Tamron 28-75 vs Nikon 18-70

[steve_myaskovsky]

Please post your comments if you tried them both.

Thanks.

[bryan_lardizabal]

I get wonderful results with the Nikon 18-70mm kit lens and both lenses are inexpensive. Why would you go with the more limited focal range of the Tamron? Might try searching the opinions of other sites as nobody is responding here.

[tholte]

I hear you Brian! I was wondering the same thing.

[chris m., central florida]

I have both and use them extensively for professional shooting. The 18-70mm is a great general purpose lens. I was pleasantly surprised by it's capabilties, AF speed, relatively low distortion and overall image quality for this price class, and it's cost/performance ratio. It's definitely worth the money.

 

The Tamron 28-75mm is one of my money makers. While it's hard to shoot large groups with this lens because of the 1.5X factor on DSLRs, it's very sharp, offers a constant aperture, and I can set the lens at f2.8 - f4 to throw the background out of focus and still get tack sharp images of my clients. I also use it for studio shooting because I get consistent results at wide apertures even though I'm changing focal lengths.

 

Both are very capable lenses. Which one should you buy? Hmmmm... all depends on what you are shooting. If you are shooting wide angle landscapes or group photos, the 18-70mm is a good choice. However, if you don't need the wide angle, or you have enough room to shoot large groups at 28mm, the Tamron is an excellent choice.

 

If I absolutely had to choose - I'd go with the Tamron unless you are shooting weddings or need marginally faster autofocus of the AF-S lenses.

[eric_.]

The Tamron lens is a class in itself and certainly is in a different league compared to the kit lens. Where the kit lens is horribly soft wide open at close distance, the Tamron is tack sharp at all apertures.

There is literally no corner sharpness when one uses the kit lens wide open and distortion is considerable. But it is a cheap lens though...and certainly a sweet deal when bought as a kit lens. Build quality is at equal standard.

If you need a wider angle on a DSLR than I suggest you consider the Tamron 17-35/2.8-4 and Tamron 28-75/2.8 combo. Of course it is more expensive than the kit lens but as a Dutch saying learns us: "you get what you pay for". I am pretty sure that this is an International saying though...:-)

[steve_myaskovsky]

Thanks.

[aardvarko]

> I hear you Brian! I was wondering the same thing.

 

... because it's F/2.8, because it's sharper, because it's distortion-free... have you ever actually used it?