Digital Home Thoughts: Tamron Announces 15x Zoom Lens

"Superzoom specialist Tamron has today announced the development of its most ambitious lens yet, the characteristically snappily-titled AF 18-270mm F/3.5-6.3 Di II VC LD Aspherical (IF) Macro. Designed exclusively for digital SLRs with APS-C sensors, this optic offers a 35mm-equivalent range of 28-419* mm, perfect for owners of megazoom compacts looking to upgrade to an SLR, and incorporates the company's 'Vibration Control' optical image stabilisation system. To achieve the spectacular zoom range (billed as the longest in the world),Tamron has used all its design nous, including the use of aspheric elements and low dispersion glass to keep chromatic aberration under control."

It is funny that this news story has come out today because a friend of mine and I were having this debate of the weekend on whether it is worth getting zoom lenses at all or should one just go for fixed focal ones. The disadvantage to the zoom lenses is that your pictures are never going to be as clear as those from a fixed length, just because of the many moving parts in a zoom lens, and you will have to keep a careful watch on the f-rating. The Tamron lens here is a f/3.5-6.3 which means at 270mm, you are looking at only a 6.3 which just doesn't seem that good to me. Of course, the obvious disadvantage with fixed focal length lenses is that you will have to carry multiple of them in order to be truly versatile. Anyways, it looks like Tamron has created a lens that covers a really good range, so if you are looking for a single lens that can cover a whole lot of ground and that is relatively inexpensive (pricing hasn't been announced but it is going to be cheaper than anything Canon or Nikon would put out in this category) then this lens is for you.