Will give you very sharp photos.
Zoom range of 500mm
Build quality felt good.
Just love the design of Tamron's
lid caps.

Not a hand-held lens. Should at least use a mono-pod.
Wide open of 200mm could be a problem

Thanks to Tamron for lending me this lens for a day at the Cincinnati Zoo.
Since I knew I would be walking a lot, I took only my mono-pod with
me. I am very impressed with this lens. It can take very sharp photos.
Being new myself to the world of DSLR's, I had some problems at
first trying to figure out the shutter speed and exposure settings.
This you could not fault the lens. Seems, no two shots were in the
same light. I would go from very bright sunlight to dark almost a
forest type shadows. Got some great shots of a Bald-eagle, sitting
on the ground in shadows through a chain-link fence. Even shot
bees in a tree about 25 feet away hand-held, Took a picture of a
Rhino and feel I can count the hairs on its head.

Similar Products Used:

Tamron 70-300 f/4-5.6

Long reach
Balance
Wieght
Build

A nice well rounded lens.

It depends on why your buying this lens. If you want a super long high end preformance lens at a cost of near nothing. "There aren't any." Understand what you expectations are and what reality is.

I really stuggled with theis purchase. I have a great arsenal of lenes that I shoot with on a daily basis. I wanted 500mm even if it was a high F number. Most of my serious shooting either happens at night or inside so I knew this was going to be a playing lens (Birds, Kids, Cars, what ever) in full daylight.
It is a decent lens and can give you some excellent pictures. Out of the box my copy was nothing to yell about. Sent it to Tamron for some fine tuning and some calibration for my 20D and guess what. It works well. Shot ratio for stunning keepers of small birds or rodents (squirrels) I's say about 1 shot in about 3 are keepers hand held.
Is it an L series lens? NO. DId it cost $400 less than the 100-400L? YES. Does it do an decent job (I'm very picky on images)? Yes.
If you know lenes you already know that Tamron has a QC issue. However they do a great job in amking you happy. I bought a second 28-75 as a backup and had to send it in 3 times but guess what it is razor sharp from 2.8 and up.
So far I am happy with the lens. If you are buying this to be your only lens then, No you will not like it. Spend some bucks and get a 2.8 lens first. If you are looking for reach then this will let you get some shots that you would not have gotten.

Customer Service

Very helpful. It may take a few times to get it right. Turn time is good around 2 weeks.

Similar Products Used:

70-200L
200L
135L
50 1.4
501.8
24-70L
25-75 Tam

As far as the build quality, I would say it is acceptable, better than the Sigma and focus was fast & quiet...

If you are picky about your photos and do a lot of prints 8x10 or larger, stick with "L" series lenses, or you will be disappointed...

Used with Canon 20D and XT

I was Thoroughly disappointed in this lens! After reading the reviews here and on other sites, I decided to try this lens. I was looking for something with a longer reach than my 100-300mm "L" series. This is not the answer. I have tried the Sigma 170-500mm and now this lens. Neither one even comes close to the clarity of my 100-300mm "L" even with a 2x converter on my "L"; it's TEN TIMES as sharp as this Tamron...
As far as I'm concerned, the photos taken with this lens, in the 400mm - 500mm range, are totally unacceptable!! Even with post processing, I would never use a picture out of this lens for more than a 5x7 print! Just awful. No fine definition at all, most of the detail is lost, color is flat... I was so disappointed in what I hoped to be a good lens...
All shooting was done from a Bogen tripod and the lens was tested at different apertures, shutter speeds and ISO's Comparative shots were with my 100-300mm "L", with a kenko SHQ 1.4X & 2X teleconverter... Never even tried the converter on the Tamron, due to the unacceptable results from the lens by itself...

Similar Products Used:

Sigma 170-500mm
Canon 100-300mm "L"