In a message dated 7/1/2001 Bill Barber <NSURIT@xxxxxxx> writes:
<< While I was using my OM 2S to photograph the first birthday of my
first grandchild I was successful in buying a 70-350 Tamron SP zoom lens
on
ebay. I'm sure the photographic results will be perfect as the
equipment is
perfect as is my grandson. Does anyone have any experience with this
lens?
Couldn't find it in the cult classics and the only reference I found
doing a
Google search was in Japanese. The only Japanese I know I learned in
the
Navy and that won't do me any good with this lens. Couldn't find a
recent
history of any selling on ebay. Anyone know anything about it? I have
had
good luck with other Tamron SP lenses. >>
I had one. I also had that lens you bought on my "watch list" but being
broke and not buying camera gear these days I didn't bid. I do not think
it is an SP, I believe these were actually all made just before the "SP"
designation came to be. That takes nothing away. Mine was one I scored
off e-bay in (really, really) ugly condition for 50 bux on a whim. It
came with a Can*n mount (which I sold) and a cardboard mailing tube end
cap wrapped in tape for a lens cap. It is listed in the cult classics
and I too found the Japanese site but little else. Tamron did not want
to work on it (I inquired about a CLA). I used mine a few times last
season and found it to be a very nice lens. I even used it with the
Tamron SP 1.4X converter and found the results satisfactory. All my
straight-on shots from the Sears Point 2000 Wine Country Classic, Sears
Point 2000 Winston Cup, and Sears Point 2000 ALMS events are with that
lens, most of them with the converter. Again, mine was super-ugly but
the glass was actually still okay. I recently got an order for an 11x14
for an image taken with that lens combo (70-350 + 1.4X). I took the
slide in to the lab location where the store manager is a friend who is
an ex-wedding pro and he is an OM fanatic. He knows I have the big white
one now and when he looked at the slide with his loupe and commented on
how sharp it was. I was stunned at just how good the print looked (this
is the image in question):
http://motorsportvisions.com/NASCAR/fi/00000060.htm
The good side is that it is fast at f4.5 fixed aperature, but at the
expense of being big and heavy. I sold mine on ebay in a mass sell-off
after aquiring the 350/2.8 and needing funds to buy the requisite Zuiko
1.4XA (which I must say gets a lot of use...I find that it practially
lives on the 350). In hindsight, I think I should have kept mine as a
backup (which is why I track them when I see them...). Congratulations!
If it is in nice shape I think you got a great deal and that lens should
be a steller performer.
On that note, nobody gobbled up the SP 80-200/2.8 LD for a BIN price of
$250.00 yet?! Admittedly, the tripod mount missing is an issue, but if I
had the extra scratch I would be grabbing that as a backup myself.
Mike Veglia
Motor Sport Visions Photography
http://www.motorsportvisions.com
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