nishnishant

I agree the pricing is steep. Funnily enough, the lens is 1050-ish but if you buy the D7500 with this lens, it's 1400. You get the 7500 for an extra 350 bucks when the camera body sells for 750. I guess if you are adventurous enough, you could buy the kit, then sell the body for say 600 and save an extra 250 on the lens. I just don't want to bother with the hassle myself.

Yeah it's better stiff than if it's too loose :-)

Just curious, why do you have 2 of them?

Thank you, glad to hear it's not an anomaly on my piece :-)

Other 16-80 owners : do you find the zoom ring stiffer compared to other zooms like the 18-105? (it's not too bad but it's noticeable, hoping it'll get better with time)

Hey John, while VR and the additional range on both ends were important, weight was also a factor. And while I know some of this is subjective, quite a few folks said sharpness is comparable between the two lenses. Thanks.

Just an update for everyone who responded to my original query, I got the 16-80 f/2.8 (arrived today). Took a few test shots and now need to transfer it to see how they came out - looked good on the camera preview. One thing I noticed is that the zoom ring is a little stiff in the middle (as it crosses the 35-40 mm point). Is that normal? Will it get better with time? Thank you.

Thank you, appreciate the info.

Thank you, Shun.

Thank you - appreciate the info. And also for correcting my incorrect assumptions about the max aperture at various focal lengths for the 16-80.

The 17-55 is $430 more expensive, and offers constant f/2.8. But the 16-80 offers a more flexible focal range, has VR, and is f/2.8 from 16-40 (someone correct me if I am wrong here). So the relative loss will be the f/4 aperture from the 41-55 range (compared to the 17-55). The camera body I have is 7100. I can't get them both, so looking to buy one of the two. Looking for recommendations from folks who have used both lenses on a 7000-series camera. Thank you.

The more I test the less consistent are my results. The 7100+Nikon lens and 80+Tamron lens seem to be a combination that's giving me expected results. The 7100+Tamron is also not giving me really obvious focusing issues in my tests today, but I was testing in very good outside light. More baffling is that when I stopped down from f/2.8 to f/8 it seems to get softer. Does having a hood (when there's sunlight) have any impact at all on any of this? (sorry, now I am clutching at straws here trying to figure out what's going on)

Thank you. I only want to send it to Tamron as a last resort. If I can resolve this on my own, that'd be splendid. I am doing more tests today. The D80 with the Tamron lens does not really seem to have any focus issues at f/2.8. But then the images are lower res in the D80 so it's not an exact comparison with the 7100. Also the 7100 with the Nikon 18-105 seems to be focusing well too. I am not sure what I can do if the problem is specifically with the 7100 using the Tamron. Neither Tamron nor Nikon will want to help me resolve that.

Yeah, the f/1.4 helped to isolate out the focus point difference pretty well. Also I assume not all cameras (even same model) have the same AF fine tune behavior either.

Awesome - thank you, Matthew. I did not see that much of a difference, but I was shooting at f/2.8.

Ah, thanks. That makes sense. Also I have the non VR lens too. I got the VR version first (VC in Tamron verbiage) but had multiple issues with two copies and then was advised that the non-VC version is a better lens overall.

I did some tests today with two bodies - a D80 and a D7100, and two lenses - Nikon 18-105 and Tamron 17-50.Here are my findings. Took pics at 17/18mm and 50mm. Wide open. Means the Tamron was at f/2.8 while the Nikon varied between f/3.5 and f/4.5. D80 + Nikon lens : focus was as sharp as I'd expect at both 18 mm and 50mm. It was sharper at 50mm incidentally. D7100 + Nikon lens : focus was sharp at both 18 mm and 50 mm. At 18 mm it was slightly sharper than with the D80 - possibly because of the 7100's better AF capabilities. D80 + Tamron lens : soft at 17mm and 50mm. I can't tell if it's back or front focus for sure but I lean towards back focus based on my zooming in. D7100 + Tamron lens : soft at 17mm and 50mm with it being really bad at 17mm. Now the bizarre thing is that while both the D80 and 7100 were soft with the Tamron, the D80 was slightly better at 17mm. I am surprised because it's a way older camera with an older gen AF mechanism. I wonder if the higher resolution of the 7100 allowed me to zoom in closer and notice the softness more. But to summarize, at this point I am 99.99% convinced the lens is faulty. I am going to call Tamron and speak to them about the warranty. I have only used Nikon lenses in the past and it was with great reluctance that I bought a Tamron. I hope their support experience won't be bad. I'll keep this thread updated. Thanks everyone for their help and suggestions.

Hey Matthew, I tested that today with a known good lens. And it did have an impact but it's marginal and I had to really come close to the subject to minimize the DOF to see the effect. So the tuning is *really* fine I suppose. With the sort of serious back/front focus I have, the fine tune is possibly not the solution. It's probably good for people who want their pictures to be pixel-perfect and they notice a 1 mm difference in focusing.

Hey Hector, I haven't had a chance to test the body with other lenses as well as test this lens with another body. I intend to do multi-lens multi-body testing, and will post the results here. Just bought this lens 3 months ago and actually got good results in combination with my 7100. I went back and looked at the full res images taken 2 months ago and they look good, although at the pixel level some of them don't look as sharp consistently as older photos taken with Nikon primes (50 mm and 35 mm 1.8) but that may just be me right now. I was just taken aback at the AF fine tune not doing anything. If you think that indicates a camera issue, that's worrying. The Tamron is at least in warranty. Thanks for the response.

I've been having some major focusing issues with the Tamron 17-50 (at any focal length or f-stop) and before sending it to Tamron, I thought I'd try the AF Fine Tune. Trouble is that dialing in any value has zero impact on the focus. I am not talking about whether I've correctly figured out whether it's a back focus or front focus issue, I am saying dialing in any number (between -20 and +20) has no effect on the produced image. Tripod, full manual, essentially same lighting conditions (shots taken a few seconds apart). Does this mean the AF Fine Tune is not working or does it mean the Tamron lens has defects that need to be fixed? Thank you.

<blockquote> <p>I paid somewhat less in £UK for that lens nearly a year ago. It's a superb lens. I recently did a direct comparison with a Nikon f/2.8 17-55 and Tamron quite convincingly beat it at f/2.8. The Tamron appeared to be about half-a-stop brighter as well.</p> </blockquote> <p>What do you mean by 1/2 a stop brighter? So at the same f-stop, shutter speed, ISO - the two lenses would produce differently exposed images?</p> <blockquote> <p>However the Tamron doesn't really reach 50mm (at 2.5 metres focus) it's more like 45mm and covers a noticeably wider field than the Nikkor when both are set to the 50mm zoom marking.</p> </blockquote> <p>Thank you, that is good to know.</p>

<blockquote> <p>They are in the process, it seems, of closing this lens out at $299. Availability is uneven in the major mail order houses, BH, Adorama etc. This is a very good lens but I believe the Sigma lens is the better buy at $399 most places with image stabilization and according to photozone de it is slightly sharper than the Tamron. Good hunting!</p> </blockquote> <p>I looked at the Sigma first - for $100 more you also get image stabilization, but that lens and the D7100 have a firmware incompatibility - the OS won't shut off for 1 minute. This affects battery life + image preview. Known bug fixed in the 7200 so I am out of luck with my camera body.</p>

<blockquote> <p>I would make sure that Amazon themselves is selling it, and it is Nikon F mount (assuming you are using a Nikon DX body).</p> </blockquote> <p>Thanks Shun, and yeah this is for a 7100. </p>