Tamron SP 24-70MM Di USD Lens for Sony DSLR Cameras AFA007S700 (Model A007S)

I have been looking for a great lens to keep on my camera a majority of the time. I wanted this as my "kit" carry around lens. The jack-of-all-trades (close). My criteria was that it should be a midrange (between 16 and 80 mm or around this range in the mid-level), have weather sealing if possible, acceptable focus speed, and be a fast (2.8 aperture) lens. Above all of course the IQ (Image Quality) had to be great. Image Stabilization would be a big bonus because I love shooting in low light and am not a big strobe fan. IS (VC, VR, whatever) would allow me to shoot a few stops down if needed and stay within a reasonable ISO range without hauling a tripod or monopod where it was either forbidden or inconvenient.Enter the Tamron 24-70mm f/2.8 VC lens. All I can say is I just received it for the past weekend and so far I love it. Currently I tested it around the house, but most importantly I tested it out in the real world at an amusement park in the dark. I think the bokeh is good, the image quality is great, and the focusing is fantastic. I only missed one shot or so trying to focus in the dark with no assist on some smoke! It is very good and it is fast enough for me. I have not noticed the focus being slow at all. The Ultrasonic Silent Drive (USD) focus is good. And quiet. The VC works as advertised and I could take shots down to 1/10 or 1/4 second shutter speed and I shot on ISO 1600 in manual mode. I shoot RAW or RAW and JPEG.In order to test the VC: What I did was in a darker room at night, I switched the camera to manual mode and set it up so that my ISO was usually around 800 - 1600, Aperture is around 2.8 or so wide open, and then I played with the shutter speed usually around 1/8, 1/10 or so. If you depress the shutter half way to obtain focus, and move the camera back and forth ever so slightly while looking through the viewfinder, you should see VC in action. It looks like the image is slow or stuttering and occasionally freezes. This is VC working and grabbing the image. Works great in the real world testing. Sometimes the lens will click or you'll hear funny noises. Not loud or distracting. This is normal.This lens has vignetting, somewhat heavy wide open and across the focal length when wide. It has some distortion. None of this matters to me. Sometimes i actually like the look depending what I want to accomplish. The majority of the time I select lens correction in Lightroom 4.1 and select the lens make Tamron. The lens is recognized automatically at this point and the proper corrections are applied. Piece of cake!This review has no brick wall images. I don't feed my family through a web site. I don't pixel peep and make comparisons with this corner or that corner. Google this lens and look at these reviews if you wish to get technical. I just shoot real world pictures and decide myself if I like some equipment, and make my images available for others to view to help them decide if they might like the same lens by comparing some photos. YMMV. My images are posted for many reasons and I normally edit them from RAW using lightroom so they are modified in varying degrees but nothing that could not be duplicated within a few minutes. A link to my images taken with this lens can be found in the comment section.I was eyeballing the Nikon 24-70. I couldn't justify the price. Even this lens was expensive but this is the best option for my needs. The build quality on this is great. It is heavy but not overly so, like my Nikon 80-200 f/2.8 D. That lens is a metal boat anchor. The 24-70 Nikon doesn't even have 5 stars and it has a few bad reviews itself. I guess you'll get those reviews everywhere - either from a truly bad copy or I believe more so from some folks who don't know what they are doing. The $600 I save between my Tamron and a Nikon I can purchase another lens like the Nikon 85mm 1.8g or almost have enough for the Tokina 16-28 FX wide.I am an advanced amateur. I shoot a Nikon D700 and a Nikon D90. As of this review I have not tested this lens on my D90, and I consider this more of a FX lens for my D700. I am extremely pleased with the decision I made so far. I would not hesitate to take this lens and shoot anything important including weddings (even my own coming up) ;-) . Don't forget to check the comments section for a link to some photos I shot with this lens.-- UPDATE 2/26/2015 --I'm still shooting with this lens, and it is still a favorite. I have taken thousands of pictures and have at least 700 plus online. I am still shooting with a Nikon D700 and I also now own a Nikon D810. Things I tend to notice as I have used it more (on all cameras): the autofocus is slightly slower than say a Nikon. But no where unusable. The lens is a little soft at wide open (2.8) but again not unusable, just a little soft which can be sharpened up easily in Lightroom or Photoshop, etc. Still working great after two years. I just had it to an indoor car show and the photos were stunningly sharp ... more than I even expected ... at f/4 and smaller on my new D810. Fantastic.I love this Tamron and have purchased two more: the Tamron 70-300 with VC (Sharp and stunning for such a "cheap" lens, and the VC again is remarkable. I also purchased the Tamron 150-600 for sports and wildlife. Beautiful. Again, VC pulls it's weight as I was shooting handheld at 600mm and 1/160 and the photos were acceptably sharp. What a fantastic lens. I would currently recommend any modern Tamron lens. I think the 70-200 VC and 15-30 VC are in my future for next year. I'll have the holy quintrinity (15-30, 24-70, 70-300, 70-200, 150-600) in Tamron. I also own Nikon, but I think value per dollar, Tamron and Sigma are big contenders to their big-brand counterparts and in a lot of ways beat them out in cost and sometimes quality.

I'll begin this review by saying that I am a new Nikon convert after shooting with Canons since the film days with an Elan IIe to my most recent 5D Mark I. I had used the Canon 24-70 Mark I since 2003 and loved it. But when I switched to a Nikon D600, I was in total sticker shock to see how much the Nikkor version cost. The only alternatives were either the Sigma or this Tamron. The Sigma won on pricing but the Tamron was newer and had Vibration Control, which I needed for videos. So naturally, this became the only choice.The Tamron 24-70 is a terrific value and it's incredibly sharp. The Nikkor 24-70 cost about $600 more and doesn't have image stabilization. To the Nikkor's benefit, I will say that it is marginally sharper at the long end and it is better built. So for those of us who don't make a living shooting outdoors in adverse conditions, the Tamron is a dream come true.I will note that the review I am writing here is based on a replacement lens. The first one I got had severe front focus. Playing with the AF micro-adjustments didn't really make a whole lot of difference. In fact, I've read that adjustments really work best at the focal distance you make the corrections at. In other words, if you adjust for front focus at 70mm, the lens will be great there but may be off at 24mm. So I returned the first unit and Amazon overnighted me a new one. KUDOS to Amazon for being the best vendor in the world when it comes to returns. I will keep making my purchases here based on my excellent customer service. The 2nd unit was of a later build and nailed the AF on the first try. I tend to shoot with center point AF and recompose as needed. However, the 2nd unit does exhibit some slight zoom ring play. But the lens has excellent AF, is sharp, and doesn't suffer from any decentering issues. So I am keeping this one. I have a 6 year warranty so I am not too concerned about issues down the line.So here's how I would sum up this lens:PROS:1) The only 24-70 f2.8 lens to offer a terrific image stabilizer (good for 2-3 stops at the most...4 is really unrealistic)2) Definitely sharper compared to my Canon 24-70 Mark I throughout the enter zoom length. It's super sharp from 24-35mm. Very good from 35-50mm. And good from 50-70mm3) Fast and silent Ultrasonic AF that is barely slower than the Canon's4) Incredible quiet image stabilizer unit when you half press the shutter release. Canon's tended to be louder. I hear it more on the canon 24-105 and the 70-200 f4.5) Has a 6 year warranty6) Nice neutral color rendition when shooting jpegs7) Creamy bokeh with NO evidence of the "onion" phenomenon noted. .8) Full Time Manual override when autofocusing9) Very good flare resistanceCONS:1) A little soft on the 70mm end (but still better than the Canon Mark I)2) Some QA issues based on the 2 samples I have received (despite being Made in Japan)3) Not environmental sealed so be sure to not get water on it.4) Rear most lens element actually is not sealed so zooming away from 24mm will "suction" in dust eventually. Make sure you ALWAYS remove the lens at 24mm where the rear element is seated most closely to the lens mount.5) 70mm looks slightly less than 70mm. It looks a little like 60 or 65mm. I used to shoot at 70mm on the Canon so I noticed this right away. On the other hand, 24mm looks more like 23 or so which is nice for landscapes.6) Contrast slightly low at wide open aperture. Sharpness and Contrast are amazing at f4 and above till you hit f16 where diffraction comes into play.In conclusion, I have no regrets with my purchase. I saved $600 vs the Nikkor and gained IS. I am a serious hobbyist and money IS indeed a consideration. Tamron priced it a bit high IMHO, but it's worth every penny when you see the end results. At, $999 or even 1099, they can sell many more of these babies. So until Nikon and Canon decided to not gouge the public, the Tamron 24-70 is the ONLY game in town. And it's a very decent option at that.

This is a wonderful lens and by many described as a killer for the Nikon and Canon equivalents, mainly because it provides VR / vibration reduction (or whatever your brand calls it) at half the price. It is a very sharp lens, very sturdy build that survived a 3 ft drop from my desk onto hardwood floor without any damage. I won't bore you with more details, read the many rave reviews. Suffice it to say that this is my favorite lens. If I could afford it, I would, however, buy the Nikon version, simply because I work on tripods for most of my time and don't really need the VR that often, I use it for the occasional model shoot.Two significant drawbacks:(1) the VR never stops working and butchers your images when on a tripod. Conventional wisdom is to turn off VR when on a tripod, but all other VR lenses that I have do not exhibit problems when VR is left on. This lens here creates severe wobble on the images when VR is left on and operated on a tripod. I have butchered a many star trail images, because I forgot to turn it off. Stupid me, you might say, but it is a major nuisance if you switch back and forth between tripod and handheld work. I am very experienced, yet keep running into that problem from time to time.(2) The non-standard 82 mm filter mount. Just about every professional lens now comes with 77mm, including the Nikon equivalent 24-70mm, why was Tamron not able to stick to that, too? Especially annoying if you find out that this lens works just fine with many 77mm filters on a step-down ring, without creating vignetting. I don't want to spend lots of money - and lug around redundant filters - for ND and polarizer solutions. It is easily fixed with a $5 step-down ring, but that was unnecessary. The two reasons are what makes me give it only 4 stars.