Tamron 17-50mm Barrel Distortion

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JPH - 15 Jul 2009 11:36 GMT

Hi

I have just got a Tamron 17-50mm Lens. I'm very happy with the speed
of it and picture sharpness. It is a bit noisy when hunting for focus
but it generally focuses vaey fast.

There is a very noticable Barrel Distortion with it. It is obviously
at its worsed at 17mm but it is still very noticable up to about 24mm.
My kit lens wasn't this bad. Is this normal for this lens?

Thanks in advance

John

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J. Clarke - 15 Jul 2009 12:34 GMT

> Hi
>
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>
> Thanks in advance

For questions like this take a look at http://www.photozone.de, which has an
extensive set of lens tests including distortion measurements at several
focal lengths for each lens. Note that that lens has a sweet spot around
24mm where the distortion is very low.

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BobS - 18 Jul 2009 00:53 GMT

> Hi
>
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>
> John

John,

I just purchased the same lens last week after reading some reviews
like this one:
http://www.bobatkins.com/photography/reviews/tamron_17-50_review.html

It does exhibit some barrel distortion. In Part II it compares the
Tamron against a Canon EF-S 17-85mm which is slightly worse.

I just finished documenting an engine removal and repair procedure (on
a Ferrari ) and I used this lens and my 10-17mm fish-eye for getting
into the engine cavity. Some neat shots I think and after about 400
photo's I've found that the Tamron's sweet spot is f4 which coincides
with the reviews.

I'm doing some of these shots in HDR so that drives the count up real
quick...

Bob S.

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Eric Stevens - 18 Jul 2009 04:45 GMT

>Hi
>
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
>
>Thanks in advance

You will find your answer here http://tinyurl.com/58yojt or here
http://www.photozone.de/nikon--nikkor-aps-c-lens-tests/290-tamron-af-17-50mm-f28
-sp-xr-di-ii-ld-aspherical-if-nikon-test-report--review
if this is the lens you are discussing

Eric Stevens

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JPH - 19 Jul 2009 16:50 GMT

> >Hi
>
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>
> Eric Stevens

Thank you all very much for the great links and information. I guess I
should drop a Chill Pill and enjoy the sharpness of the lens and stop
worrying so much about the barrel distortion. I can fix it in Post
anyway.

All the best with the engine shoot Bob. I'm just getting into HDR I
would love to see your shots when they are done.

John

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BobS - 20 Jul 2009 02:26 GMT

>> On Wed, 15 Jul 2009 03:36:34 -0700 (PDT), JPH
>> <j.hayc...@livjm.ac.uk>
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>
> John

You're going to like that lens... a lot. My pics should be posted on
this site ( http://cantechautomotive.com/ ) in a week or two in the
gallery. None of the pictures in the gallery right now are mine but
were done by Eric Hameister ( http://hameisterphoto.com ).

Bob S.

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