| In 2007, Tamron released the SP AF 28-75 mm 2.8 XR Di LD Aspherical (IF) Macro or Tamron 28-75 mm. The lens has a strikingly long type of name of which the most letter combinations speak for themselves. The lens is designed for full frame and the angle is from moderate wide angle to moderate telephoto. If you put this Tamron on a crop camera however, the angle is from nearly standard to telephoto. To be precise, at a Canon body of 45 to 120 mm focal distance equivalent. That seems to be awkward, but if you subsequently combine this with a wide angle zoom of about 12-24 mm, you have a wide range with only two lenses. Because of the range on the telephoto side, the Tamron 28-75 mm can be used well as portrait lens. | |
 @28 mm |
 @75 mm |
Construction and autofocus |
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| The house is made of plastic and the lens fitting is of metal. The zoom ring is without play but does not have the same resistance throughout the entire range. The filter does not rotate along during focusing but the focal stroke is very short. Setting manually is therefore not easy. The lens does not even have image stabilization.
The drive of the autofocus makes, in exaggerated terms, the sound of a classic coffee-grinder. Yet, the Canon 600D focuses very quickly with this lens. From 15 meters to 1.5 meters only takes 0.15 seconds. In low light, it sometimes hunts. |
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Vignetting |
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| The vignetting measured in stops is of little significance at all diaphragms and focal lengths. Quite an achievement, because of the fairly large maximum aperture. |  |
Distortion |
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| The distortion, expressed as a percentage, is kept well within bounds at all focal lengths. Correction with appropriate software will seldom be necessary. |  |
Bokeh |
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The pictures are made at 54 mm with a Canon 40D. In the zoom range of this Tamron are focal lengths that are used at making portraits. A nice bokeh is important then. The blurred parts looks pretty well, similar to the Canon 17-55 mm 2.8 and much nicer than with the Tamron 17-50 mm 2.8. |
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 @f/2.8
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 @f/2.8
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Flare |
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| In backlit situations, thepictures are made at 50 mm, you see both some flare as well as ghosting. The ghosting can be seen on the picture between the leaves and the glare creates a soft image. |  |
Resolution |
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The resolution, expressed in lines/sensor height, reaches remarkably high values compared to others lenses in this class. That applies not only to the center, but also to the corners which is not surprising when you use a lens which has been designed for a full frame camera on an APS-C camera like the Canon 650D. Click at the graph to see all Imatest results. |
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Chromatic aberration |
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Tamron has kept the chromatic aberration at a very acceptable level so that finishing will rarely be necessary. Click at the graph to see all Imatest results. |
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Conclusion Tamron SP AF 28-75 mm 2.8 XR Di review
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See our overview of tested lenses or our overview of tested lenses with a Canon mount to compare the performances of this lens with other lenses.
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 WYSIWYG score: This table shows the performance of this lens when you store the files in the camera as jpg, with all available in-camera lens corrections applied. This score gives you for this lens/test camera combination: “What you see is what you get”. |
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Advantages
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Disadvantages
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The Tamron 28-75 mm is a pretty fast lens and is designed for full frame cameras. If you use a camera with an image sensor of the APS-C format, you will have immediately largely lost lens errors such as vignetting and distortion. Besides, the difference between resolution in the center and the corners is sharply reduced. This lens performs better in terms of resolution, distortion and vignetting than all EF-S zoom lenses of Canon including the 17-55 mm. For the sake of completeness, the latter only is just a bit sharper in the center at full aperture than the Tamron tested here. Disadvantages of the Tamron 28-75 mm 2.8 is the absence of image stabilization and the somewhat limited zoom range on the wide-angle side. The recommended retail price of the Tamron 28-75 mm is remarkably favorable for the offered quality. {insertgrid ID = 600} |
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