Camera Lenses

28-300mm f/3.5-6.3 XR Di LD Aspherical (IF) Macro Tamron zoom lens * effective focal length: * 28-300mm with 35mm film or full-frame digital cameras * 44-465mm with APS-C sensor cameras * compatible with Nikon digital and film SLR cameras with F mount * manual focus only with Nikon D40, D40x, and D60 SLR models * Extra Refractive Index glass for a compact, lightweight design * low-dispersion glass and hybrid aspherical glass elements for superior image quality * internal focusing * minimum focus distance: 19.3 in. *

User Reviews about Tamron AF 28-300mm f 3.5-6.3 XR Di LD Aspherical (IF) Macro Ultra Zoom Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras

This lens is great for an amateur or student.
Works great from 28 to 100 mm after that quality fail. oh and is just for day or outdoor pictures because is too dark to shoot indoor without flash.
you get what you pay! -- Great 28-100!

I have to say after using this lens for a month that I'm glad I ended up with it. I wanted a lens that would give me a range of options, and that is what this lens has...I can use it for macro or for wider views. I have a prime 50mm lens for portrait purposes, but I wanted something that could be used as a walkabout. The quality of the photos is good...(although in dimmer light, I do up the ISO on my
D300, which is okay as the D300 does fine with higher ISO).

There is a bit of search for focus on the longer end of the lens...If you are shooting birds, that can be annoying, plus it makes a noise...but over all...I can work with it.

I do recommend this lens for someone who wants a deal (price wise), but good quality.
-- Happy with this lens

This lens is not for someone who has been doing pro photography. It is best suited lens for amateurs on a budget. It covers a great range is built well and produces great results. I used this lens for couple of years and gifted it to someone and is still doing a great job.
I would say if you are on a budget and have to buy a good telephoto lens, please go ahead.
-- Best lens for beginners

Love the versatility of this lens, being able to go out with just one lens attached is just great imo. The depth of field is nice, as is the focal range. Ok so the auto focus is a little slow, but for the price I paid, I can live with that. Some reviewers have complained about the plastic mount on this lens, but it's not that bad. I mean the idea is to not be constantly switching between lenses right?, therefore you shouldn't have to put too much stress on the mount right?
What do you want for the money? it's cheaper than the Nikon lens for goodness sake, and considerably lighter! Overall the Tamron is a great all purpose walk around lens. Get one if your on a budget, you won't be disappointed with the range or the image quality it produces. -- Nice walk around lens.

To clear up some of the confusion regarding how this lens will perform, there are two classes of Nikon DSLR's. The first use a sensor smaller than 35mm, about the size of the old APS film cameras, hence the term "APS class." These include the D50,70,80,90,200, etc.

The smaller sensors mean every lens has a built in zoom (or crop factor) of about 1.5. This is why wide angles for these DSLR's have been 18mm while for film it used to be 24-28mm. Lenses built for the smaller sensors also have a circle (inner lens opening) that is smaller than the older film lenses. On these type cameras this lens would perform like a 43-450mm or thereabouts.

Newer Nikons like the D3,D3X, and D700 are "full frame" and have sensors the same size as 35mm. There is no crop factor, and they can work correctly with film lenses.

This Tamron is essentially a film lens, and works best on a full frame camera. I've heard to be wary of superzooms such as this, as they tend to have distortion at the wide and tele ends and have a small maximum aperture at the tele end.

At 300MM it is f6.3 max, and that's not very good, but my D700 has such good high ISO performance I just crank it up and don't worry about. The focus is an old screw drive so it's a little slow and noisy, and it is plastic. (The focus also won't work on the D40, it needs lenses with a built in motor.) I also would prefer it have been 24mm rather than 28mm, but you can't have everything.

However, I've been very happy with the pictures it takes. They have good color rendition, the distortion isn't readily noticeable, and they're nice and sharp across the screen.

If I blew the photos up I'd probably see a lot of differences compared to a high end "pro" lens, but that misses the point. This is a "walk around" lens intended for situations where you can/want only to take one lens with you. In that role the Tamron works very well.

-- Great all-in-one lens for full frame DSLR's