Happy Saturday!

I have 5 images for today as I was doing a lens evaluation.  The results are pretty amazing.

Jeanne and I are going on a couple of trips this Summer and I don’t want to carry a heavy camera bag with lots of lenses.  I also don’t want to get in a position where I don’t have the right focal length to capture the images I want.

So about a year and a half ago Tamron™ announced an 18mm – 400mm lens to bridge the gap of several lenses.  Like everything there are pros and cons to a zoom lens with that big of focal length range.  Being a certified gear head I had to have it, even though I have not always had the best luck with Tamron™ lenses.

It is a Dx lens meaning it is for a “cropped sensor” camera body.   I have it on the Nikon D500, which is a “cropped sensor” camera body.  There is a multiplier factor to the focal length on a “cropped sensor” camera body of 1.5 times.  Which means that the 18mm-400mm lens becomes a 27mm – 600mm lens.  It is relatively light weight and compact so it is the perfect “touristy” walk around lens.

I’ve probably told you way more than you want to know about this lens other than the fact that it was fairly inexpensive compared to a “normal” lens.  To be honest, I didn’t think it would be a very good lens but I had 30 days to try it out before buying it.  I remember shooting a few images with it and thought it’s okay.  Click here if you want to see the results of that initial shoot.

Yesterday I had lunch with my wonderful Daughter at the Dubuque Golf & Country Club.  I even dressed up a little bit for that.  🙂

Then I went down to the river with this lens to put it through its paces.  I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised and pleased with the results.

It has a fast focus and is quite.  It’s light weight so pretty easy to hold and carry.  The lens also has image stabilization so it mitigates camera shake.  As you can see with the Red-Winged Black bird it is a pretty sharp lens. But the real eye opener is the next two photos.

I was standing in the parking lot near the River Center and took this photograph of the Dubuque County Courthouse.

I was standing in the exact same place at the racked out focal length of 600mm and this is the uncropped image as it came out of the camera.

Needless to say I was very impressed with the lens and it will travel with me.

Enjoy your day and be careful.