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70-200 shoot out test (Tamron, Nikon, Vivitar Series 1)
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 06, 2014 4:51 pm    Post subject: 70-200 shoot out test (Tamron, Nikon, Vivitar Series 1) Reply with quote
This is my third test of lenses and probably the hardest of them to decide on.

Given a choice I'd keep them all, but I am not likely to use them all. I pitted 5 manual lenses against my AF one to see how far have modern zooms improved on previous zooms.


#1 Nikon 75-150 f3.5 Series E


#2 Nikon 80-200mm f4.5 aIS


#3 Tamron 80-210 f2.8 Adaptell-2


#4 Tamron SP 60-300mm f3.8-5.4 Adaptell-2


#5 Vivitar Series 1 70-210 f2.8-4


Finally, the non-manual lens

#6 Tamron 70-200mm f2.8 AF IF Macro


I can't decide on what to keep here. Each of them has a unique flavor and vibe, but I know some has to go. Thoughts?


PostPosted: Mon Jan 06, 2014 5:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Sell the lenses, but keep the pretty model! Smile You could keep one of the Tammies, the 60-300 being my choice.


PostPosted: Mon Jan 06, 2014 5:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Katastrofo wrote:
Sell the lenses, but keep the pretty model! Smile You could keep one of the Tammies, the 60-300 being my choice.


Rolling Eyes

I cannot agree more!!
(even regarding to the suggested lens) Razz


PostPosted: Mon Jan 06, 2014 5:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Notice one picture of the girl is a touch duller than the rest .... no surprise over which lens it was.
Tamron's 60-300mm (23A) is very good at close focus but (imo) handles quite poorly -- at least, on the Sony A57 it never balances well, and usually seems to need a higher shutter speed than any other lens for sharpness at the same aperture and focal length. Bit disappointing, overall. Other than the lack of close focus (and 50mm at the long end, though maybe that disadvantage is cancelled by the better handling) Tamron's 75-250mm (104A) is a much more likeable lens.


PostPosted: Mon Jan 06, 2014 5:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
edited

Last edited by bernhardas on Mon Apr 11, 2016 7:30 am; edited 2 times in total


PostPosted: Mon Jan 06, 2014 7:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
The focus is on the eyes for all of them isn't it?!


PostPosted: Mon Jan 06, 2014 10:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
bernhardas wrote:
Keep the AF Tamron that's the only one where the focus is right where it should be


I usually love your recommendations and agree with them 100%, but I don't get this here. If there were a problem with focus, wouldn't that be a user error, being that it is a manual lens? I know that with every picture I zoomed at 1:1 and made sure the eyes came out as sharp as the lens would allow.


PostPosted: Mon Jan 06, 2014 10:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
norland wrote:
Notice one picture of the girl is a touch duller than the rest .... no surprise over which lens it was.
Tamron's 60-300mm (23A) is very good at close focus but (imo) handles quite poorly -- at least, on the Sony A57 it never balances well, and usually seems to need a higher shutter speed than any other lens for sharpness at the same aperture and focal length. Bit disappointing, overall. Other than the lack of close focus (and 50mm at the long end, though maybe that disadvantage is cancelled by the better handling) Tamron's 75-250mm (104A) is a much more likeable lens.


The 60-300 drove me nuts! It took the longest to get any useable picture out of that one. I noticed testing all those manual lenses that the one thing people don't talk about as much as they should is how easy/hard to manually focus a lens on your dslr. They all handle differently. The Series E lens I tested was a breeze. The 60-300mm I might as well been blind. Sadly, I don't own the Tamron 75-250mm.


PostPosted: Mon Jan 06, 2014 10:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Katastrofo wrote:
Sell the lenses, but keep the pretty model! Smile You could keep one of the Tammies, the 60-300 being my choice.


Yeah I am keeping the model. She loves to be in front of the camera. She is my sister in law. She lives with me. On account of all 3, she is available 24/7 for shoots. She is single, which doesn't do anything for me, but it might for another photog *wink*


PostPosted: Tue Jan 07, 2014 12:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
I don't understand why you guys have such problems with the 60-300. For years it was my favorite long-tele walking around lens. Whether shooting film then or digital now, it's never given me a problem.

One of the things I did early on in my photographic training was I got rid of viewfinder focusing aids. Whenever it was possible I would put plain matte or ground glass screens in my cameras. This forced me to concentrate on the image instead of the focusing aid. It didn't take all that long to get used to a plain matte screen, and I came to prefer it. As AF came to prominence, since AF cameras don't have focusing aids, I've always felt pretty much at home focusing with them as well.

The Tamron SP 60-300mm f/3.8-5.4 (heck, call it an f/4-5.6, cuz that's really what it is) is a slowish lens. I found that, whenever I used it with a camera that had a focusing aid I couldn't get rid of, like a Canon FTb for example, the focusing aid distracted me, especially when zoomed out to 300mm, or f/5.6, which was often. But when I ignored the focusing aid, the lens performed as good as it always did.

I agree that, because it is a long lens with no tripod collar, it can be a bit awkward to handle, but I was always able to adapt. I found that if I was shooting with a motor-driven film camera, or these days using a DSLR with a battery extension accessory, the balance was much better. Close focusing is a rather distant 1.9 meters or 6.5 feet, but you can always engage the macro mode, which will bring you mere inches away from your subject. And the macro mode is actually quite good -- at least at the center it is.

Some of you probably have seen this shot before but it bears repeating. This is one of my favorite shots using my Tamron 60-300 from back in my film-only days. Location is the now-gone Riverside International Raceway, outside the town of Riverside, California. It was a grand old track and is much missed. Its replacement, the Auto Club Speedway, is a weak alternative for road racing, much better suited for NASCAR races -- turning left for 500 miles [...zzzz...]. Subject is a Porsche-powered March 83G. Gear used was a Canon F-1 with the SP 60-300. Estimated exposure was 1/125 @ f/16. Film was 1986-era Fujichrome 100.



A question and a comment to maldaye. You show the #3 zoom as a Tamron 80-210 f/2.8 Adaptall-2. Are you sure of this? Tamron made an 80-200mm f/2.8 LD, but never an 80-210 f/2.8 that I'm aware of. Tamron made two 80-210mm f/3.8-4 lenses.

As for your choice of lenses for this comparison, it is a good one. You've picked a set of lenses that most people would recognize as being excellent choices. Trying to evaluate them based on model shots is difficult, however. She hasn't stayed entirely still, and when she changed positions, the light fell on her face differently, so I wasn't able to focus in on a fine point for focusing all the way through. It's for reasons like this that when I do a lens comparison I always choose a subject that has fine detail which won't change as I change apertures and lenses. Doing so isn't nearly as entertaining a choice of subjects as yours, however. Having said all that, though, I find your Tamron SP 80-200/2.8 Adaptall-2 to be the closest to the Tamrom 80-200/28 AF. Although they all do an admirable job. As for which MF lens I'd choose, obviously it would be the SP 80-200/2.8 LD Adaptall model.


PostPosted: Tue Jan 07, 2014 12:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Find a six-sided coin and flip it.


PostPosted: Tue Jan 07, 2014 12:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
cooltouch wrote:
I don't understand why you guys have such problems with the 60-300. For years it was my favorite long-tele walking around lens. Whether shooting film then or digital now, it's never given me a problem.

One of the things I did early on in my photographic training was I got rid of viewfinder focusing aids. Whenever it was possible I would put plain matte or ground glass screens in my cameras. This forced me to concentrate on the image instead of the focusing aid. It didn't take all that long to get used to a plain matte screen, and I came to prefer it. As AF came to prominence, since AF cameras don't have focusing aids, I've always felt pretty much at home focusing with them as well.

The Tamron SP 60-300mm f/3.8-5.4 (heck, call it an f/4-5.6, cuz that's really what it is) is a slowish lens. I found that, whenever I used it with a camera that had a focusing aid I couldn't get rid of, like a Canon FTb for example, the focusing aid distracted me, especially when zoomed out to 300mm, or f/5.6, which was often. But when I ignored the focusing aid, the lens performed as good as it always did.

I agree that, because it is a long lens with no tripod collar, it can be a bit awkward to handle, but I was always able to adapt. I found that if I was shooting with a motor-driven film camera, or these days using a DSLR with a battery extension accessory, the balance was much better. Close focusing is a rather distant 1.9 meters or 6.5 feet, but you can always engage the macro mode, which will bring you mere inches away from your subject. And the macro mode is actually quite good -- at least at the center it is.

Some of you probably have seen this shot before but it bears repeating. This is one of my favorite shots using my Tamron 60-300 from back in my film-only days. Location is the now-gone Riverside International Raceway, outside the town of Riverside, California. It was a grand old track and is much missed. Its replacement, the Auto Club Speedway, is a weak alternative for road racing, much better suited for NASCAR races -- turning left for 500 miles [...zzzz...]. Subject is a Porsche-powered March 83G. Gear used was a Canon F-1 with the SP 60-300. Estimated exposure was 1/125 @ f/16. Film was 1986-era Fujichrome 100.



A question and a comment to maldaye. You show the #3 zoom as a Tamron 80-210 f/2.8 Adaptall-2. Are you sure of this? Tamron made an 80-200mm f/2.8 LD, but never an 80-210 f/2.8 that I'm aware of. Tamron made two 80-210mm f/3.8-4 lenses.

As for your choice of lenses for this comparison, it is a good one. You've picked a set of lenses that most people would recognize as being excellent choices. Trying to evaluate them based on model shots is difficult, however. She hasn't stayed entirely still, and when she changed positions, the light fell on her face differently, so I wasn't able to focus in on a fine point for focusing all the way through. It's for reasons like this that when I do a lens comparison I always choose a subject that has fine detail which won't change as I change apertures and lenses. Doing so isn't nearly as entertaining a choice of subjects as yours, however. Having said all that, though, I find your Tamron SP 80-200/2.8 Adaptall-2 to be the closest to the Tamrom 80-200/28 AF. Although they all do an admirable job. As for which MF lens I'd choose, obviously it would be the SP 80-200/2.8 LD Adaptall model.


It is a copy and paste typo due to being in a rush to eat dinner. If you hover over the pictures it would say 80-210 f/3.8. The problem with the focus of the 60-300 is that to my eyes in the viewfinder I can't tell when it is 100% in focus and when I am shooting in dark studio environment things get much worse. I rely on my nikon d800 * to appear to let me know I got focus, but I find that doesn't always pan out as it should. Plus, I don't even think it shows at all when the 60-300 is stopped down. It is easier outdoors.

Don't get me wrong. I love old lenses and I like each of these lenses. I also have a space for them currently, so I am not in a real rush. The reason I am trying to pick and select is that a) I am in a foreign country and at any time I might find myself on a plane, so logging about 40-60 lenses on a flgiht is just not practical and shipping out of here is NOT an option I'd trust, b) too many lenses of the same focal range means some will just not get used at all, and c) I am a bit tight on cash and thinking if I sold them I can reinvest this money in studio lighting and better backgrounds.

I realize that having a stationary subject is best, but since most of my photography is in studio environent, I figured i should test it where I'd use it most - pretty women.

I tried doing an outdoor shoot today, but the Sun kept on moving and I couldn't tell any major difference in the plants pictures.

I use my AF lens in most shoots, because it is easy and I don't have to struggle with focus. On a practical level, I'd probably just stick with this for now and not worry about testing and sell the rest. However, I LIKE my MF lenses and I'd like to know that there is a place for at least ONE of them in my regular work.
I like the Vivitar Series 1 because of its history and reputation. I feel like I am missing a tooth if I don't have one, but it isn't my favorite performer, which surprises me concerning its reputation.
I have mixed feeling about the Nikon f4.5. I have no attachment to it. It does well, but not great.
I really like the way the Series E handles and I enjoy taking pictures with it. It is a pleasure in my hand, but so far it hasn't produced a quality as good as my AF. I am thinking it just lack of experience with it and not the fault of the lens.
The other two tamrons I bought as part of a large set and because I wanted adaptell-2 lenses to test and try. I can't say I am invested in them, but I do like the performance of the 60-300 even if it is a pain in my ass to handle.

I am turning 40 this year (shriek in horror) and I feel like an old foogy who is attached to oldies even though newer and better is available on the market.

I heard of SP 80-200/2.8 LD Adaptall model just today. Is it AS GOOD as some say it is? I mean would you trade all your MF lenses of the 70-200 for THAT one and just use IT? Of course, good luck finding one Wink I don't think they come for sale often on ebay.
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