I have just received my Tamron AF 70-300mm F/4-5.6 Di Ld Macro 1:2 lens. I will be using it on my Nikon D40. The price was too low for me to pass up ($129.95 plus shipping on Amazon) but the performance re-enforced the saying: “You get what you pay for.” Here is a quick summary of my experience.

The lens itself looks good and expensive. It comes with lens cap, and hood. There was no difficulty mounting it on the D40. Focusing is a lot more difficult than on my Nikon 18-55mm or 55-200mm. The sore point is that after shooting for a while, it refuses to focus. The simple cure I found was just to switch the camera off and then back on. On all occasions it started focusing after this reset.

The photos at times lacked sharpness, but occasionally, it surprised with some real sharp photos, like this one I took of a flower:

I had particular difficulty getting a sharp shot of a heron on the beach. I tried at different focal lengths but could not get it sharp enough (hand held). I guess it may have been caused by the closeness of shades between the background and the subject. These were the best I could do:

Another shot a little farther away:

It was even more difficult getting sharp pictures in the street. Because it does not focus that easily, the moving subjects were hard to capture and when they were, they weren’t that sharp. Here are some samples:

The Tamron AF 70-300mm F/4-5.6 Di Ld Macro 1:2 cannot compete with my Nikon 55-200mm 1:4-5.6G ED. The Nikon focusses faster and is much sharper. The only thing the Tamron has is the longer focal length and of course, the Macro feature (which I haven’t tried as yet). Apart from that, you would be better off getting the VR version of the Nikon for around $200.

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