Tamron 28–75mm sharpness issue

[lennon33x]

So I just purchased a Tamron 28–75 mm F/2.8 lens from another photographer. In the images he sent me, all images seemed really sharp. However I did a sharpness test and I'm finding that along areas of high contrast at 50 mm, they aren't near as sharp as my 50 mm macro lens. Now, am I just being super nitpicky or does this lens really have sharpness issues? Also I heard that some other photographers have done microadjustments and have improved sharpness. For those of you who have experience with this lens, is this an option? I have the non-VC version

This is with the Canon 50mm macro at 2.8

This is the Tamron

I shot a different apertures and keep getting the same soft look versus sharpness.


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[Derrel]

At a close distance like that, I would expect the Canon compact macro, a known wonderful lens, to kick butt on most zooms. And so it does. It's highly doubtful that the zoom would ever be able to pull off a closeup shot as well as the Canon macro lens will.

How does the Canon fare at say at 15 feet at 28mm? Is the Canon better at say 5 to 20 feet at 75mm? Does the Canon pull ahead at 35mm in the 3 to 15 foot range? What do you think of the Canon's performance at say the 30 to 40mm range at Infinity? See where this is going? You are comparing a purpose-built, prime lens with a generalist wide-to-short telephoto zoom lens. You have furthermore compared the generalist, wide-to-telephoto zoom lens at probably its absolute WEAKEST focusing range, against the Canon macro lens at its absolute STRONGEST distance range...

Additionally, you appear to have ever so slightly misplaced the minimal DOF plane in the zoom lens shot, so the bottom photo is, mostly out of focus...at least on the most prominent parts of the lens. The lens barrel is actually quite a deep DOF subject at such a high magnification, so the actual focus zone missed the word "lens, and is somewhere around the curving part of the barrel.

But yeah....in the macro range, the Canon 50mm macro lens betters the 28-75mm zoom lens by about what I would expect. NO, the zoom is not as good as the macro lens in macro range.

 

[enerlevel]

I had this lens on a 5d MkIII. Mine had a weirs problem .. for example if I took a pic at 28mm and then zoom it to 50mm, the first image would turn out extremely soft. However if I took 3-4 pic at 50mm, the 3rd or 4th would be sharp. Hence zooming it back to 28mm, the first pic would again be a soft image followed by a sharp image ...