Cheap Lens...any good?

Bend The Light

I just spent a tenner on a lens from FleaBay. It's a Tamron 28-80mm f3.5-5.6.
I wasn't expecting amazing images, but had the idea that it was a small enough lens with a little extra reach compared to the 18-55mm kit lens I have. Can carry it around and not worry about it getting damaged for £10!.

So, is it good enough? Here is a picture (please ignore the content as such). Is it sharp enough, decent quality, etc?

I know it's not a 50mm f1.8 portrait, and I don't have L-glass money.

Let me know what you think:


Ruby Tamron test by http://bendthelight.me.uk, on Flickr

Bend The Light

A Processed (obviously) image...I will do "proper" tests this evening:


Ruby Tamron Mono by http://bendthelight.me.uk, on Flickr

ziggy53

If the lens suits your purposes, it a great value. It does look like you added a lot of sharpening in post-processing in order to get the sharpness you desire. Unfortunately, that led to a lot of visible noise in the first image. Fortunately, the noise is less visible on a conventional CRT monitor, so I suspect it should be OK for a small print as well. (Do try a print to be sure.) Noise reduction software may help here too.

The smaller apertures, f5.6 and f8, are where this lens achieves maximum sharpness, so it's at its best in very good light. It's really designed for use on a FF/film body, so using this on a crop body indoors may seem not wide enough at times.

This Tamron lens is certainly optically better than the Canon equivalent (which I have only because it was free.) You can use this lens, reversed and in front of another lens, to provide an impromptu "macro" capability, besides its normal use.

I would still recommend saving for a Canon EF-S 18-55mm, f3.5-5.6 IS for a much better, but not perfect, standard zoom for the Canon crop 1.6x/APS-C cameras bodies. Ideally, a constant aperture standard zoom, like the Tamron SP 17-50mm, f2.8 XR Di II LD IF would be better still.

For 10 pounds sterling this is a very good find and yes, I do think you will find many uses.

Darling subject BTW.

ThatCanonGuy

Nice find. Like Ziggy said, if it works for you, that's what matters. Like most lenses, it's better stopped down.

Just wondering Ziggy which Canon 28-80 do you have?

Bend The Light

ziggy53 wrote: »

If the lens suits your purposes, it a great value. It does look like you added a lot of sharpening in post-processing in order to get the sharpness you desire. Unfortunately, that led to a lot of visible noise in the first image. Fortunately, the noise is less visible on a conventional CRT monitor, so I suspect it should be OK for a small print as well. (Do try a print to be sure.) Noise reduction software may help here too.

The smaller apertures, f5.6 and f8, are where this lens achieves maximum sharpness, so it's at its best in very good light. It's really designed for use on a FF/film body, so using this on a crop body indoors may seem not wide enough at times.

This Tamron lens is certainly optically better than the Canon equivalent (which I have only because it was free.) You can use this lens, reversed and in front of another lens, to provide an impromptu "macro" capability, besides its normal use.

I would still recommend saving for a Canon EF-S 18-55mm, f3.5-5.6 IS for a much better, but not perfect, standard zoom for the Canon crop 1.6x/APS-C cameras bodies. Ideally, a constant aperture standard zoom, like the Tamron SP 17-50mm, f2.8 XR Di II LD IF would be better still.

For 10 pounds sterling this is a very good find and yes, I do think you will find many uses.

Darling subject BTW.

Thanks Ziggy. I added some sharpening, yes. Light was not brilliant, and like you say, if I use this in good light, around f8...that'd be best.
I have the standard 18-55, but not the IS version.

Thanks for the "like" on the subject.

ThatCanonGuy wrote: »

Nice find. Like Ziggy said, if it works for you, that's what matters. Like most lenses, it's better stopped down.

Just wondering Ziggy which Canon 28-80 do you have?

Thanks.

ziggy53

ThatCanonGuy wrote: »

... Just wondering Ziggy which Canon 28-80 do you have?

I have the Canon EF 28-80mm, f3.5-5.6 USM III, which was included with a Canon EOS Rebel "S" film body. I bought the body mostly to check functions on some older EOS mount lenses which are not compatible with newer digital bodies.