17-35mm F2.8-4 TAMRON Di LD SP IF for CANON (77) AUTO FOCUS WIDE ANGLE ZOOM LENS

One of the best alternatives in the market for canon's 17-40F4L or 16-35F2.8L, albeit for a fraction of the price and weight. Despite the plastic built, it provides excellent image quality, used on canon 5D and 5D markII, the 17mm ultrawide perspective is beautiful. The large F2.8 aperture makes it very usable when taking night scenes, such as christmas in Orchard road. Like most of the higher end nikon and canon lenses these days, it uses 77mm filters, which is good because a large variety of filters like ND, GND, CPL, or even tianya square filter graduated filter systems are available in the market, filters are essential for producing beautiful landscape images.

Copy of lens for sale here is tested on the field and proven a sharp copy. So rest assured of the good image quality to be expected from the lens. Below are some online reviews by end users of this lens all over the world, yield from a simple search on google. For this selling price, which is 1/3 of the 17-40L, 1/6 of the 16-35F2.8L II, it is definitely value for money. Can't go wrong for sure.

Some online reviews about the lens:

http://www.photographyreview.com/mfr/tamron/35mm-zoom/PRD_289438_3128crx.aspx

" My first tests were done side-by-side against my brother's Canon 17-40mm L. As I looked at the 100% crops, the images were almost identical. I would say that this lens is 98% as good as the L lens. This is great for the price. As for the real world tests, I took photos at several focal lengths and the contrast and color was really nice. This lens performs surprisingly well wide open at f2.8. It does a much better job than my Tamron 28-75mm XRDi. Image wise, very very nice. Someone said below that this is a poor man's L lens - it is absolutely true. My only issue with this lens is that if the light is very low, it focuses very slow. Other than that, I'm happy with it. "

I have used the new Tamron 17-35 on my Canon 10D DSLR only. It is simply one of the best lenses I have ever used and produces crisp contrasty and extremely sharp images at all aperatures and lengths - although like most lenses it gets even better when closed down down one or more stops. When my 10D is set up to give in camera sharpening (+1 or +2) the images are virtually perfect and can be used without any manipulation if need be. Just perhaps a tweek in levels is usually enough. I have already sold some shots from this lens. The distortion levels are very low on a DSLR due to the crop factor and flare (reported by others) has never caused any problem. All ultra wide zooms are prone to flare and this one is better than most

http://photo.net/nikon-camera-forum/008Ygx

" i need to choose between the tamron 17-35 2.8-4 vs. the nikon 17-35 2.8. money is not the issue here at all. the thing that attracts me to the tamron is the fact that it's much smaller and lighter than the nikon. also fyi, the loss of one stop on the tamron also does not make a difference to me."

" I used a Tamron 17-35 on a recent trip to Mexico and found it very nice indeed. While there I had a very brief 30 minute play with a Nikkor 17-35.

Optically there is virtually nothing to choose between them. I haven't had big prints made, but looking at the digital pics (D100) on screen I had to resort to the exif data to tell which was which. Again, looking at the chromes (Provia 100 in an F80) through a loupe I honestly couldn't pick them. No doubt when I get some big blowups made the difference will be apparent.

I've seen a number of people who have complained about very poor flare control in the Tamron - that wasn't my experience. "

http://www.ephotozine.com/article/Tamron-1735mm-f284-SP-AF-Di-4585

In summary the main positive points of the Tamron 17-35mm f/2.8-4 SP AF Di are:
Good control of distortion
Exceptionally sharp in the centre.
Overall good performance
Well designed lens cap.

http://www.fredmiranda.com/reviews/showproduct.php?product=191

" Bought a used a few months after Tamron dis-continued it in 2009.

The lens is sharp. And may be sharper than you think.

I just acquired a Nikon 28 f3.5 AI lens which is one of the recommended old gem from Nikon. It's very sharp. I think it is a great buy until I did a side-by-side comparison with my Tamron.

What a surprise to me. The Tamron beats the Nikon 28 f3.5 prime from f3.5 and on in all my tests. Center sharpness is close. But the Tamron is more constrasty and more saturated color (with Nikon D700). The Tamron at 28mm f5.6 gives much better detail at edge than the Nikon at f5.6, even at f8. "

" I am very happy with this lens. I purchased it for my Canon XSi . Took it out of the box immediately and shot some pic's. in our back yard. I couldn't believe how sharp this lens is. It has to be one of the sharpest lenses I own. I did take the pictures closed down to F 5.6 and F 8. I certainly must have gotton a good copy."

" This lens is without a boubt one fine lens. The price is right and a 6 year warrenty is great especially if the focus motor malfunctions. The F2.8 is nice but most pictures I take are stopped down to at least 5.6. I'm very satisfied with my purchase. "

" This is a great wide angle lens at a very competitive price. Super sharp and terrific contrast/color in a variety of shooting conditions. I use this lens primarily for landscape photography and have not been disappointed yet with it's performance. I don't think there is another lens in this price range that comes close to it's performance for the same $$."

Frankly to say, although i upgrade it to cannon 17-40/4.0L, I can not see the difference in photo quality, the only problem is that this lens is a littler slower to focus when the light is weak.

Image taken with lens by LENS.sg staff: