Schweet!  It finally arrived at the local shop and I went to pick it up after work today.  What is it, you ask? Ok, maybe you don't ask, but I'm gonna spill anyways...  My Tamron AF70-300mm F/4-5.6 Di LD Macro 1:2 lens! 

I originally started this entry to talk about my new lens, but I'm going to do that in a separate post a bit later.  I want to talk about lenses in general now.

For those not familiar with my new lens, let me first qualify that the name "Tamron" is generally associated with the word "cheap".   "Sigma" is generally not quite as cheap, but is also firmly planted in the realm of cheapness.  Tamron and Sigma make lenses for just about every model of consumer DSLR known to man.  Canon, however, makes lenses only for Canon cameras.  Nikon (Nikor) generally makes lenses only for Nikon cameras.  So, the general rule of thumb is that if you want a new lens, it's probably going to be from either your camera manufacturer, or Tamron or Sigma.  There are exceptions, but I'll leave that explanation to someone else.   Pretty simple so far.  So, if you're an amateur on a budget, you drool over some of the manufacturer lenses and save forever to spend what is usually an ungodly sum of money for a really slick lens, or you decide which Tamron or Sigma you can afford and you plunk down your duckets and get yer lens.  This does get a bit more confusing however, which you'd already start to realize if you've REALLY been following my blog. ;)

Because... not all manufacturers lenses are better than the so-called "cheap" brands.  Case in point... my Tamron vs the closest equivalent Canon lens.   The closest Canon lens I can find to compare with my Tamron is the Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III.  I blogged about that earlier.  It's junk...  Three day old carp!  I can't believe Canon is putting their name on that.  You get the idea. 

The Canon and the Tamron cost about the same.  The Tamron has a macro mode, better internal mechanics (I'll talk about that in my next post about the lens itself), and a lens hood.  I'm not going to get started on how much Canon wants for a simple lens hood, but suffice to say, it ain't worth it when you're working with the bottom of the barrel lenses, IMO.  

Ack... I'm rambling.  What's my point? Not all manufacturers' lenses are great.  Not all "cheap brand" lenses are junk.  Do your research and make sure you use a shop that will let you try stuff out and take it back if it doesn't work or you don't like it!

Note: I'm not bashing Sigma or Tamron, if they weren't in the market, I wouldn't have my current lens.  By the way they do have some really NICE lenses too...  Like this monster.

Hey again,

After spending a bit of time with my new camera, I've quickly figured out that I'm not going to figure it out unless I get out there and actually use the thing.  So, I'm going to try to take pictures every day for a year!

I'm sure I'll miss a few, but at least this way I'll have a regular "session" of sorts that'll eventually get me familiar with everything.  I may not get the pictures up on the day they're taken, but I'm going to endeavor to be REGULAR with taking pictures.  I actually expect that I'll take a dozen shots a day and one or two will be reasonable decent.  Those are the ones I'll slap online.  I'll house them on my Flickr page, but I'll post them here as a link.  Once I get some software issues solved on my end (hopefully today), I'll start posting. 

If I have something to say about why I took the shot or any technical points about it, I'll post them up here with the image.  However, all the EXIF tags will be on Flickr if you really want to see what camera settings/lens/exposure/etc I was using.

I hope someone out there gets a kick out it.

Okay, any serious photographers can stop reading right now... Due to my finances (and my family finance minister), I'm going to be talking about some "bottom of the barrel" lenses here. ;)

I picked up a new Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III lens yesterday.  I was actually looking for a Tamron AF70-300mm F/4-5.6 Di LD Macro 1:2 lens, but the Canon was a bit cheaper and it was in stock at my local dealer.  I figured they would be about the same, with the exception that the Canon wasn't a macro lens.  I had the guys at the shop look up the specs on both lenses and the difference in focusing distance between the Tamron and Canon was only about a foot, so I figured I could live with the Canon.  Unfortunately, the Canon ain't all I thought it would be. :(

There's nothing wrong with the optics that I can tell.  The DOF is very nice, which is what I was looking for.  The magnification is also pretty sweet, especially with the 1.6x magnification factor I get from using the XTi/400D...  that basically makes the 75-300 act like a 120-480mm lens.  But... 

The mechanics on the Canon lens are REALLY bad!  The Zoom control is near the base of lens and the focal ring is near the front.  This is basically backwards from most lenses.  Not that big of deal, but still "odd".  That's just an nagging issue to me, not a deal breaker.  The major issue is the zoom control.  It's "notchy".  It basically feels like the mechanics in the lens are binding up.  This means that when zooming, the action is "jerky".  It's impossible to do a smooth zoom.  This is most telling when you're trying to get to an exact focal length.  With the Canon lens, I've found that I have to overzoom, then pull back to get the zoom where I wanted it.  It's a bit of a pain to deal with on a regular basis.  I did some Googling on this lens and found that I'm not the only one with this issue, so it's obviously a "design feature", not an error with the manufacturing.

I should also mention that this lens is quite bulky and heavy.  It probably weighs more than the XTi/400D does.

The final straw is the focusing mechanism.  It's an AF lens, with a switch to convert to manual focus.  Unfortunately, the AF is REALLY slow, has an incredibly hard time tracking stuff and doesn't allow you to manually correct it without throwing the switch (this appears to be the way that non-USM Canon lenses work - get a USM version if you want to override the AF).  The length of time it takes to autofocus when zoomed is ridiculous.  So...

The Canon lens is going back and I'm going to get the local shop to order the Tamron for me.  I'll post up a comparison when I get the chance.

Schweet!  I'd been harassing my wife about this camera for a while now and noticed yesterday that Amazon.com had it on a special.  Well, after some intense whining on my part, I managed to convince the wife that this was "a good thing" and we plunked down the duckets for it (thanks, Baby!).  For anyone else in the same boat, you can check out Amazon's promotion to see a decent price plus a free Canon PIXMA photo printer.  If you do decide to hop on it, make sure you select a PIXMA that's from Amazon, not from one of the hosted stores.  The correct one should show a price of $99 or so.  Add that puppy, type in the code when checking out and the cost is zeroe'd out in your order.  Not badly... a good price for the camera (I got the lens to go with it) and a free photo printer!

While I'm on the subject, I have to note that Amazon is being a bit cruel to me...  I ordered the camera, the PIXMA and a memory card, all of which were in stock.  The memory card shipped in hours after placing the order.  The PIXMA is supposed to ship today.  The camera?  Still shows no shipping plans.  That's gonna be rough...  I get the "bits" before I get the camera to make use of them.  It's not a big deal to me, I just thought it was kind of amusing. 

BTW... I will be buying any other accessories from a local camera shop in the area, as the owner is a good guy and has always done me right.  Unfortunately, he couldn't touch this deal, even without the free printer. :(  I feel a bit bad about it, but I'll make up for it in accessories and processing over time, I'm sure.