Hin's Photo Corner

I am in the process of upgrading my 70-210mm zoom to an AF one. I took out my favorite Tamron SP 70-210mm f/3.5 adaptall-2 19AH zoom in the weekend with my boys in Gilroy Garden. Thanks to my good friend for the special Back to School coupon. We enjoyed the trip with a great discount for $10 per person. It is a great treat for my boys.

I had two copies of the Tamron Adaptall-2 P/KA Adapter and the same mishap of missing apertures come back again in the shooting. I thought I fixed it last time with scraping the connectors. But the problems comes and go in Av aperture mode. With a wiggle, sometime the f/stop come back to display. Whenever I get a problem with loose connection, I get F-- in the display whereas the aperture information is actually recorded with the picture. Unlike my previous adapter, my new adapter has no problems going to f/3.5 for the zoom. I need to sand off the contacts on my new adapter and see if the problem goes away.

I told others about this manual focus zoom. In my opinion, it easily beats all the first three versions of Vivitar Series 1 Zoom 70-210mm that I have tried. In terms of sharpness and ease of focusing, this is the best zoom that I have used. It may take some time to get used to. I like the focusing ring design with long focus throw and smooth and quick focusing with precision. And best of all, there isn't any zoom creeping that happens with the Tamron zoom as compared to version 1 and version 3 of the Vivitar Series 1 zoom.







Impressions & Notes

• This lens grows on me. The more that I use it, the more I like it over the Vivitar Series 1 zoom.
• It is not an easy lens to use due to its longer length. Weight is very similar to the Vivitar Series 1 zoom.
• Sharpness is the best in this zoom along with superb focusing and zoom ring. I rate this zoom with the best manual focusing ring that I have used.
• It engages you in precision focusing while you can zoom in and out without loosing your focus point. The lens has a CF which stands for continued focusing but I am not sure if that is what I refer to.
• I find minor PF/CA but I can't tell if is better than the Komine Vivitar Series 1
• The close up is at 1:2.6 and I favor my positive experience with Vivitar Series 1.
• Color and contrast are more vivid and better in this zoom than the Vivitar Series 1 zoom

Related:

• All adaptall-2 related articles
• Tamron SP 80-200mm f/2.8 adaptall-2 (30A)
• Tamron SP 70-210mm f/3.5 19AH Initial Test Shots
• Tamron 75-250mm f/3.8-4.5 adaptall-2 104A
  
• Tamron Adaptall-2 P/KA Adapter
• Compare Vivitar Series 1 70-210mm first three versions
• Vivitar Series 1 70-210mm f/2.8-4.0 from Komine with 'A'
• Vivitar 70-150mm f/3.8 from Kiron with 2x doubler
  
• Pentax DA 50-200mm f/4.0-5.6
• Tamron 70-300mm Di LD Macro
• Tokina AT-X SD 80-200mm f/2.8 with 'A'
• Hin's Camera Gear