Tamron AF 17-50mm F/2.8 XR Di-II LD ...- User Rating: 
Summary for Tamron AF 17-50mm F/2.8 XR Di-II LD ...- Excellent Lens for the money
Notes on Tamron AF 17-50mm F/2.8 XR Di-II LD ...- I bought this lens in August of 08 for my wife to use for on-location shoots. She tried it for a few months before deciding to go the Nikon route. She says she had focusing issues with the lens.
Instead of selling the lens, I decided to keep it and try it out myself. I love the lens and have had maybe two focusing issues with it, but they were expected (low light, direct sunlight). It is tack sharp in the apertures I use for portrait work (mainly 2.8-4 at the most).
It does have distinct sound when auto-focusing, but it isn't a deal breaker (I actually like the noise it makes).
Overall a great little lens at a bargain price.
Tamron AF 17-50mm F/2.8 XR Di-II LD ...- User Rating: 
Summary for Tamron AF 17-50mm F/2.8 XR Di-II LD ...- Good all-around lens
Notes on Tamron AF 17-50mm F/2.8 XR Di-II LD ...- I got this lens after using the stock 18-135 Nikon lens, which I find too slow for indoor use, and a sigma 18-35 lens which is too heavy and not very versatile. The Tamron lens is very good for all around use. I like the 2.8 aperture all the way through. It is a bit soft and some times focusing takes a bit longer than I'd like it to, but I am very much using this lens exclusively now, unless I am outside and want something with a stronger zoom.
The construction is solid: the lens is on the heavier side, but it feels nice and the camera (a D80) feels nice and balanced. Zoom action is smooth. I like the zoom lock so I don't have to worry about it creeping on me.
Tamron AF 17-50mm F/2.8 XR Di-II LD ...- User Rating: Summary for Tamron AF 17-50mm F/2.8 XR Di-II LD ...- No focus problems here
Notes on Tamron AF 17-50mm F/2.8 XR Di-II LD ...- I was wary of picking this one up, but so far I haven't noticed anything wrong at all with autofocus: very clear, crisp images, and I'm loving the speed compared to my D40's stock lens (18-55mm f/3.5-5.6).
About all I could complain about is the motor, which is noisier and seems slower than the 18-55. It works though which is the main thing! Build quality seems solid.
Mine is Japanese-made according to the label, serial number 29xxx. One would hope that after building nearly 30,000 of the things they would have any quality control problems worked out.
Tamron AF 17-50mm F/2.8 XR Di-II LD ...- User Rating: Summary for Tamron AF 17-50mm F/2.8 XR Di-II LD ...- Front focusing
Notes on Tamron AF 17-50mm F/2.8 XR Di-II LD ...- I bought this lens to take pictures of live shows and house indoors.
It took me an hour to notice that AF was front focusing on my Nikon D90.
Manual focus pictures were perfect but with low light AF works much better than my eyes.
I returned the lens immediately and asked for a replacement. Amazon did not have it and item was back-ordered with no estimated available time so I asked for a refund that arrived just in time to get the Tokina 11-16mm f2.8... but this is another review.
Tamron AF 17-50mm F/2.8 XR Di-II LD ...- User Rating: Summary for Tamron AF 17-50mm F/2.8 XR Di-II LD ...- Blurry Pictures
Notes on Tamron AF 17-50mm F/2.8 XR Di-II LD ...- I received a bad copy. The guys at Tamron let this one through without quailty assurance. This lens had a hard time focusing. It appeared fine on the preview screen, but upon uploading to my computer, 80% of the pictures were blurry. This occurred on all apertures. Don't think this is user error as I have been taking pictures for a lifetime. The autofocus motor makes a louder than normal wheee-zzz sound when trying to focus. Bad experience over-all.
