October 1, 2008. I received my Tamron lens today and added a B&W UV-haze filter. The following photos were taken with my tripod mounted Nikon D90, set for "jpeg normal" and aperture priority at F8. After taking the 18-270 photos, the lens was swapped to the Nikon 18-200. I didn't have sufficient time to match mm with mm, so I just eyeballed the settings and started shooting. There was no post processing.
NOTE: Enlarged files are over a 2.9 megabytes each.
TAMRON 18-270:
18mm 35mm 42mm 50mm 70mm
100mm 185mm 200mm 270mm
NIKON 18-200:
18mm 35mm 50mm 135mm 200mm
October 1, 2008: Photography is one of my hobbies and I expect expert comparisons from the Pros will be available soon. Having the lens for just a few hours here are my initial findings:
1. I believe my Tamron is at least equal to the Nikon 18-200 in picture quality.
2. My Tamron has the same "lens creep" as the NIkon. The Tamron has a Lock switch at the 18mm position for walking around.
3. My Tamron zoom mechanism has a slightly annoying resistance at the 70-100 mm spot. If the camera is pointed down, the zoom is smooth, suggesting more of a design compromise rather than a mechanical defect.
October 2, 2008 hand held shooting, indoors, with and without flash:
1. My subjective rating is that the images look sharp, with excellent color and contrast.
2. The VC stabilization seems to work very well.
3. The slightly annoying resistance at the 70-100 mm spot is smoothing out just a little bit with use, but is still noticeable.
4. I didn't notice this while I was outdoors yesterday in good light, but my Tamron is slower to focus on some targets when compared to the Nikon. Sometimes it seems to take almost 2 seconds to focus.
October 2, 2008 FINAL REPORT: In my opinion, the Tamron 18-270 is a great daylight lens. It is sharp over the whole range, color and contrast are excellent. Unfortunately the slow focus in less than bright light is a show stopper for me. My Nikon 18-200 had no problem quickly focusing in the same light where the Tamron was slow to very slow.
I have returned the Tamron 18-270 today, got my money back and bought a Nikon 16-85. I put the Nikon 18-200 on my D80 and the Nikon 16-85 on my D90. The D90 was the only camera used to compare the Nikon 18-200 and the Tamron 18-270 for these webpage photos.
UPDATE JANUARY 14, 2013
It's hard to believe that it's been 4 years since I commented on the Tamron and Nikon super zooms. Lots of changes in 4 years: D80 gone, D90 gone, 16-85 gone, 18-200 gone. The basic reason for this update is that I purchased a Nikon 28-300, f3.5-5.6, VRII zoom, put it on my D800 and I'm very happy with it.
I have the Nikon "trinity", but most of my photography goes on webpages (www.travelwp.com) and sometimes a super zoom is needed as a "walk around lens". The Nikon 28-300 on my D800 produces good color rendition, the focus is fast and the quality is excellent. After many hours of use, the lens did develop lens creep, but just like the Tamron, it has a lock switch. It's a little pricey at $940 USD but it does everything I want. My first shoot with the 28-300 super zoom was:
Click HERE to view the 2011 British Motorcar Show
UPDATE JUNE 2015
In a few months it will be 7 years since I started making this webpage and folks are still interested in the Tamron lens. Since the last update, I got rid of the D800 and the Tamron. I now have the Nikon D810 and still have the "trinity" of Nikon lenses. I bought a pocket camera, the Sony RX100M3 and it works great. Most of my shooting is unplanned so the Sony is with me all the time.
Click HERE to see a sample of the Sony RX100M3
UPDATE OCTOBER 2017
I sold my Nikon D810 and the trinity lenses. I just purchased a Nikon D850 and a Tamron SP 45mm F/1.8 Di VC USD, a Tamron SP 70-200mm F/2.8 Di VC USD G2, and a Tamron SP 24-70mm F/2.8 Di VC USD G2. I find the Tamron lenses are as good or better than the Nikon trinity, there are NO ISSUES with these lenses. I have not pixel tested, I just look at the photo results. I've used this combination for over 5 weeks and I very pleased with the photos. I find myself using the Tamron 24-70 most of the time, it is sharp and focuses fast.
