Zoom lens length ranges.

[malkav41]

Howdy all,
I have been wondering which is better, a 28-80 or a 35-80 lens.

The reason I'm asking is I have a Tamron 28-80 on my A2, and tonight I banged the hell out of the end of it on the wooden frame of my bed. Now the lens will not stay extended at 80mm, and the focus is all wonky. So now I'm trying to decide which range length to go with. Also is there that big a difference in the lengths, other than the obvious one?

 

[Easy_Target]

Me personally, I'd go with a 28-80, but that's more because of the type of shooting I do.

 

[icassell]

Well, I use my Tamron 17-50 at the 17 end quite often (and I have a 10-20). If you don't have an ultrawide, I stick with the wider lens. There is a very big difference between 28 and 35 on a crop-sensor camera. Can the Tamron be repaired?

 

[malkav41]

I don't think the Tamron could be repaired at a reasonable cost. I paid $53.80 for it brand new from 47st. Camera on ebay in February, but I didn't go with the warranty they were offering at that time. Besides, I think this would be outside of what the warranty would cover.

I've thought about trying a strip or two of black electric tape to see if that might be a kind of redneck, ghetto, (insert your idea here) way of being able to keep the lens extended at the 80mm end when pointed up. But it may also interfere with the autofocus ability of the lens. It can be done, with some success, with manual focus tele-photo lenses that have developed what is know as "lens creep".

Now the focusing problem could be attributed to blurry vision on my part due to the fact that I have only gotten about 4 hours of kip.