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Tamron 70-350mm F4.5 Review
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 10:53 am    Post subject: Tamron 70-350mm F4.5 Review Reply with quote
Earlier this week i borrowed a Tamron 70-350mm F4.5 lens from a friend of mine who is in the Leica Photographic Society , he is a Leica distributor with a camera shop in Melbourne. I am in the same club and i spend quite a bit of time in his shop which is not good for the bank balance or the marriage. The lens is very heavy just over 2kg , it is also difficult to focus, those things aside i think it is a very good lens. It has not been used for 24yrs and is in mint condition I had to spend 2hrs with a hairdryer to loosen the focusing ring. I would be interested in your opinion of attached photos.



PostPosted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 11:04 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
The pictures look really good. Nice colours. Which camera did you use? What aperture?

Which version of the lens do you have. I have the older CZ-735.

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&u=http://www.tamron.co.jp/data/old-lens/cz735.htm

It is an impressive looking lens, but I found it gave rather to much colour fringing on my Olympus E3.

Mark


PostPosted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 11:13 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Colors can be more vivid on sky at least , sharpness, details looks not good. Do you have closer subjects shoots taken with this lens buildings, animals etc? Published pictures hard subjects for most lenses in my opinion. Can you show picture from lens itself ?


PostPosted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 12:49 pm    Post subject: Tamron 70-350mm F4.5 Review Reply with quote
Mark the lens is Model 05A , here is a picture. I will take some photos of a building tomorrow and a bird if i can get a leave pass. The camera used is Nikon D700, the only exif information available from the camera is the aperture which was F11 iso 200. Whilst the camera does not record the focal length, i know it was 350mm as my main purpose was to check the lens at its longest.


PostPosted: Fri Apr 22, 2011 9:59 pm    Post subject: Re: Tamron 70-350mm F4.5 Review Reply with quote
bendle wrote:
Mark the lens is Model 05A , here is a picture....


Thanks for posting the picture. Actually, your lens is the earlier CZ-735, just like mine. I shall have to give mine another try, but its not always easy to use f11 in the UK!! Sad

Mark


PostPosted: Fri Apr 22, 2011 10:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Looks more than usable to me but it'll always be relative until we have other 300mm models to compare it with.


PostPosted: Sat Apr 23, 2011 12:23 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
F8 click on to get higher resolution


PostPosted: Sat Apr 23, 2011 4:48 am    Post subject: Tamron 70-350mm Reply with quote
Attila
Thank you for uploading my Rose , i will try again to upload a photo.


PostPosted: Wed Apr 27, 2011 4:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
I've put my Tamron CZ-735 70-300mm f4.5 zoom lens through its paces. Everything was done with my Olympus E3, live-view focused, tripod mounted, remote release and 5s lock-up. Target distance was set at 26x FL for all tests.

First, results at 350mm focal length. Refer to pictures below.

F4.5: Finest lines are resolved, but the overall result is soft and diffuse due to low contrast, haze, and the large amount of colour artifacts.
F5.6: Only small improvement
F6.3: Large reduction in the diffuse halo. Contrast still quite low, still somewhat soft. Colour fringing quite low.
F8: Contrast improved, looks sharper, but purple fringing more obvious.
f9.5: Improved sharpness - now good, but purple fringes still clear but not too bad
F11: Very similar to f9.5

Summary: Performance poor wide open and f5.6. Improves a lot at f6.3. Contrast and sharpness ok at f8 and below, but colour artifacts quite noticeable. Performance should be quite good at f8.



















Last edited by SXR_Mark on Wed Apr 27, 2011 4:21 pm; edited 3 times in total


PostPosted: Wed Apr 27, 2011 4:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Now results at 300mm. As before, all pictures taken with Olympus E3.

F4.5: significantly less diffuse and much better contrast than at 350mm. The finest lines are easily resolved. Colour fringing now has a strong purple tint.
f5.6: Slight improvement in contrast, otherwise as f4.5
f6.3: Little different to f4.5.
f8 & f9.5: Again, not much change
f11: Slight softening due to diffraction

Summary: Resolution good at all apertures. Contrast best at f5.6 and below. Consistent strong purple fringing at all apertures (very slight improvement on stopping down). Performance should be good at f8.













PostPosted: Wed Apr 27, 2011 4:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Now, results at 250mm

F4.5: Resolution and contrast are good, but very strong purple fringing
F5.6: Purple fringing reduced significantly but still strong. Contrast slightly improved.
F6.3: Slight reduction in purple fringing
F8: Another slight reduction in purple fringing, which is now not too bad.
f9.5 & F11: Further reductions in purple fringing. Looks clean at f11

Summary: Contrast and resolution good at all apertures, though contrast still better one stop down. Heavy fringing improves slowly on stopping down. Performance should be very good at f8.













PostPosted: Wed Apr 27, 2011 4:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Finally, results at 200mm. (I've not tested below this level)

Similar trend as seen at 250mm. Resolution and contrast very good by f8 and the fringing, whilst still there, is not particularly noticeable. Performance should be very good at f8.













PostPosted: Wed Apr 27, 2011 4:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Some random pictures taken at 350mm and f8. These were taken with my E3 on a monopod, using an AF confirm chip to give focus. Thus focus may not be perfect. Nevertheless, I think you can see that the lens is not bad but not great. The contrast is a little low, but that would be easy to fix. The fringing is there but is not too obvious unless you look at 100%. The lens could be sharper, but it is not particularly soft.



CROP




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CROP


PostPosted: Wed Apr 27, 2011 5:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Mark, many many thanks for posting images with this little seen lens.

The CA is to be expected with Tamron zooms I'm afraid. SP lenses usually lose the CA once stopped down a bit.


PostPosted: Wed Apr 27, 2011 5:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
ManualFocus-G wrote:
Mark, many many thanks for posting images with this little seen lens.

The CA is to be expected with Tamron zooms I'm afraid. SP lenses usually lose the CA once stopped down a bit.


+1 thank you for lot of works!


PostPosted: Wed Apr 27, 2011 10:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Thanks guys!

It's my pleasure to help keep MFlenses the best resource on the web for using old lenses, but it's nice to know the work is appreciated. Very Happy

Mark


PostPosted: Thu Apr 28, 2011 5:22 am    Post subject: Tamron 70-350mm .F 4.5 review Reply with quote
Mark,
Thank you for doing all of the correct testing, i agree with what you have concluded. All of my photography with the lens was on a solid tripod and in some case i shot with the mirror up. I have found shooting with the mirror up gives more resolution, also better when using a timer. I am still
making up my mind whether or not to buy this lens, one of its biggest problems is its weight. I want to get a lens that is at least 300mm without spending too much money. Once again thanks for going to so much trouble testing.


PostPosted: Thu Apr 28, 2011 4:38 pm    Post subject: Re: Tamron 70-350mm .F 4.5 review Reply with quote
bendle wrote:
Mark,
Thank you for doing all of the correct testing..


I'm happy to oblige.

One thing I should mention with regard to the level of colour fringing is that it may not be the same on different DSLRs. Whilst the lens my suffer from high chromatic aberration in itself, there is another source of CA on digital cameras. The digital sensors have an array of micro-lenses over them to concentrate the light into the photo-sites of the sensor. These micro-lenses can (and generally do) suffer from CA that leads to the colour fringing. Thus the overall level of colour fringing seen in the image will be a combination of that produced by the main lens and that produced by the micro-lenses.

One of the design features of the Olympus 4/3 system was that the 4/3 lenses should be "telecentric" on the image side. This helps to reduce the CA produced by the sensor micro-lenses. In general 4/3 cameras with 4/3 lenses produce very low levels of colour fringing. But I suppose it is plausible that 4/3 cameras may be WORSE with regard to colour fringing when using older lenses because the system is not engineered to work with such lenses.

Therefore, I would encourage you to make your own judgement with regard the colour fringing using your camera. You may find the results are not as bad as I found. A test subject with black and white edges in strong sunlight is the best way of testing this.

Mark


PostPosted: Thu Apr 28, 2011 4:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Mark

In my experience, all longer Tamron zooms and some of the primes suffer from purple fringing on APS-C and full frame sensors (from both Canon and Sony). Not sure about film, so I should take my trusty Praktica BX20 out for a run sometime soon Smile


PostPosted: Fri Apr 29, 2011 8:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
ManualFocus-G wrote:
Mark

In my experience, all longer Tamron zooms and some of the primes suffer from purple fringing on APS-C and full frame sensors ....


Graham,

Apart from this 75-350mm and the mirror lenses, the only long Tamron lenses I have are the 54B SP 300mm f5.6 and the 23A SP 60-300. I would certainly agree that both suffer from fringing (at 300mm in the case of the zoom). In fact, I stopped using the 54B because of that and switched to a Zuiko OM 300mm f4.5.

Taken with Tamron 54B. Needed contrast boost in PP as the lens also suffers from generally low contrast.


Nice purple border to all high contrast edges. No good for motor sports IMHO.


I've not used the 23A zoom other than for testing; whilst at 300mm it has less fringing than the 54B, it is not as sharp.

I seem to remember you posted a very interesting test demonstrating the differences in fringing levels of various lenses including the two Tamrons I mentioned. This prompted me to get a copy of the 23A zoom to try. I'll have to post my test results.

With my Olympus E3, I find that ALL long lenses give some colour fringing, especially wide open. The Zuiko is not free from this defect, but it is much better than the 54B and stopped down (to f8 or f11, which is where I like to use it for motor sports) I do not have a problem with it. It also has better contrast (but still requires some boost in PP) and is very sharp.

I've tried cheapo 300mm lenses from Optomax and Promura and they were pretty bad. In this light, the Tamrons are still good.

Mark


PostPosted: Thu Oct 27, 2011 10:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Sell your soft zooms and the 54b and look out for a 60b (300mm f2.8 LD IF) instead...Thanks to LD glass, its razor sharp at f2.8, and virtually no noticable CA. Wink
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