lor's reviews

Tamron 11-18mm f/4.5-5.6 Di II LD Aspherical IF SP AF

I bought this lens by mistake. I needed a wide lens for a holiday in Morocco and I wanted a Sigma 10-20 for my Nikon D200. Since I was about to leave, and the dealer only had this one available, I decided to go for it. At first I was disappointed because of soft edges. What I found out is that edges are good indeed, they just look soft because of high levels of chromatic aberration. Run the raw image through the excellent Nikon Capture CA correction feature and it looks quite good even wide open. No difference from my trusty Nikon 18-70 at 18mm for sharpness, color and constrast, and the results look extremely consistant through the whle zoom range. Great indeed and a very pleasant surprise. What's bad is the focus speed (ssslllooowwww.... and noisy) but so what I use hyperfocals, and the zoom range. The upper limit at 18 forces to switch lenses more often than I wished. Is the non corrected CA to cause bad reviews on Canon bodies? Or was I just lucky and picked a very good sample?
Shoot RAW with Nikon and you will be extremely satisfied. Oh, I forgot: NO vignetting!