[Review]Tamron 17-50mm F2.8 Non-VC

Disclaimer: This is not a professional review and all the findings and opinions below are based on my own experience. For full technical review, pleases visit:

http://www.tamronlensreview.com/tamron1750review

Preface

It has been a year since I bought my Tamron 17-50mm F2.8 Non-VC and it has served me well over the time. I would like to share some personal views on this bang-for-buck lens that has been attached to my camera body more than any other lenses I currently owned.

Specification

First of all, this article is more towards sharing than a technical review. Nevertheless, I will run down some specifications for those who have no clue.

Official Name:

Tamron SP AF17-50mm F/2.8 XR Di-II LD Aspherical (IF)

Features:
SP – Better build quality compared to standard Tamron lens

AF – Auto Focus

Di-II – Specially made for cropped sensor DSLR. Similar to EF-S for CANON, DX for NIKON

LD – Low Dispersion Glass to reduce chromatic aberration

Aspherical  – To minimize aberration and distortion.

IF – Internal Focusing. Front element will not rotate, good for filters mounted on lens.

Technical Specifications
Groups / Elements	13 / 16
Angle of View	78°45′-31°11′
Number of Blade Diaphragm	7
Minimum Aperture	f/32
Minimum Focusing Distance	0.27m
Filter Thread	67mm
Weight	430g
Dimension (Diameter x Length)	ø74.0 x 81.7mm
Macro Magnification Ratio	1:4.5 (at f = 50mm MFD 0.27m)

Do note that there’s another version of Tamron 17-50mm F2.8 in the market, which is the VC version. The VC stands for Vibration Compensation, it has the same meaning as IS for Canon, VR for Nikon or any other nomenclature that other manufactures name for their stabilizing function.

The Selection

There are a few reasons for me to choose the non-VC version instead of the VC version.

First, the ring diameter. The ring diameter of the non-VC version is 67mm while the VS version is slightly bigger at 72mm. I choose the non-VC version is because my Canon EF-S 18-135mm F3.5-5.6 has the same ring size, which enables my filters to be used on both lenses instead of getting a new set of filters.

Second will be the sharpness. It is said that the non-VC version is sharper than the VC version due to the lesser amount of elements that will, or might affect the overall IQ. However, I personally didn’t compare side by side and most of the normal users said it is negligible. Hence I remained neutral on this, while believing that the non-VC should be sharper theoretically.

Third will be the price factor. Even thou the differentiation between the non-VC and VC version is around RM300, it is still part of my budget spending, not an investment as I don’t earn from my photography. Every penny saved, can be used to fund for other accessories.

The first and third reasons are the key factor for me to decide that I will go ahead for a non-VC version and hence I started to hunt for the lens online, hoping to get a great deal. Eventually there was a good deal after a month of hunting and tracking. I was able to get an offer way cheaper than retail price, and cheaper than market price too! Without hesitation I contacted the seller to confirm of stock availability and his shop location to reserve for it.

Even with all the great reviews online, most third party lens manufactures do face a same problem, which is the focusing issue. Front Focusing or Back Focusing, i.e. FF/BF issue is very common for third party lens manufacturers including Tamron and therefore, finding a good lens copy is like finding a gem in a pile of stones.

After saying hi to the shop owner, I request to test the lens and the owner also kindly agrees. Aware of the FF/BF issue, I took extra precaution in choosing a good copy. I took my own sweet time testing the lens, and even brought my own focus chart to test on it. The things that I looked for when testing this lens are focusing, sharpness, build, dust, colour reproduction, and MADE IN JAPAN.

The first copy I tested was a lemon copy, the focusing was off and back-focused. Disappointed with the first copy, I request for a second copy to try. The owner was kind enough to get another copy for me to try and this one turns out to be better. The focus is on, and the image is sharp as well. However, the colour reproduction tends to offset slightly to the green side, producing a green tint on white surfaces. Not sure whether it is the lens problem or the white balance problem or the flickering from the fluorescent lamp installed in the shop, I swapped the previous copy and snap the same spot again and it appears alright. Hence, there must be something wrong with the second copy as well.

Frustrated, I asked whether he has another copy to let me try and the owner said the remaining stock is in the store room where he has to go and collect for me. The third copy he handed over to me is the gem that I’m looking for, focus is on and image sharp, colour is alright and nothing is wrong. After giving it another few shots, I decided to buy the third copy.

I paid a three-digit number to the seller. This price, is way cheaper than retail price, much cheaper than market price, and also cheaper than import set. Even the second hand value for this lens is not as cheap as the price I paid for a new copy.

Yes, it is new because everything looks new and smells new. And yes, you probably guess it right, it is an import set as well, with minimal warranty bear by the shop. After paying for the lens, I asked the seller “Why don’t you sell it at normal import set price?” He said the market is very competitive, and he just brought in a few units and sell very cheap just to share with the photography community. He do sell the original copies if I want the warranties from local distributors, but a good copy is what I need. As I know lenses seldom fail if it’s able to go thru the first few months of shooting.

Real Life Experience

I brought it out for a test run at night at a fun fair to see how it performed compared to my other lenses. First thing you will notice is the noise from the focusing motor, which is a very high pitch motor noise, similar to those cheap electric motors that you used in your school experiments. I’m aware of this before I purchase and has no issues with it as long as it gives me outstanding image quality. At the end of the day, I’m producing photos, not videos anyway. The little pitchy noise annoys me a bit at the beginning, but started to get used to it after some time. It gives me the indication that the lens is focusing. Try avoid using it in quiet indoors if you do not want strangers to look at you like as if you’re a robot with camera.

Second thing you will notice that the colour produced is different from my standard Canon lenses. Usually I will shoot in Portrait Picture Style when using Canon lenses, with Tamron, I find that using Standard Picture Style gives the best colours. As soon as I changed the Picture Style, the advantage of this Tamron lens starts to shine. The colours are saturated even without CPL, the pop out colours made the scene at the fun fair appear to be more colourful.

All the good thing about this Tamron 17-50mm lens starts to show up one by one. The constant aperture along the focal lengths gives me advantage when using Av mode where I do not need to worry about the shutter changes and the DOF changes. The big aperture gives advantage to shoot in dimmer lighting areas where the kit lens will suffer two-stops at the tele-end of the lens.

All the constraints that I faced with my previous kit lens were eliminated instantly and it is a whole new experience to shoot with a better glass. The image is so sharp even at wide open that I don’t even bother to use my kitlens anymore. The soft images that my kit lens produce always turns me off from taking photo as I thought it was my problem with the soft images. Dropping down the f-number will result in slower shutter speeds, which I have problem handling in low light places. Besides, dropping down the aperture will increase the DOF and my whole photo will become messy with all the backgrounds interfering with my subject. Using a prime can create the bokeh effect but the fixed focal length constraints me when I need a wider angle to fit in the scene. All these problems were overcome by using this lens. This indeed is one of my best purchase and definitely worth the price paid.

Another thing I liked about this lens is its short MFC (Minimum Focus Distance). Standard Canon lenses have MFD of 45cm or above, giving me problem when I want to snap something close up such as flower and food. The Tamron gives an outstanding 27cm MFD, which is not as close as macro lenses but much better than my kit lens. The short MFD advantage enables me to shoot close up objects without going too far away from it and eliminates the need of cropping the image for better framing in post processing.

Closer MFD also means that I can snap the object with a shorter focus distance, hence creating narrower DOF. At 50mm, F2.8, 27cm, the DOF is narrower than 50mm, F1.8, 45cm. It also creates a larger magnification than my kit lens. The close MFD always comes in handy whether you are aware of it or not. Before I bought this lens, I always need to use my 50mm F1.8 prime lens for food shots because the aperture on my kit lens are not able to give me desirable shutter speed under dim conditions in restaurants. The 45cm MFD always caused me to lean backwards in order to let the camera to focus on my subject, and by going backwards, my framing is off, more background will come in to the picture and distracting my subject. I really appreciate the short MFD that my Tamron provide, hence that is one of the reasons why it is attached on my camera body more than my other lenses.

There is also a lock to prevent zoom creep which my Canon 18-135mm suffers the most. Whenever I hang my camera around my shoulder, the lens will slowly extrude as I walk and eventually it will reach the 135mm mark, which is known as zoom creep. The Tamron’s zoom ring is stiff enough to prevent zoom creep but better stlll with a zoom lock provided to further secure the zoom position when not in use.

This Tamron has been following me everywhere ever since, up the hill, down the beach, weddings, company/family events, camps, parties, under the rain and it never failed to amaze me with its performance. The only complain I have for it will be the focus noise and focus speed, but for a still shooter like me, focus speed is not really a concern as it is fast enough for my casual use and I seldom shoot fast action subjects. Landscape and food is my favourite genre of photography and there are sample pictures taken by this Tamron in my blog.

After a year of abuse, my Tamron still goes strong. I did not attach any filters on it except when I need to use CPL, ND or GND filters and most of the time I left it naked without any filters. Some people asked me why I did not attach any filter, aren’t you afraid of scratches? To answer that, I’m not willing to sacrifice the optical quality that the Tamron provide with cheap filters, good filters cost a lot and I don’t have the budget for one. 

What I can do is I will try my best to protect the lens and will use the lens hood as a shield instead for extreme shootings. It has been a year since and my lens is well kept and taken care. No scratches on the lens element, except for some dust in the lens, which do not affect the image quality anyway. However, I do notice that my zoom ring is a bit loose now due to my abuse during a photoshoot for a charity camp. Nevertheless, it doesn’t affect the performance of the lens and I’m still able to use it as usual, just need to be extra careful with it.

I have seen professional photographers who don’t even bother to use the lens cap and simply keep their lenses in their box or bags uncovered, and yet the photos they took are amazing. This gave me an impression where over specifying and blind following will only constraint one’s photography sense. I often see many new photographers, or should I rephrase, people with expensive cameras, are always on an upgrade route because they felt that their photos are lacking in quality because of the equipment constraints, and also because they have the money to burn. They often over pampered their equipment as if it is a very delicate item, and when their photos came out not as good as expected, they will start to doubt on the equipment, not their skills.

Hence they will try their best to upgrade their equipment, follow blindly on guides and reference without any understanding of it. Everyone has a different eye, and photography is for one to discover, not to follow blindly on what other people produced. For once I was also one of them who taught that I need uber sharp lens and better camera body with all the expensive gears and accessories. However, this little Tamron taught me that simple and cheap lens like this can do a lot better, with the one behind the camera knows how to appreciate things that he sees through the viewfinder. I have stopped my upgrade route ever since and start learning on how to maximize the potential with the current gears I owned.

Wrap Up

Well, after all have been said, it is clearly shown that how much I like my Tamron. Even thou there are competitor models such as Sigma 18-50mm, Canon 17-55mm, Nikon 17-55mm etc etc, but none of those are able to beat the price vs performance ratio of this Tamron 17-50mm F2.8. For beginners who wish to have a good walkabout lens that is light, solid, fast and sharp, this Tamron lens will not be wrong, as long as you don’t get a lemon copy. The downside will be the focus sound and focus speed but if you live with it, then I will definitely recommend this for starters to venture into the world of photography.

Advantages

Sharp from center to corner

Fast (f2.8)

Constant Aperture

Light (430g)

Short MFD (27cm)

Min. Aperture (F32)

Cheap

Low Distortion

Minimum CA

Saturate colours

Solid Build, metal mount

Cheaper filters (67mm ring diameter)

Nice bokeh with 7 blades

Disadvantages

Noisy focusing motor

Average focus speed

No weather sealing

Sample Pictures