I acquired the
Tamron 18-270 F/3.5-3.6 Di II VC PCZ (what a jumble of letters) recently after reading some
raving reviews on some
respected camera sites. What I had been looking for was an
extended-range zoom lens covering both wide and telephoto regions, that would expedite my
ability to take photographs where photography is a secondary aspect of a trip rather than its primary focus. Specifically, when on
family trips, or possibly even group tours where you are
operating on someone else's timetable.
This
Tamron lens does indeed do that. It covers not the full range of my lenses, but covers the hearty medium. Precisely, it replaces the kit
Canon 17-85mm f4-5.6 IS which previously was the lens I had which covered the greatest area around normal, but always felt lacking on the telephoto end.
The Canon's IS claims about three-stops, and often seemed magical when I used it in conditions that I thought were horridly dark. Tamron claims four-stops, but even on a bright day, shooting at 1/500, it's proven disappointing thus far.
Oddly, coming from only
Canon zoom lenses, the
zoom ring rotates in the opposite direction. Moreover, it doesn't support full-time manual focus and removing the lens hood is difficult to do without adjusting the focus by accident (but at least it come with a lens hood). The conclusion that I have after a short time with it, is that I don't like it, but it does what I bought it for.