Classic Tamron 300mm f5.6 adaptall/adaptamatic shootout

[marcusBMG]

Since I happen to have all three of the tamron 300mm f5.6's I have decided to do a bit of a shootout.
These are the three lenses: adaptamatic ; Adaptall CT300; Adaptall-2 SP 54B. The adaptamatic is pretty distinctive, early adaptalls can always be distinguished from adaptall-2's/SP's by the rubber grip: faux croc vs lined or dimpled.





[table][tr][th]lens[/td][th]optics[/th][th]CFD[/th][th]filter[/th][th]Iris[/th][th]weight[/th][th]length[/th][/tr]
[tr][td]Adaptamatic[/td][td]4 elements/2 groups[/td][td]2.5m[/td][td]62mm[/td][td]9 blades "star"[/td][[td]795g[/td][td]20cm[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Adaptall CT300[/td][td]4 elements/4 groups[/td][td]2.5m[/td][td]58mm[/td][td]6 blades[/td][[td]580g[/td][td]16cm[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Adaptall-2 SP 54B[/td][td]6 elements/5 groups[/td][td]1.4m[/td][td]58mm[/td][td]6 blades[/td][[td]610g[/td][td]17cm[/td][/tr][/table]

There are 3 slight variants of the adaptamatic, mine is a later one with a rubber grip, the earliest ones have a milled focus ring. There is also an adaptall version of this lens - the very first adaptalls were modelled straight from the adaptamatics, but were then superceded by new models like the CT300.

Test one: sparrows.

Range: 6-9m approx. Camera: Samsung NX20, 20MPx, 400 or 800ASA. Superfine jpg's, only pp levels/exposure/WB tweaked or equalised as necessary in LR3, otherwise out of the camera. I took a score or so shots with each lens, wide open and 3 clicks stopped down (f9), and selected the best for comparison. Click on the thumbnails to go to the full sized images.

Adaptamatic


CT300


54B



Would you like to offer a running verdict/score?

Next test: church clock tower.

[RAART]

Just yesterday for some reason after 1 1/2 year I took a Tamron adapt-a-matic for few shots out... I think that I was at f8 and fully post-processed... My experience deviate from what I see here.



Click on picture to get to bigger size on Flickr!

[Pancolart]

[marcusBMG]