Hi Carl,

Pretty cool idea for a thread. Here is my contribution to get it started- it was taken at Santa Pod in January last year. I used a Sigma 55-200mm DC lens on a KM5D. The lens retails for circa £100, so is pretty cheap, but surprisingly good.

Image hosted on my flickr site (www.flickr.com/photos/woodyjnr)

Hope everyone like and feel free to C+C.

Cheers
Andrew

And composition, Andrew!

Plastic Fantastic showing wide open sharpness....

and Tamron 70-300mm at play!

Sigma/Quantary 24mm F2.8. You might have to butcher the Sigma version with your files and drill bits, but you wont regret it. :)
Minolta 70-210 F4.5-5.6 Pros: cheap and plentiful on eBay, decent photo quality, can be manually focused quickly and accurately Cons: Slow, inaccurate AF for moving objects
Push/Pull Sigma 75-300mm F4-5.6 Decently sharp at F8. Quick and accurate AF.

Just picked up the Tamron 70-300 Di LD today. not alot of time to play with it yet but this weekend is looking good to get out and about.

woodyjnr that picture looks awesome, the perfect background and really sharp biker, i love it :)

Hey I love that shot! Just like the Porsche shots i love the color. I don't know if it's just your expertise, or the KM or what, but very nice.

I think I like this even better than the Porsche shots, but then I'm a pretty avid cyclist so if it's got two wheels I'm biased towards it. Thanks for posting it love it.

HI Baz and Eric

Thanks for the kind words. Apprectate it.

Cheers
Andrew

1. Tamron 70-300 LD Macro, no surprise there
2. Tamron 55-200/Sony 55-200
3. Tokina 19-35mm
4. Sigma 70-300 APO DG (if you get a good copy)
5. Sony/Minolta 18-70 Kit lens
6. Minolta 70-210 Beercan
7. Minolta 50mm 1.7
8. Sigma 18-125

Not in any particular order, but I think #1 is a serious contender for the #1 spot.

Carl

Hi CarlJ,

Nice photos there. They really show what that plastic fantastic can do. The Tammy looks pretty good too. Especially like the shallow DOF in image 1, makes for a great image.

Thanks for posting.

Andrew

As you mentioned previously, this could be a good topic for one big reason - a lot of newcomers to the mount/hobby may aspire to the CZ16-80 or 70-300mm G SSM, but can't justify the cost or hide the receipt from their partner!

Admittedly, I spent £500 on the Tammy 200-500mm, but I needed the reach, and still less than SAL 70-200mm f2.8 and tcon. So if this encourages people to look at cheaper glass as a good tool, rather than a compromise, we've done our job!

Alt+Carl

Too true CarlJ (sorry but gotta keep referring to you as CarlJ, so as to avoid any confusions!).

Speaking of new users, there are some very good deals out there at the moment. I won't say too much (work politics and all), other than there are certain deals where you can pick up the Tamron 55-200 for as little as £50 when you buy a new Alpha! Kind of a stunning deal really.

I agree with Carl- definitely one of the 'top 10' best inexpensive lenses.

Cheers
Andrew

Taken in an aviary, but retained the feather detail well.

carlj, I think the birdy is winking at you:).

Ron

That would be my animal magnetism! :)

So which one of the million or so different versions of the Tamron 70-300 are you using here?

Mine is the 70-300 LD tele-macro (1:3.8) with 58mm filter - model 372D. I've had it for maybe 10 years and it's an old workhorse, but I don't consider it terribly sharp - but that might well be because I mostly shoot between f/5.6 and f/8. The main reason I'm considering replacing it with a beercan (if one can be bought without having to sell one of my kids) is that I expect much sharper results.

Regards,
Gordon.

Sorry, couldn't help it Gordon :)

This would be the 70-300LD Macro 1:2, the newest incarnation.

Carl

Bird's hot for you man, what can you say? lol

That darn lens continues to surprise me...

Carl

If I'm not mistaken, the Tamron you're using just happens to take the 62mm filters that I already have (for my 28-105 RS). Now there is a decision to be made - Beercan or Tammy...

I guess the clincher is this - how does the Tamron shoot wide open? Would you consider it a usable f/5.6 lens at the long end, or does it need to be stopped down to give the kind of results you have here?

Thanks for any info, you guys are great.

PS - the 'Flash Gordon' thing doesn't get mentioned nearly as much as it used to. I guess that means I'm getting old :-(

Well not a lens I like to use wide open. The beercan in its range will deliver sharper results with a wider aperture at any given range.

Stop down to 7.1 or more and the Tamron starts to clean up nicely :) I use it primarily from 7.1-11.

Center performance is always sharp at any aperture though. CA is an issue and why I stop down.

And inexpensive doesn't come more inexpensive than the kit lens....

Apologies if I've posted this before!

Back to the 70-300mm, not quite a stadium gig though!

and A200/70-300mm combination - bokeh and sharp at f5.6....

Slight sharpening using high pass filter.

My best buy so far is a metal bodied Minolta 35-105. Got it for £12.00 from Ebay, with fungus on the second lens in. Mangaed to strip it and cleaned it up OK, pretty pleased with the results. No sharpening on either picture.

Since I bought the camera (a200) in spring, I have also picked up a Sigma 70-300 APO, Minolta f1.7 50mm and a 70-210 (not Beercan). Total price for all 4 about £160.00.

I am keeping a lookout for a beercan, they seem to be going for between £90 & £130 at the moment. I might go for a metal bodied 100-200, these go for around £30-£50.

Are you sure the fungus has been removed - sure I can see some that appears to say Arsenal! :)

(US members may wish to ask for a translation!) :D

Another wander down the river, another chance to get used to the replacement for my Tamron 70-300mm (though I can always pinch it - it's on Amber's A200!) on the KM5D. I have noticed a couple of things, which I'll point out as we go along. First is, it seems much faster and assured in focussing than the Tamron. Almost as much of an improvement as the a200 over the 5D!

Meadow Cranesbill

Splashdown - and no, I didn't have an assistant dropping the duck from a height!

Hoverfly landing

and finally point two. The Sigma has far less CA than the Tamron. This shot should have been a mass of purple around the edge of the subject - in addition, the exposure seemed more accurate, without any compensation!

Carl

Looks like this lens does a very nice job.. good color and looks sharp. I have the apo vr. and I like it, in fact I sold my Minolta 100-300 and kept the sigma 70-300apo. nice job!!!
Kevin