Tamron's superzoom lens set to launch
Bring on the superzooms: Tamron's 28-300mm lens is due to ship in Japan next week for Canon SLRs.
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Tamron will start shipping its image-stabilized 28-300mm lens on Monday--but only in Japan and for Canon SLRs, the company said.
The lens, formally called the AF 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC, is one of a host of new image-stabilized superzoom lenses on the market. Nikon has said its 18-200mm model is its all-time bestseller. Sigma recently added its own 18-200mm competitor. And Panasonic, whose lenses are compatible with Olympus SLRs and vice versa, also offers a 14-150mm model, which is the same range when translated into 35mm camera terms.
Tamron had planned to release the lens in August, but said that month it had to delay availability. "We are obliged to postpone the release of the product because we have found a technical problem in a part of the VC (Vibration Compensation) mechanism," the company said.
A Nikon version of the lens will be available in early spring, Tamron said. The Canon version has a few compatibility limitations with older Canon SLR models.
Superzoom lenses offer a much broader range--from wide angle to telephoto--than other types of lenses. But they don't offer a free lunch. Typically, they suffer when it comes to sharpness, distortion and vignetting compared with higher-end zoom lenses with narrower ranges or with "prime" lenses with a fixed focal length.
Via DPReview