Tamron AF18-250mm F/3.5-6.3 Di-II LD Aspherical (IF) Macro (whew!)

Tamron set out to design a compact power zoom that would not skimp on quality or range and for the most part have succeeded in delivering both. There’s no question that a 13.9x tele is a remarkable feat, albeit at the price of an f/6.3 maximum aperture at the tele end. Were this a lens for a film camera this max aperture might eliminate it from consideration, but with digital it can be compensated for by simply raising ISO to a reasonably high speed. Necessarily, you need to make sure shutter speed is such that you will not create camera shake when working racked out; I generally work with Shutter Priority at the longer focal lengths and strive to shoot at 1/500 sec when possible. However, I did shoot a few night scenes with the lens and properly braced it did just fine. Shake, as you know, is mostly operator failure and only somewhat camera failure, although having a fairly narrow max aperture makes you aware of it more than if you had a faster lens.

Via Shutterbug

Posted by Staff on 30 May 2007

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