What are we doing wrong with this lens?

<p>My wife bought this $700 lens and it is taking terrible pictures. She is convinced that this is the way the lens is supposed to work and wants to sell it. I'm convinced she doesn't know how to use it correctly and that if used properly it would take good pictures.<br>

She has a Nikon D70<br /> The Lens is a Tamrom SP AF70-200mm F/2.8 Di LD(IF)MACRO<br /> The camera was on "Auto"<br /> The Fstop was at 2.8</p>

<p>This is how the photos are turning out, what are we doing wrong:<br>

<img src="http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/7479/upnorth509073.jpg" alt="" /><br>

<img src="http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/8295/upnorth509027.jpg" alt="" /></p>

<p>What's the shutter speed at in these?</p>

<p>(too fast on the sumbit button)<br>

Reason I ask is looks like camera shake to me.</p>

<p>exif says 1/1000 for the first and 1/800 on the second one... some definately looks horribly wrong here! I hope you bought the lens new, return it immediately!</p>

<p>is she using a tripod? might help.</p>

<p>Camera shake defiitely seems to be playing a role here. However you are shooting wide open and the limited depth of field is also contribuiting to what appears to be blur but is also just sections of the picture not in focus. Also interested in your shutter speed as well as your focal length, seems you may have been at the longer end of your zoom which can also emphasize dof. Try taking some pics in bright daylight at 70mm. If your camera is still running the lens at 2.8 try shooting in aperture priority and stopping down a little bit.</p>

<p>I would return the lens.</p>

<p>Well it looks like an acceptable shutter speed at 1/1000s & 1/800s - -<br>

My question has to be - - why were you shooting it wide open? You have a very narrow dof then & it is going to cause problems. I would imagin that stopped down to an f/8 you'll get far better results & better dof.<br>

Many lenses are soft wide open.<br>

Oh & the second shot - focus is not on the dog - it's in the grass.<br>

So - operator error in shooting wide open would be my first suggestion & since I have no idea how much this lens weighs - - it could be to heavy for her. So is it your wife - - as a woman I can write this - - yes, she does not know how to use it. I would not shoot that lens wide open until I'd tested it.<br>

Lil :-)</p>

 

<p>So you guys think there is something physically wrong with it? That would be lame... We've had it for several months already.</p>

 

<p>She does complain that it is heavy. But she used it on a tripod for the first shot.</p>

<p>Looks mainly like a focus issue to me, along with narrow depth of field. Take the camera off "Auto" and put it on Aperture priority or Manaul. Then try some shots at f/8 or f/11, in bright daylight, and see how the lens does. If it still shows problems, you may have a bad lens, but as mentioned previously many lenses are soft wide open, at f/2.8 you have a very narrow depth of field (and so only the grass near the dog and the central part of the fence may actually be in focus), and until you do some real testing, operator error is the likely source of these problems.</p>

<p>Focus is on the grass in the second shot but there's no visible plane of focus in the outer areas of the image - it looks like a weird zoom-effect. The picture was shot at 120mm - assuming the performance doesn't get better zoomed-in I would say there's something wrong. </p>

<p>I think it's likely an optical problem with the lens. The radial distortion on the first image looks a lot like the lens was zoomed during the exposure (unlikely to be true given the shutter speed) or that it was taken with a lensbaby or close relative. Try to get another lens of the same type and compare results...</p>

<p>These almost look as though the lens's zoom ring was being changed as the exposure was being taken.</p>

<p>Its a bad copy of the lens, I have a pentax smc 28mm f2.8 that does the same thing when its shot wide open. Return the lens and try a different copy.</p>

<p>Ok,<br>

I've given her the info provided here.<br>

With the Fstop at a higher rate 10 - 20 and the pictures turn out good, but are dark.</p>

<p>if you stopped down the lens to 10-20 you need to adjust the shutter speed so that the images are exposed correctly.<br>

let us know how that went<br>

but mabye try it at f/4 f8 f11 and see what it gives you.<br>

good luck</p>

<p>Both images look like she might have been twisting the zoom ring as she took the photo. <br>

Is the macro setting on? That might mess up focus when you are zooming instead. </p>

<p>As was mentioned ....</p>

<p>Set the camera to Aperture Priority and adjust the aperture from 2.8, to 4 , to 5.6, to 8, then 11 .. etc, taking a shot at each setting. The camera will adjust the shutter speed properly so the shots should not come out too dark. Make sure you don't have any filters on the lens either. If there is a macro switch on the lens, turn it off, unless you are doing an extreme closeup shot.</p>

<p>Like some have noticed, It looks like only a center spot is on focus, not a "plane " of focus at the same distance. I would like to see some other shots, to be sure, but .... I would think it's possibly time to send the lens to Tamron for repair.</p>

<p>In the first picture the white mid section of the two cows are sharp. In a picture like this she needs to focus on what she wants to focus on in the middle of the pictice, or stop it down to f/8 so you have more depth of field in focus. Now I think more about it, What autofocus setting was she using? Have your wife try using setting AF-C and Single Area. Good luck and post back with your test shots.</p>

<p>If you look close, the blur is from different angles..... in the first pic at the top the blur is an up and down motion......toward the bottom it is diagnal left to right.....and then on the left side it is blurred side to side....<br>

The only thing that I would say could cause this is MAYBE the lens is on the macro setting. I cant think of anything else that would make it focus weirdly like this. It is not DOF, there is no visable plane, its blurred in all kinds of weird places.....and at 1/800 and 1/1000, its not normal motion blur. My first instinct was zoom blur but its all over the place as i said before. MAYBE, and i say MAYBE, she was focusing AND zooming at the same time while taking a pic??? but you said it was on a tripod?......<br>

Try a timer setting picture from a tripod, in good light, with a high shutterspeed and say f/4 or f/8. See what happens there. If that is good then go back to 2.8. But if you cant get it to work on a tripod....then SEND IT BACK BECAUSE ITS DEFECTIVE....<br>

Hope we helped....</p>

<p>I have to say that like some of the other posters, there seems to be something very wrong with those shots. What lens?</p>

<p>Before damning the lens, I would try a couple of simple tests:</p>

<ol>

<li>Shoot a flat subject with detail across the field-of-view (the side of a building is good) that is parallel to the sensor-plane. Use a tripod, "One shot AF" and a fairly high shutter speed. Take photos wide-open and for a couple of stops down. You should have pretty even sharpness across the entire frame with incremental improvements as you stop down from wide-open to about f/8.</li>

<li>Check for front/back focus with one of the test charts (<a href="http://focustestchart.com/chart.html">Tim Jackson's</a> or <a href="../learn/focustest">Bob Atkins'</a> , for example).</li>

</ol>

<p>The lens does say "Macro" on the box. But there is no macro setting on the lens that I can find.<br>

I posted the name of the lens at the top... but here's a link to the manfacturers page: http://www.tamron.com/lenses/prod/70200_di.asp</p>

<p>I just want to add my two cents worth. This lens weighs almost 3lbs. I have the sigma version which is a little heavier and my photos which were handheld came out like this. Try shooting off a tripod and raise the aperture to f/4 or f/5.6. If it still doesn't produce the desired affect take it back as you might have a bad copy.</p>

<p>When one or two corners are out of focus as is demonstrated here, The lens has an optical problem. This is a severs problem uncharacteristic of Tamron lenses</p>

<p>Return it to the store or send it in for warrantee service.</p>

<p> </p>