Lens Comparisons

skieur

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A lot of photographers have discovered after buying their first DSLR that Sigma, Tamron, and the particular camera maker as in Nikon, Canon, Sony etc. are producing similar focal length lenses such as the 70mm to 300mm zoom.

To complicate the lens issue further Panasonic is apparently making Leica lenses in Japan for their Lumix cameras and apparently it is common for lens makers to make lenses to spec. for a different brand as well as their own.

So, if you were to choose for example a 70mm to 300mm lens would it be a Sigma, a Tamron or your own camera brand, or pehaps the brand does not really mean much. If that is the case, how do you determine which is the best potential buy?

skieur
 
I would have to say i'd stick to my camera brand if I was gonna be buying pro quality glass and need the build quality, however, if i'm looking at like say nikons lower end lenses id just save some money and go with the tamron or sigma because the build quality difference is going to be negligable.
 
Brand is not important, final results are. There are times when the OEM lens is superior to the aftermarket, but this is not always true. Go for what gives better results over brand name alone. Brand names are NO guarantee of consistantly superior performance over everything else in the market.
 
For me personally, I stick with Canon's L series of lenses. If you have a Canon Camera and you use one of these L series lenses, you will strive to not purchase anything else. For high end lenses, stick with your manufacturers lens. For cheaper stuff I think it's ok to stray from the manufacturer lens. Also remember, I've seen people get amazing shots with just the kit lens...so lens isn't as important as creative eye, composition, exposure, etc. That's not to say that the expensive lenses arn't worth it though.
 
I heard sometime ago that Tamron made Nikon's consumer lenses. Don't know if that is true, or sill true. I did hear this from my local dealer who is tight with the regional Nikon Rep. I confess to being a Nikon snob. Of the locker full of glass I've collected over the decades, it's 99+% Nikkor. I have a couple of series 1 Vivitar zooms that were the sharpest lenses of there day. (1970's) and a couple Sigma lenses that came on cameras I bought to add to a collection. Both of my Sigma lenses are real dogs. I tend to always stay with Nikkor glass, either pro-sumer grade or professional lenses. Just personal preference.
 
For me personally, I stick with Canon's L series of lenses. If you have a Canon Camera and you use one of these L series lenses, you will strive to not purchase anything else. For high end lenses, stick with your manufacturers lens. For cheaper stuff I think it's ok to stray from the manufacturer lens.

But you know that some people put quite some effort into attaching non-Canon lenses to their 1Ds m3 and their 5D? Sometimes they even have to modify the camera to allow certain non-Canon lenses. Thinking of some Zeiss wide angle lenses here for example.

Some Canon L glass is really good, but it is not always the best you can get.
 
I completely agree with you Alex, but for the average photographer, they probably don't feel comfortable modifying their 2k+ investment just to get a lens to work on it. For the die-hards this is practiced a lot...and I would agree that Canon does not make the best lens...I would say that the Canon L series is the best lens for the Canon camera without modification though.
 
i know some people who use bellows on their 5D, with some rather cheap old manual lenses... superb image quality for macro photography though.


I always try a compromise between image quality and what i can afford. in most cases, this lead to Canon-L glass, true.
 
Or you go to www.photozone.de and look at the tests they perform on the lenses and weigh up the potential benefits of reduced CA and vignetting, and increased sharpness and build quality of various lenses vs cost.

I heard sometime ago that Tamron made Nikon's consumer lenses.

Not sure on that one but it does hold some weight. It seems Nikon's consumer lenses are the only things that have Made In China written on them. Bodies and all pro lenses are written as Made In Japan, so I do see that this has been potentially outsourced. However that's the manufacture only. The design would still be Nikon's and this would determine the performance more than anything.
 
I'll concur with what most have already said, it depends on the lens. I started many years ago with 3rd party lenses and cheap Nikons but I have migrated to decent Nikkors: 70-200 2.8, 17-55 2.8, 35-70 2.8, 85 1.4, 35 1.4, 50 1.8. However, I still use a Tamron 135mm f2.5 close focus manual lens that I have had for years. It's brick solid and renders gorgeous portraits.

Pat
 
Well to answer your question skieur in the 70-300mm I would get the Nikor with VR ofcourse. But then I do have my Tamron 28-300mm that I use almost all the time. I consider it a disposable. My Nikors on the other hand are not .
 

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