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Tamron AF 55-200mm Di II LD Macro Review The Tamron AF 55-200mm Di II LD Macro is a lens aimed at consumers who have bought a DSLR with an 18-55 kit lens, but now want something that covers longer focal lengths. For more on what Tamron have to say you can read the full text of the Tamron Press Release. The Tamron AF 55-200mm Di II LD Macro is pretty small and light, and has a semi-matte back finish. The body is plastic and the wide zoom ring has a rubberized grip. Manual focus is achieved by rotating a very narrow knurled ring (maybe 3mm wide) at the front of the lens. The manual focus ring is separate from the front of the lens. i.e. you don't manually focus by rotating the front of the lens as you do, for example, with the Canon EF-S 18-55/3/5-5.6. Manual focus operation is smooth, and though not heavily damped it doesn't have excessive free play. It's certainly feels beeter then, for example, the manual focus operation on the Canon EF-S 18-55/3.5-5.6. During focus (manual or auto) the lens barrel both extends and rotates. Zoom action is smooth and positive with no free play. There is no "zoom creep" when the lens is pointed vertically down, even if the lens is shaken. The Tamron AF 55-200mm Di II LD Macro is designed for use on APS-C format DSLRs (i.e. DSLRs with 1.5x and 1.6x "focal length multipliers). It is not designed for use on full frame cameras, though it can be mounted on them as it has an EF compatible lens mount, not an EF-S mount (only Canon leses have EF-S mounts). However, in fact the lens will "cover" a full 24x36mm frame as shown below:
Note though that the corners are dark and close inspection shows the corners are quite soft and show evidence of increased chromatic aberration. So while you could use the lens on a full frame camera, unless you intend to crop it significantly (back to APS-C dimensions), it's not really a very good idea. Overall, for a fairly low cost lens, the Tamron AF 55-200mm Di II LD Macro gives a positive impression of construction quality, despite the fact that it's an all plastic lens including the lens mount (which Tamron say does have a metal "core"). It's obviously not up to Canon "L" series construction (or price...), but it doesn't feel "cheap and flimsy".  Tamron 55-200/4-5.6 at 200mm with hood attached The lens come with front and rear caps (of course) and also includes a bayonet mounting lens hood (something Canon will charge you an extra $30 for on their consumer lenses). The reported aperture when the Tamron AF 55-200mm Di II LD Macro is mounted on an EOS 20D set to display aperture in 1/3 stop steps was as follows:
This seems a little unusual. I'd have expected a more gradual change in maximum aperture, however both the EOS 20D display and the image EXIF data confirm these numbers. I did note that while the exposure for a uniform target was the same at 55mm and 85mm, it increased by 1/3 stop at 135mm. The displayed aperture depends on data programmed into the lens, not an actual aperture measurement. I suspect maybe it's really closer to f4.5 at 135mm, but either way it's not terribly important. Tamron AF 55-200mm Di II LD Macro specifications
• NEXT - Part II - Focus and Vignetting
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