Tamron 24mm f/2.5

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9096 Location: Houston, Texas

I ran across this lens on eBay

Click here to see on Ebay

And came here and did a search on it. Found this topic:

http://forum.mflenses.com/tamron-24mm-f2-5-01b-t5716,highlight,tamron+24mm.html

So, I figured that if I could pick it up for cheap, it might be worthwhile. As it turns out, I was the only one who bid on it. Chalk it up to an eBay newbie's mistake -- he had mislisted the lens (under lens hoods).

I don't have much use for it. I own a Nikon 24mm f/2.8, and a Vivitar 24-48 S1 for Canon FD, so I have this focal length covered for the two film systems I used the most.

But! I tell myself that it's faster than the Vivitar zoom, and probably sharper, so maybe I oughta hang onto it . . . for a while.

After it arrives, I'll do a direct comparison between it and the Nikkor with my Canon XS, and then we'll see just where the truth lies.

kuuan · Expire: 2014-12-26

great buy for this price!
very likely you know, here the info on this lens on the Adaptall site:
http://www.adaptall-2.com/lenses/01B.html

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9096 Location: Houston, Texas

Yes, I've read this page before. In fact, I've spent quite a bit of time going through the info at the adaptall-2 site. It's a great resource for Tamron aficionados.

At any rate, I'm looking forward to its arrival. I'm really curious how it performs vs. my 24mm f/2.8 Nikkor.

Russ · Joined: 26 Feb 2007 Posts: 432

Don't sell that Vivitar S-1 24-48 short. It's very good. The new Tamron looks nice too. I have a Panagor (Kiron) 24mm f/2.5 that I have yet to try out. Maybe this weekend...

Kiron Kid

martinsmith99 · Expire: 2013-11-18

That's a nice bargain!

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9096 Location: Houston, Texas

Yup. I was expecting some last-minute activity, but it never materialized. I placed my bid with 12 seconds to go, and I was the only bidder. I'm really glad the eBay newbie placed his auction in the "Lens Hoods" category. Cool

Because people do dumb stuff like this, I almost always conduct my searches from eBay's home page. You just never can tell where folks will put things. As another example, just a couple days ago, I won an auction for a very clean Canon FTbn that was list listed under "Vintage Movie and Photography". Only a few bids, and those guys were bottom feeders. I won it for $17 and change. The seller guarantees everything works, also. But hey, even if it's broken, it's worth a lot more than $17 just for its parts.

Russ · Joined: 26 Feb 2007 Posts: 432

F16SUNSHINE · Expire: 2011-11-18

Nice Grab Mike

I think you will find you have a lens worth quite a bit more than you just paid for it.
These Tamron Primes are usually pretty competent performers. My problem with them has always been getting a decent adaptal mount.
They all seem to be sort fiddly. Of course I'm usually doing C/Y so the very worst of the adaptall II mounts.

Best Luck
~A

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9096 Location: Houston, Texas

Nelson · Posted: Fri Nov 06, 2009 5:23 pm Post subject:

Hi

Congrats for your buying, nice price Smile

Actually i am selling mine for ~65euros.

I am waiting for your tests, i am curious Wink

Russ · Joined: 26 Feb 2007 Posts: 432

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9096 Location: Houston, Texas

The lens arrived today. As it turns out, it is a model 01BB, which according to the adaptall-2 website, is a cosmetic update of the 01B -- same optical formula.

It was purchased new in 1996, and looks to have been used seldom. Almost mint condition, perfect glass, silky smooth focus, crisp click stops on the aperture ring. It has a nice heft to it, about the same as my Nikkor 24/2.8.

I was out of town all day today, and didn't get back in until late, so I've played around with it some, but that's about it. A more serious and in-depth look will have to wait until tomorrow.

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9096 Location: Houston, Texas

Okay, I had a chance do a quick test of the Tamron and compare it to my Nikkor 24mm. First, the details:

The camera is a Canon XS (1000D) 1.6x crop body, which means that my tests will not be indicating much when it comes to edge or corner sharpness. I would need a full-frame camera for that.

I mounted the XS to a tripod, and had the timer set to 10 seconds. I set the camera's ISO to 100 (its lowest setting). I used Live View at 10x magnification for focusing accuracy and also to pre-raise the mirror. For all exposures, I focused on precisely the same subject (an oak tree), which was located approximately 50 meters from where I was standing. I chose a subject such that there would be image detail in the foreground, middle distance, and far distance. This would give me an indication of depth of field at various aperture settings.

The first three photos were taken at f/2.5, f/8, and f/16.

Tamron 24mm @ f/2.5

Tamron 24mm @ f/8

Tamron 24mm @ f/16

Reducing the images to 900x600 and then converting to jpg doesn't help much with evaluation because the fine details are not visible at all. But even at this level of detail, one can see that there is a bit of ghosting, I guess you call it, present at f/2.5. Despite the overcast conditions, contrast is good.

Next, I have three images that are 100% crops, assembled from the above three images and three identical images taken with the Nikkor 24mm f/2.8. This particular Nikkor is an AIs, S/N 716xxx. You might find the results surprising.

In this image, the Tamron's ghosting is evident (check out the white car in the background), and the Nikkor's contrast is somewhat better, but both lenses appear to be equally sharp.

By f/8, ghosting is gone in the Tamron, sharpness and contrast are excellent with both lenses. In the jpegs, sharpness again appears to be about the same, but in the original RAW files, the Tamron is actually a bit sharper than the Nikkor.

By f/16, it is quite clear that the Tamron is sharper than the Nikkor. I didn't expect this. Not by much, I'll grant that. But it is clearly evident.

I did not test for distortions. Next time. In addition to being at least on par with the Nikkor in terms of both sharpness and contrast, the Tamron focuses slightly closer as well. The Nikkor's scale goes just a fraction of a turn past 1'/0.3m, whereas the Tamron's goes to a fraction of a turn past 10"/0.25m.

Nice lens. Guess I'll keep it. Cool

LucisPictor · Expire: 2013-12-03

Great price for a beautiful lens.

Excalibur · Expire: 2014-04-21

Interesting results, if the Tamron is better than a Nikkor then maybe a sigma super wide 24mm f2.8 can equal the Nikkor

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9096 Location: Houston, Texas

Excalibur · Expire: 2014-04-21

Well I have the sigma 24mm superwide and am happy with it, but do not have another 24mm lens to compare..so for me it's a case of "what I don't know, I don't miss".

Russ · Joined: 26 Feb 2007 Posts: 432

looks alright. You satisfied with it? I took a few frames today with my Panagor (Kiron) 24mm f/2.5 today. I'll post the results as soon as I have them souped & scanned.

Russ

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9096 Location: Houston, Texas

Hey Russ,

At this point, I'm more than satisfied with the Tamron. Really the only point where I might find fault with it is the bit of flare -- or ghosting, or whatever it's called -- it exhibits wide open.

Besides, because it's a Tamron, I can use it with my Canon F-1, which I find to be most appealing. Recently I purchased a Vivitar S1 24-48mm f/3.8 for the F-1, but it's nice also having a fast prime.

I look forward to seeing some pics taken with your Kiron.

Excalibur, hey if you're happy with it, then that's what counts most -- at least that's the way I've always looked at things like this.

spiralcity · Joined: 02 Oct 2008 Posts: 1207 Location: Chicago, U.S.A

The Tamron 24mm is a very nice lens. It's the only 24mm I pack in my bag.

ande · Joined: 27 Feb 2013 Posts: 3

Hi, i was looking around a charity shop today and i spotted an old canon film camera with a Tamron adaptall 2 lense so i bought it, when i got home i looked in the tamron lense case and i realised i had also bought a canon 50mm 1:8 lense all for the princely sum of £8
They are both fd mount however and my canon 650d is as you know an ef mount, is it worth hanging onto the lenses or just the tamron? as i have been advised the canon wouldnt work well once the distance of an adaptor ring was added.

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9096 Location: Houston, Texas

Hello Ande, welcome to the forum. It would have been best for you to start a separate thread, but no matter. In order for the people here at the forum to help you, we'll need some more information.

Using an FD-EOS adapter can work well under the right circumstances, but in other situations, the adapter doesn't work so well. It depends a lot on the specific lens you're trying to use with it. Those adapters that have removable elements, though, make good macro extension tubes, so you are able to use FD/FL glass as macro lenses, and I've have very good results doing this.

Just to satisfy everyone's curiosity, why don't you tell us what specific Canon model you picked up, and also which Tamron lens you found?

ande · Joined: 27 Feb 2013 Posts: 3

sorry, the reason i commented on this thread is because it is the same lense as this thread refers to, the 24mm 2.5, it was on a canon t70

FotoPete · Joined: 20 Nov 2012 Posts: 126

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9096 Location: Houston, Texas

This is an old thread that Ande revived, but yes, I was quite surprised by how well my Tamron 24mm f/2.5 performs. Makes me wonder why Tamron didn't designate it as an SP lens. Sure performs like one.

Ande, for £8, you got a great deal. The Canon T70 can be picked up nowadays for cheap at places like eBay, for like $40 or $50, often less. But it is still a good, solid picture taker with some very useful features. The Tamron 24mm is often undervalued, in my opinion. The one I own -- well, I gave some details earlier in this thread, but I paid $40 for it. It had received no bids so I picked it up for the opening bid amount, and that was because the seller mis-listed it under "lens hoods". So nobody who might have been interested in it even saw it. Just looking on US eBay right now, the prices are all over the place, ranging from a buy-it-now of $86 to a b-i-n of $200. Go figure. And you can add another $15 or $20 for the Adaptall 2 mount. So, as you can see, you did really well.

So go load some film in that puppy and get out there and enjoy.