Quality of Independent Lenses

Nicky2007 · 10-12-2009, 06:59 AM

Independent camera lenses manufacturers e.g. Tamron & Sigma have been providing us camera owners with an alternative choice of lenses for some time now. To be honest, I've never bought any lenses from either Tamron or Sigma before. But that may change soon.

I would like to know from you owners of Tamron & Sigma lenses as to what do you think of the quality of these lenses. Are they as good as those manufactured by dedicated camera companies like Nikon, Canon or Pentax? I am thinking of buying either a Tamron or Sigma lens for indoor portrait work for my Pentax DSLR camera.

Any feedback/recommendations will be greatly appreciated. Many thanks in advance.

Nicky

AtominoDigital · 10-17-2009, 03:54 PM

There some great lenses concerning performance/price. Peronally I switched from the Nikon 55-200 VR to the Sigma 50-200 OS HSM usind it with the D300. I am also using a Sigma macro 50/2.8 EX AF old style. In addition there some old MF lenses like the Kiron 105/2.8 macro. Some test results you will find under
http://joergvetter.oyla.de/cgi-bin/hpm_homepage.cgi

Nicky2007 · 10-20-2009, 06:55 AM

Güten Tag AtominoDigital,

Thanks for the feedback. I did manage to read some of the reviews which you recommended. Some of them were written in German but no worries. Actually, I wasn't aware that Vivitar were still around. I thought they folded years ago. While Tamron & Sigma seem to have a lot of choices for owners of Nikon & Canon, the same may not be true for Pentax. My original question was targeted towards a good lens for portrait photography. In any case, a friend of mine suggested that I consider the SMC Pentax DA Star 50-135mm F2.8 ED (IF) SDM seriously for a portrait lens for my K-7. This is going to hurt a lot.

Tschüss

Nicky

Glasstream15 · 11-03-2009, 07:36 AM

I have a Tamron 18-200 that I use as my walk-around for my Canon XT. Is it as good a a Canon "L"? No way. Is it a dang good lens that allows great images? You bet. And after about a year it developed a back focus problem that I thought was the lens. I sent it to Tamron and I had it back in 2 weeks, focusing perfectly. I paid shipping there. And my Grandaughter was responsible for the focus issue. She tried to focus with it in auto.

Personally, I think the aftermarket lenses are better than the OEM cheap lines.

JMNSHO &, of course, YMMV