Tamron AF 70300mm f/4.05.6 Di LD Macro Zoom

Camera Lens
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This lens was delivered very quickly in packaging that protected it very well. I gave it to my son-in-law as a Christmas gift, and he was thrilled with it. A superior product from a very fine businesss. Thank you!

Very Good Macro Lens
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
For the money this lens does exactly what I wanted. It gives me a great telephoto reach (becomes a 450mm with my *istDL) plus the added bonus of a macro. For the money this is a very good lens.

not bad for the money
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
Had read some good things in dpreview (and at least one other digital camera forum) about this lens. It gives my K100D a nice “reach” (up to about 450mm equivalent focal length) and adds a decent macro magnification above 180 mm (270 mm equivalent)… however, it’s affordable for a reason: not very sharp at any focal length, adds some color cast to images, has a rotating front lens element and requires some manipulation to get it into and out of macro shooting. Haven’t noticed much of a CA problem yet and the contrast is generally good. I’ve taken a few nice bird photos and people (unposed portraits) shots with this lens; but ususally needs some post-processing (Photoshop Elements) to sharpen up and remove color cast. [But that's true of most of my digital photography, regardless of lens used.] On balance, not a bad compromise for shooters on a budget. I’d like to save up for the Sigma 50-500mm (aka “Bigma”) lens. Happy shooting!

Not bad for the Money!
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I bought the lens in a kit deal when I bought my Pentax K10D as I knew it would be a while before I could afford better glass and at least this way I had something to shoot with. For the price the lens isn’t really too bad. The worst thing I can say about it is that at 300mm I get some pretty bad higher contrast purple fringing but there are many shots not affected by it so I can live with it. This will be the main reason I don’t give it 5 stars.

I will try to add a few photos to the picture gallery to show what I have done with it so far as well as at least one to show the purple fringe situation.

Overall if you cannot afford a better $500 – $1000 lens at this time I would recommend this one based on the fact that the pictures really are not all that bad and it beats the 18-55mm kit lens for reach any day.

A good value
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
For the money, this is a very good lens. I took some really good images with this lens. Eventually, I did upgrade to the Pentax 55-300 but that’s not disparaging this lens. It is a very nice entry level supper telelphoto zoom. Living in the Seattle area, I needed a weather resistant lens to go with my weather resistant camera.

Lot’s of zoom, but make sure you have the room
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I bought this lens to go with my Tamron DI 17-35mm lens, and have been impressed by both so far. I was contemplating a 50-200mm lens that had a shorter barrel, but opted for this one instead. It’s got 50% more reach to get some great shots. Plus, it has a true macro function, where-as other lenses in this range only mimic macro.

solid for the price
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
My review mirrors much of what has been said so far: the lens is solid for the pricepoint. It’s not spectacular and in low light situations you will need a solid grasp of how to use ISO, aperture, shutter speed and EV compensation in order to end up with the picture you intended. It does have issues with autofocus in low light and sometimes in macro mode but these can be overcome quickly if you just switch to manual focus.

If you are like me and you need a lens that goes beyond the lame zoom of a kit lens and you are a little strapped for cash after dropping the money on a decent camera body, this lens will work just fine.

Do start saving your pennies for another high quality lens though, although I would recommend that if you have this in your arsenal the next lens you should look for is a short range, wide aperture portrait lens. This one will perform well enough for your zoom shots that you’ll probably want to wait before replacing it.

Great value
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
When my older 75-300 Tamron was dropped, I stressed over what to buy as a replacement.. the same, or this new Tamron with its dedicated macro mode and being ‘built for’ digital SLRs. The 1:2 macro is what won me over, and I must say I am very happy with the purchase! I have a Pentax K100D and find this lens to be a solid improvement over its 75-300 older sibling. I find it to have less ‘purple fringing’ (actually, I have yet to find ANY) and produce sharper images at full tele. The macro mode is great – though I cannot tell if it is better than the ‘implied’ macro from th 75-300. For its weight and price, I find this to be a terrific lens.

Great lense!
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
This is a fantastic lense for the price. Arrived promptly and in perfect shape. It produces crisp clear images across the entire zoom range and the macro function is wonderful. Mine is mounted on a Pentax K100d Super and it’s performance has been excellent over the past year. Auto focus is a bit slow, but the resulting image quality more than makes up for it. I am very happy with this lens!

Good value in this updated design.
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
The new Di lenses from Tamron are designed to work well with digital cameras, although those with the Di will work for 35mm as well (Di-II only work with smaller, APS-C chip size digital cameras). This is an improvement on the fine 70-300 LD (Low Dispersion glass) design. The major improvements in this lens are in the coatings, to help reduce any color bias, and minimize reflections. Additionally, lens manufacturers are doing more inside the barrels to reduce reflections.

Like the older LD design, the new lens has a close-up mode (not strictly “macro”) position that allows images 1/2 lifesize on the negative. That’s about twice the size of most 300mm zooms lacking this feature.

Compared to the current Pentax lineup, this is a real winner. The Tamron includes a lens hood, and has a much longer warranty (6 years vs. 1). The Pentax design is also older, and may not meet the critical demands of the new digital chips.

Great glass, better than expected!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I purcased this lense after reading several reviews, and after using it I’am very suprised at the sharpness and range.

At the extreme telephoto range you do get the dreaded purple fringeing, but can be cleaned up quite well in Photoshop. This lense for me has, and continue to work excellent.Tamron AF70-300mm F/4-5.6 Di LD Macro Lens with hood for Pentax DSLRCameras

Great zoom for the price
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Having used this lens for a weekend covering some portraits and a football game I can confidently say that this is a real good deal especially for the Pentax K mount.

The lens is fairly big and heavy compared to my FA 50 and DA 18-55. The front element does rotate. The build quality is very good and it feels real strong. The macro mode confused me initially and I tried to switch back to normal while the focus was in macro mode so it rightly refused(look for the golden indicators on both zoom and focus indicators) Only gripe is that it should have been mentioned more clearly in the manual.

As for the pictures, they came out sharp enough for my purpose. The range is great and even though the pics are a tad soft wide open at 300mm they are quite usable unless you plan to develop some large prints. The main issue with this lens is Purple Fringing. On one of my pics it seemed like the refree was wearing a purple cap over his white! Apart from this and some slight PF on most of my 300mm shots the lens performed pretty good during that game. My K110 didn’t have anti-shake and the auto-focus is not the fastest but I would imagine that the K10 would handle it even better.

Definitely a great lens to buy for the money. As long as you don’t use it above 200mm you won’t notice the PF (which can be removed in PP). Options are the Sigma 70-300 and Pentax DA 50-200 though both have their own drawbacks. For me this will do for the time being. Anything better in terms of speed, quality and length will come at a huge premium. If there was less PF this lens would definitely get 5 stars.

Great for the money.
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I bought this lens as an add-on purchase when doing some shopping. I didn’t have anything in this range which wasn’t manual and decided I couldn’t go far wrong for under $150. Well, I was right. One thing I was surprised about was the metal mount. I thought for sure it would be plastic.

The lens is responsive, light, and has a decent feel to it. The focus ring can be inadvertently twisted while not in MF while putting the hood on for storage, but if your careful it shouldn’t happen. I tested this guy out just the other day on a sunny day and was pleased with the results. If you don’t have a similar piece of glass already in your bag, and don’t want to shell out on pro glass, this is the lens for you. And you can’t go far wrong with a 6 year guarantee!

Good budget telephoto
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
This works very well with my Pentax K200D. As they say, it’s nothing fancy; a little clunky and the action sounds like a coffee grinder! But for the money I’m pleased and macro mode is absolutely fantastic. High contrast can bring purple fringing, but at this price I can get over it.

for the money, you can’t beat it
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
just got mine about a month ago and i’m very pleased. the lens is very sharp, even at full zoom. i didn’t think so at first, then i realized that i just have to learn to hold a camera steady. (much better on the tripod)

good tool
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I purchased this lens a week prior to my vacation to San Diego. I have a Pentax K10D. Prior to this purchase I was using my old 70-210 from my K1000 film camera. With the older lens, I was finding it difficult to accurately focus the manual focus lens with the digital camera.

The Tamron lens was an excellent value. I got excellent results even at low light situations. The only issue I had was that, while taking pictures from the tram at SD wild animal park, the auto focus was focusing on bushes as we passed by. One of my pictures came out with a perfectly focused image of a tree branch with a blurred image of an animal behind. The rest of the pictures were acceptable once I figured out the system.

Great Value!!!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
For what you pay you get a great value. This lens was purchased to replace my Pentax 100-300mm which broke. This lens is far superior. I am using this lens as a stop-gap/learning tool until I can both afford and justify getting something more high end.

This lens does like a lot of light and will cast a shadow using the built in flash, especially with the lens hood attached. The macro function works well. I have coupled it with close-up filters and gotten good results.

I would have only given this a 3 star compared to some of the other lenses I use but when you factor in the price, it goes to 5. You will be pleased with this piece of glass as long you remember that it is not pro-grade. Nor was it intended to be.

easy to use
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I bought this to use with my Pentax K20D dslr camera. I needed to get closer to some images in the yard and for future use. I love it I sat on the porch and took pictures of the gold finches eating about 15 to 20 feet away. The pictures turned out perfect,it was like I was right next to them. I have had a manual slr camera in the past and used a 500mm lens, the lens bulky and heavy this lens is lightweight and easy to use.I would recommend this lens to anyone one who likes to get close-up and personal to their subjects.

Super lens super service
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
The lens arrived quicker than expected. I used it same day for macro work on flowers and decorative grasses. Then used it for working an U14 soccer game. Great great great.

Good for the price
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
This is a good lens, great value for the money. The zooming is not as smooth as my old lens for the Nikon film camera…

good
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Actually I had no chance to use the len since it arrived at the last day of scheduled period, which was the first day of my vacation. More or less, it’s a pity. But I believe it’s a good len.

Tamron AF 70-300 f/4-5.6 Di LD Macro
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I just Love the Macro function of this lens. Built is also good. A little soft on 300mm, you’ll definitely need a tripod. But worth it’s price.

Quality lens at a great price
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I bought this to accompany my Pentax K 100D digital camera. While driving throught Kentucky and Ohio, my wife used it to take litterally hundreds of photos of distant trees, barns, horses… I’ve enjoyed the macro mode as well as the ability to frame sharp images at a distance.

The one minor quible is that the infinte focal length setting seems to actually be a little loose – I usually have to back it off a hair when manually focussing. It comes with a hood not shown in the product image which is great for low angle lighting.

The overall quality of the lens combined with the price makes this a terrific purchase for amature and hobbyist photographers looking for some fun with a longer angle lens.

Very good value!
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Don’t have too much to say for this other than it works real well for what I want it to. I have found myself needing to turn off auto focus for distant shots and just leaving the focal control at infinity.

I would suggest for most amature photographers, a mid-range telephoto would be a better choice. I find myself swapping between this lens and my 18-55 mm too often.

But for the naturist who won’t be doing much up close, this lens will be a great addition to your SLR setup – and the price won’t break you at all!

Lottsalens for the price
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I think the majority of reviewers have captured the qualities of this product. It’s not a professional piece of equipment, but damn close to it considering the incredibly low price. A great lens to learn with and have fun with while also providing the opportunity for some intriguing and very good photos.

Very Surprised
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Tamron AF70-300mm F/4-5.6 Di LD Macro Lens with hood for Pentax DSLR Cameras. This is an excellent lens, extremly sharp focus, wonderful macro

lightweight, very easy to change lens, and works well with my Pentax 100D.

You get what you pay for
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
At less than $150 you can’t do better…

I purchased this lens with my Pentax k10d because I wanted a zoom range to rival my old bridge camera, but I couldn’t afford the money it would take to get a better quality package.

That being said, I was remarkably surprised by the images I was able to obtain from this camera once I had a feel for its limitations. This is a lens that will give you sharp photos in the range of 70-220 (maybe 250mm). When I say sharp, I mean acceptable. This won’t surpass the best prime lens or even the higher quality 70-200mm zooms that are out there, but at its price point, you should be happy. Beyond 250mm, and the sharpness of the images goes down. Again, I’m not sure that is horrible given the price point, but if you are buying this for the long end of the range, you might want to look elsewhere.

When the lens is sharp, you are really have the best of its class, and that isn’t bad. I found the package to be nicely sized, so hand holding shots wasn’t too difficult, and the weight was easy enough to walk around with this lens and not lose any comfort.

The lens features a nice “macro” feature which gives this lens a bit better of a close focus ability on the long end, but the sharpness limitations are still there if you get too long. I also found this “macro” feature a bit of a challenge in getting back out of it as there is a switch on the lens between the two modes.

The color rendition from the lens is pretty good. It stands up well to other Tamron and Pentax lenses in this regard. The speed of this lens is not great but not bad either. You won’t be using this lens indoors at its speed but then the zoom makes that difficult anyway. Unfortunately, its limited speed does make autofocus with the lens difficult and slow. I don’t think it is horrible, but I’ve had issues with it hunting at times, although that might be more of a camera than a lens issue.

Ultimately, I found that the trick is to use this lens, limiting yourself to focal lengths less than 250mm and keeping the lens as stopped down as practical for added sharpness. It is a good lens to start your dSLR kit with for zoom capabilities, and it is a great lens for the value. Unfortunately, it is one that you will probably outgrow in the future, but I am impressed enough that I will definitely look to Tamron again in the future (as I already did buying their 17-50 zoom).

Awesome Lens!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Lens works great, the Macro Funtion is awesome for getting those artistic shots from far away.

Value and Quality all in one
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
The lens is a full frame lens. On a DSLR body like the Pentax K2000 it behaves like a 105mm-450mm lens with no issues with vigneting. Because only the center of the lens is used in modern Pentax cameras you also get the best sharpness the lens can give you.

At 70mm (105mm equivalent) the lens is reasonably sharp at full open f/4 aperture. At f/5.6 it gets good sharpness.

At 180mm (270mm equivalent) the lens is usably sharp at full open aperture. At f/8.0 it gets good sharpness.

At 300mm (450mm equivalent) the lens is soft at full open aperture. At f/8.0 it gets average sharpness but gets a little better at f/11.

General Contrast: Average at most times but I never feel it is lacking. Just not impressive like some prime lenses.

Lens Distortion: Hardly any lens distortion to talk about.

Chromatic aberrations can sometimes be seen beyond 200mm (easily corrected in Photoshop)

Focus Speed: Average to slow focus speed. Not good to track fast moving objects or small flying insects. Not saying it is bad but you can react faster than the lens can keep up on a K2000.

Macro: Begins at 180mm (270mm equivalent)and at f/8 you can get some really nice pictures. The minumum focal range of 3 feet makes macro hand held shoots harder. Not a problem with a tripod. The magnification is good even if it is not a true macro lens.

Mechanical Quality: A little stiff to zoom in, manual focus ring is OK. Feels a little cheap at times from all the plastic. Metal mount and decent hood. Large as to be expected from a full frame lens but not heavy.

Price: You get a lot of lens for your money.

Use: This lens does better outdoors with lots is light. The long focal range at the short end (70mm, 105mm effective) makes it impractical for small spaces (unless in Macro mode and even then you need 3 feet to focus). On the other hand if you get enough light portraits pictures at 70mm (105mm effective) at f/5.6 – f/8.0 can come out nice. With enough light and f/11 even 300mm (450mm) is totally usable for large prints after a little Photoshop.

Conclusion: Maybe the best of the low end tele zoom lens for Pentax. By far the best value of the group.

Good Value…Great lens
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
The tamron di works very well with my Pentax K10D without the big bucks. Yes, it is soft on full 300 zoom so thanks to other’s advice here in the reviews I upped the aperture to F11 and with a little digital sharpening you get an excellent photo. The colors are good.

In the 70-200mm usage the colors and images are very sharp and rewarding.

The macro shots are excellent and you won’t be disappointed. Read other reviews for lens usage.

Very good lens.

zoom lens for Pentax camera
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I have a SLR Pentax camera and was looking for a 300m zoom lens for my camera which is a film camera. I checked with Pentax and this lens does fit a film and digital camera. The Macro lens is a bonus because I don’t have to change lens for close up and distance pictures anymore. It fits my camera perfectly, the zoom is great, delivery was quick, and the price at Amazon was the best. Tamron AF 70-300mm f/4.0-5.6 Di LD Macro Zoom Lens for Canon Digital SLR Cameras regards, Clare

Solid Value.
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
The price point for this lens is right on the money. There are better lenses but they are far more expensive. At the margins, this lens shows its rough edges. But in the middle ranges where I do most of my shooting, it really shines. High points: Very light, reasonably compact, sharp pic’s with good contrast. Low points: Feels a little “fisher-price-ish” due to materials which make it light; Contrast very high at max zoom. Macro fucntion button is a little wonky.

Overall, I would recommend this lens to anyone starting out, especially a young photography student. It won’t bust the bank.

GREAT value!
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
For the money it is a very good lens. As far as I’m concerned you can’t beat it for the price. I have used it quite a bit, and am amazed at the quality verses the price you pay. The “macro” mode is surprisingly good. And I do not notice the “softness” at 300mm most people talk about. I use it at baseball games, and my photos at 300mm are plenty good for me.I would love to have a 70-200 f2.8, but alas, it is out of my price range for now. So, in the meantime, this lens will serve me quite well.