Good lenses for your Nikon - cheap 28mm review

<p>I write this prompted by a friend who has got into photography as a hobby (a good choice there) but he is really feeling the pinch financially as all the new gear really is quite expensive these days. I thought I would share my findings with a lens of 28mm focal length that is very useful but can be had at ridiculously low prices used.<br>

That is the Tamron 28mm f/2.5 Adaptall.<br>

I have paid between £5 to £25 for this lens, which can not only do really nice landscape images but can also go close, can separate the foreground from the background, has lovely colour, is well built and is CHEAP! For some reason it is very overlooked but perhaps that is because the lens is mostly forgotten and manual focus. Well if you like what you see below then for the price of a cheap meal out it can be part of your kit too. Of course many people already have superlative 28mm lenses, but even then this lens can be used in places that would not be healthy to use you best lens, like where there is dust or sand for instance.<br>

I'm not saying it is perfect, however it is VERY good and we will look into this now.</p>

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<p>Well first of all lets push it a little - closest focus. Well here it does well with the 25CM from the sensor minimum distance. Its sharp here too. Looking good so far.</p><div></div>

<p>Moving on to a wide f-stop now and at f/2.8 it can do a good job of picking out your subject from the background. Better than the kit zooms any day.</p><div></div>

<p>How about architecture? Again, looks great to me.</p><div></div>

<p>Stopped down it can make for some really nice and printable pictures.</p><div></div>

<p>To sum up, this lens is now in my kit bag and is giving me a smile to use. Ok, its not perfect - its softer than the best wide open and stopped to f/32 (they should have not bothered with that stop). When you have fun AND hardly spend any money doing it makes it even more fun I think! To finish up with lets have another interior shot. I like the diffraction stars here.</p>

<p>So, just a heads up here - the Tamron 28mm, very cheap and good too. Hope you enjoyed this little 'heads up'.</p><div></div>

<p>Glad to see somebody write it up...I've been experimenting with one I picked up for a song a couple of weeks ago, but so far only used it on my m4/3. Your shots clearly demonstrate its usefulness and capabilities. Plus the fact that I can use it on virtually any SLR/DSLR body. I think when it came out it got only mediocre reviews, which is probably why it has been overlooked by so many for so long. Obviously, it is a very good lens in the right hands and with appropriate subjects. Thanks for sharing.</p>

<p>Ian--thank you!! Great advice--what other "overlooked" lens do you have in your bag? :-) Really--the first church picture is excellent. What church is that?<br>

Thanks again for posting!<br>

Paul</p>

<p>What do you think of it Stephen? Its an easy to like lens I think.<br>

Thanks Paul. That is St Albans cathedral - lovely light in there. Shame it loses some of the impact downsized to 700 pixels but you can see what I like about it. As to other cheapies just wait until I get to my Nikon fit Vivitar 70-150 CONSTANT f/3.5 macro zoom which is offering astounding performance for £0. That's for another day though - I'm still out there having fun shooting it.</p>

I've had a couple of Tamron Adaptall primes:

24/2.5, which I still have and mostly use for

infrared; and a 17/3.5 with built in filters,

that I kind of regret selling.

 

Both were very good values. The 24 is sharp and

contrasty. The 17 was sharp but a little low in

contrast, although remarkably resistant to flare,

and well corrected.

<p>I have and use the 17, 24, 24-48, 35-70, 90, 135 all capable and because of adaptall mounts, I can use them on Leicaflex SL with rare adaptall SL mount R series won't clear prism, Nikon, and Canon fd tho my mount is marked FTb and doesn't work properly on A series Canon. I've been a fan of adaptall but not adaptamatic, very fiddly and gets out of synch too easily!</p>

<p>How spoiled we all have gotten. For the first forty years that I was a photographer all lenses were manual focus. Even today a few of us still manually focus for the effect we want. Some of the best optics available are some of the "obsolete" and inexpensive manual focus lenses. The Nikon f2.5 105 comes to mind immediately. As many have discovered superb lenses and camera bodies can be purchased used from a couple of the great stores. Great glass does not have to be expensive.</p>

<p>Those are some nice images Ian. I have a Vivitar branded 28/2.5 in Minolta MD mount that I have been pretty impressed with. I believe that one was made by Kiron. I recently tested some of my older pre-AI Nikon glass on my wife's D5200 and was pleasantly surprised at how well they held up against more modern counterparts. I thought the 28/3.5 and 35/2.8, in particular, held up remarkably well considering how little respect they seem to get these days. </p>

<p>I had that Vivitar 70-150 when I shot Pentax. It was an astoundingly great lens that lived on my camera a LOT of the time.<br /><br />Tokina also made decent cheap MF 28mm lenses, but I don't think I liked mine as much as you like your Tamron.</p>

<p>Peter, I am working with the 70-150 today and I must say that I am REALLY happy with it. It was in the bin as it was unsellable (nobody bought it at £10) so I had it. What I am seeing is really quite unbelievable. Punchy colour, sharpness and 3D rendering worth many hundreds of £££'s if it were a new release. Yet people are in the same camera shop struggling to pay for the brand new 'must have' lenses and in some instances having their card declined due to insufficient funds. This is a personal opinion but if you were to take a lens like the 28mm Tamron and 70-150mm Vivitar instead of £1,500 worth of new lenses and with the money saved go on a wonderful photographic trip (or three) I am sure it would make people happier long term, but then once the gear lust sets in then for quite a few that is all that matters. Better men than me have tried and failed to convince them so I don't try any more.</p>

<p>To finish off here is a quick shot from the 70-150 that was IN THE BIN!</p>

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<p>The lens was in as new condition and the performance matched the looks. Honestly, if a lens as good as this does not sell for £10 and ends up in the bin it is a bit of a sad time for photography. Here is a 100% corner crop at the long end where it is at its 'weakest'. How many other lenses are ending up in the bin? Are they not good enough any more?</p><div></div>

<p>Ian, I have the 24mm f/2.5 version, and I'm in complete agreement. It is an excellent optic and often an absolute bargain. I've done a direct comparison between my Tamron 24/2.5 and my Nikon AIs 24/2.8 and there wasn't enough difference between the two to talk about. In fact, if I were counting pixels, I'd have to give the nod to the Tamron because it was slightly sharper once stopped down to f/11 and f/16.</p>

<p>Interesting to know Michael. I have not come across the 24mm Tamron yet but when I do I will pick it up for sure. I have just acquired a Tamron Adaptall 90mm f/2.5 with all boxes and life size extender in as new condition for £10 at a local charity shop. Initial testing shows it to be at least as good as the Nikon 105mm Micro. £10 is too low in my opinion but the price was reduced from £18 because nobody wanted it. Oh well.</p>

<p>Ian, I own a pretty good variety of macro lenses and I've found the Tamron 90mm to be consistently a top performer. It is an amazingly sharp optic. And 10GBP is an unbelievably good bargain, especially considering you also got the life-size extension, which is a hard-to-find accessory. Enjoy!</p>

<p>Tamron lenses have always been pretty good and offered excellent value for money - well, nearly always. The first accessory lens I had along with a Praktica VF in the early 1960s was a Tamron "Twin Tele", which was a basic preset aperture 135mm lens and matched(?) converter that turned it into a (very poor) 225mm lens. However all the Tamron lenses I've used since then have been pretty good.</p>

<p>My latest Tamron acquisition a few months ago is a 135mm f/2.5 that I picked up from a charity shop for a few pounds. The performance of that was quite impressive. A D800 shows it has a bit of LoCa when pixel peeping, but it's no worse than many of its contemporary Nikkor Ai and Ai-S primes, and even many AF Nikkors. I think I posted a thread in praise of the Tamron Adaptall 135mm f/2.5 not too long ago.</p>

<p>I think it's a shame that Tamron have forsaken the MF market, because I'm sure they could give Zeissina a run for their money in terms of optical and build quality, as well as undercutting the prices that Cosina ask for their products.</p>