens back and Robinsons kindly gave me a different copy. Similar situation but not quite as bad. My RAW converter has corrections for this, and they work quite well, but it takes some tweaking to get the right settings. Poorest sharpness is at the 35 mm end, 19 mm is better, 20-24 mm is best. Edge sharpness is poor at f5.6 is less, but improves at f8 and gets better at f11. I was able to get a sharp picture at 24 mm, f11, with careful corrections for chromatic abberation.
If you are looking to upgrade from the Canon 18-55 mm kit lens, skip this one and buy a 20 mm or 24 mm prime. Not a complete lemon, but I don't recommend this lens.
Strengths:
Good zoom range for landscape, general photography on a DSLR
Cheap, lightweight and compact
Sharp pictures at 20-24 mm, f11
Good contrast
Weaknesses:
Chromatic abberations: purple fringing
Cheap build quality
Corners blurry at f5.6 or less
For the price, this is a excellent lens. I have taken some excellent photographs with this lens. The corners seem to be sharp. Good contrast and color reproduction. The L series Canon EF 17-40mm AF USM L lens may be a little better quality, but at well over two times the cost.
Strengths:
Wide Zoom Angle.
Long Tamron USA Warranty.
Sharpness.
Price.
Weaknesses:
For the price, none as far as I could see.
Similar Products Used:
Canon EF 28-200mm AF USM,
Sigma 28-80mm AF Aspherical MZM,
Sigma 100-300mm AF DL Telephoto Zoom.
Excellent lens. Not only for price, but overall. Produces clean, sharp images. Shooting at 19mm is very fun. This lens makes shooting landscapes that much more enjoyable with the added angle of view, over a standard zoom, and one's artistic nature can be that much more nurtured.
Strengths:
Small, light, fast auto-focus. Quality far exceeds the cost.
Weaknesses:
Screw on 77mm filters are not cheap.
(but if you use a modular filter system rather than screw-in filters you can use the same filters on more than one lens - regardless of the lens diameter)
I have just moved from a fully manual OM-1 & zuiko 24mm prime & 28-48mm zoom in an effort to get a wider angle, convenience & 25 year 'new' technology...
This combo is worth half the 25 year old equipment (FMV) so this is the first qualifier...
I was surprised to find my 25 yr. old 24mm prime to be noticably sharper. If you love really crisp pics, shoot slides or enlarge prints you may want to weigh your options carefully. I would rate this lens equal to the Zuiko zoom in comparison shots...
Stopping down helps - of course then we are looking at f8 & perhaps grainier film. The compromise is in having compositional options of 2 or more lenses at several times the price...
I can only give it 4 stars because in the end image quality has to be my ultimate criteria...
Strengths:
Convenience, zoom range, value, AF, light weight for the size...
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