Promaster 60-300mm F4-5.6 Zoom Macro.

[Eriksen]

I bought this lens on Ebay and found that the macro doesn´t work as in other lenses. The nearest I can come an object with this lens is about 2 meters, and the image is not 1:4.

Any other here with the same experience?

[Himself]

No experience with that one but I had a Tamron 60-300. The usual Tamron green/magenta fringe. I sold it. It had that macro gimmick. I couldn't get to call it a macro. 1x4 is not even a close up in my book.

[luisalegria]

On the Promaster,
I suspect there is a macro mode on that somewhere. If not then 1:4 is what you get.
Promaster was a very low cost brand.
Marketing.

As for the Tamron 60-300 23A, well, we all have opinions I guess. I find it a very useful, practical walkabout lens. It has a macro mode at 60mm, and that way it focuses down to 1 foot from the film plane, a marked 1:1.55 , which isn't 1:1 but nothing to sneeze at; it also does 1:2 at 300mm, at which it focuses down to 6 feet, which is rather hard to use, but if you need an extreme closeup of something through a shop window or behind a velvet rope, its possible.
Its not a macro lens really, but in a casual case it can do a very good job of pretending to be one.
I have had excellent success with this as a general purpose walkabout zoom, with performance at 300mm as good as or better most old primes at f/5.6. You can be shooting the Blue Angels airshow one moment and some bumblebee the next, both reasonably well.
Combine with the Tamron 13A 24-48 and you have a very capable 2-lens kit for nearly any case. Well, maybe you will need your 50/1.4 also, for romantic portraits of beautiful women in dark cafes.

[Eriksen]

The Tamron 23A has a real macro, but it is a different lens. It goes from f:3.8-5.4. The Promaster, Soligor and Tokina (which are the same lens but rebranded) are f:4--5.6.