Tamron 58A 70-210 f/4-5.6

[luisalegria]

Another thing I found recently in the bargain bin at Adolph Gasser (181 Second Street San Francisco), with its original hood, amazingly -



Tamron 58A



Extended to 210mm

The Tamron 58A is reputed to be the cheapest lens Tamron ever sold; It came out in the late 1980's I think, and may also have been one of the last Adaptall lenses. Its not only cheap: for what it is its also extremely compact, perhaps the most compact zoom of its specifications. It came out when there as something of a fashion for compact zooms. Tokina was selling a great number of its very compact Tokina SD 70-210 f/4-5.6 line, and I suppose this was Tamrons answer.



L-R Tamron 58A, Tokina SD, Tamron 103A (for size comparison)

This lens hasn't got much love on the Internet, but it is very easy to find and is a good source of desirable Adaptall mounts, if you find the right one. Still, every dog must have its day, so its worth a try.

The advantages of this thing are easy to see - its not much bigger than a standard prime, its way shorter than any normal 200mm zoom, and its extremely light. Its as light and compact as many of the latest modern all-plastic AF xx-200 zooms, and really should be compared with that breed. If you need a 200mm zoom for your jacket pocket or hiking, this is very attractive. In all other respects it is a well made Tamron Adaptamatic, and quite pleasant to use. It doesn't creep, it seems sturdy enough, in spite of, doubtless, many plastic components, and all aspects of its operation indicate quality.

Performance is, on the whole, quite good, with one glaring problem. It is just fine up close and to a reasonable distance. If you want to shoot anything from bugs to flowers to people, it is sharp, high contrast, and if you are going to be out and about in daylight (remember, max aperture on this thing is only f/5.6) it should do extremely well. The real problem comes with distance. This thing is from inadequate to terrible at infinity, or close to it, at 210mm. Its quite disconcerting and the problem comes on suddenly. Its doing fine at a couple hundred meters, and then its garbage.
See samples below -

Most at f/5.6 at 210mm















Near-infinity -



crop -



The bird -



crop -

[cooltouch]

Well, it's clearly an amateur-oriented optic, and certain compromises were made for the sake of lightness and compactness, but I'd say that, given your photos as examples, its performance at infinity is certainly adequate. It actually did quite well in your other shots.

I've never gone in for the compact tele zooms -- I've just never been willing to give up that much light gathering ability just for the sake of compactness. I remember when this Tamron first came out and I wasn't a fan of it back then. And yes, as I recall, it had a relatively small price tag.

Far as that goes, I wasn't much of a fan of the Tokina SD 70-210 compact, either. Although I wound up with one as part of an outfit some months back. It is most likely eBay bound. Haven't decided yet. The Tokina is a nice looking lens -- well-built with a decent amount of heft. But, to be honest, I haven't tried it out yet. Mostly because mine is in Pentax K mount and I don't have a PK adapter yet for my NEX. Given that it has "SD" as its moniker, I'm thinking it might actually be a decent performer, and if it is, I just might keep it. I have a few film Pentaxes that it might work well enough with and I have only a few native PK-mount lenses so far. Got lots of Tamrons, though, so it's no big deal.

[buerokratiehasser]

In 21th century need of 200mm zoom, I just grab Samsung WB. :)

Just kidding. With infinity there is always the question of adapter to blame.

For compact telezoom there is always the Sigma/Relabel UC 70-210/4-5.6, which is plagued by low contrast and incredibly lousy gears/mechanical stability.

There are also push/pull zooms that can be pretty compact when pulled in.

But my favorite for compactness and quality would be the "Small Pipe" 75-200/4.5.