As others have said, this is one of the jewels of the third-party lenses
available for the OM's. Along with the Tokina, the Tamron SP 80-200/2.8 is one
of my favorite lenses, despite it's weight and size. It's usually cheaper and
MUCH easier to find than the Tokina due to the Adaptall mount.
They can get zoom creep as the lubricant dries out, which requires a service.
The lens itself is a monster made of metal, in the late 70's - mid-80's
mindset. There's none of that polycarbonate stuff in that lens! It's not much
bigger or heavier than a new Nikon 80-200/2.8 though (although I haven't done a
direct comparison). For my uses, I find that the lens is as sharp and
constrasty as anything that I have and makes great bokeh. I sold my 180/2.8
Zuiko over this lens as it didn't offer any advantages except size and the
Tamron has less CA. I carried the Tamron along with the 35-80/2.8 for a
track-and-field meet and got fabulous shots. I had the Tamron 1.4x too at that
meet and got some great shots with it, but it's a little bit of a pain to
mount, as it fits behind the adaptall mount.
I usualy shoot the lens at f/5.6 and wider if possible, as the 3-d effect of
the shallow DOF is greater.
I can't think of a better lens for $300. It's one of the prime focal lengths
that Olympus never played with. If the OM system had gotten more investment,
I'd bet that you would have seen a lens in this FL/aperture from Olympus. They
likely would have also introduced a better wide-angle zoom.
The net? Buy one, as long as it isn't too big, you'll never sell it as long as
you own as MF camera system.
Skip
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>
>---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
>From: "daniel" <danrich@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Reply-To: olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>Date: Thu, 19 Jun 2003 06:42:05 -1000
>
>>Anyone know how the 80-200 2.8 tamron is?
>>Dan
>>
>
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