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Equipment Review: Tamron 300mm f/2.8

8/17/2016

14 Comments

 
Today I'll be looking at an older and less common lens. The Tamron SP 300mm f/2.8 LD-IF Model 60B.
This lens is part of the Adaptall line, which featured an interchangeable lens mount. Each of the different mounts had all of the connection tabs for reporting aperture information to the different camera lines. Later Pentax mounts actually had electronic contacts for manual focus confirmation on Pentax AF bodies. While the Canon EF mount adapter was never officially introduced by Tamron, many 3rd party manufacturers produce a mount adapter for Canon EF with AF confirmation chips! This lens was originally produced from 1984-1992 and shipped with a beautiful leather shoulder bag designed to fit the lens with the hood on in the correct position. It's quite a nice piece, and common for most professional lenses to ship with cases. Notice the beautiful brass nameplate. They were quite proud of this lens.
Picture
Balancing the 300mm f/2.8 on a flashlight. Kids, don't try this at home! (Also, gotta have the Terry Pratchett books in the background. #BestAuthor)
The focus ring on this lens is so nice. It's buttery smooth with just the right amount of resistance. It's a fairly good size too with nice distance markings. It's really great since this is a manual focus only lens. Above the focus ring is a second smaller ring which you can use as a focus limiter or focus preset. You loosen the little black knob and turn the focus ring. The second ring will then turn with the focus ring. Once you have the focus where you want it, tighten the black knob. There will now be a small stop indent at that position like on an aperture ring.
Picture
Tamron 300mm f/2.8 @ 2.8. Mmmm. Bokehlicious.
Build quality of this lens is excellent. It's an all metal body construction except for the hood, which is made of metal on the mounting ring, and very solid plastic for the rest. The hood is strong enough to support the entire weight of the lens and camera. I've stood it on the hood many times. The lens weighs in at 2096 grams, so eat your Wheaties and lift some weights! 
Picture
Stupidly huge front element!
The lens is a dual filter design. A 112mm filter in the front, and a 43mm in the back. The lens achieves optimum sharpness with both filters in place as the optical design was optimized for the filters to remain in place. So even if you aren't using a colored, neutral density, or polarizer filter in the rear filter slot, you should keep the clear filter in place.
The tripod collar is not removable, but has a removable palm rest which screws into the bottom of the tripod collar mount. It features full 360 degree rotation with small stop indents every 90 degrees like stop indents on an aperture ring. It also has two strap lugs for mounting a shoulder strap directly on the lens. The lens did ship with the optional shoulder strap, but that was the one thing missing from my copy when I bought it used. I had everything else including the original box. ​It's a pretty big lens, but not that much longer than your average 70-200mm. It's front element is significantly bigger however. 112mm compared to 77mm.
Picture
Telephoto size comparison with the 50mm for scale. Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 Mark 1, Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 EX, Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS, Sigma 120-40mm f/4.5-5.6, and finally the Tamron 300mm f/2.8 on the right. The Tamron is pictured with the leather and felt lens cap in place.
Image quality is quite good, especially considering how old this lens is. Sharpness wide open is good. Obviously a newer lens like the Canon 300mm f/2.8L or Sigma 120-300mm f/2.8 is sharper, but the Tamron is more than sharp enough to provide usable results. I would not use teleconverters with it wide open though. It gets a bit too soft. Stop it down one stop and you are all good to go. Contrast wide open is very good.
Picture
Canon 1DS II, Tamron 300 f/2.8 @ f/2.8, ISO 3200. Look at all that nice detail. Nice and crisp on the skin and hair detail.
One of the really spectacular things about a 300mm f/2.8 is being able to get closeups of performers on stage, especially when paired with a high resolution body or a 1D series camera with the 1.3x crop factor. One of my main combinations for shooting orchestras used to be the Canon 1D IIn with the Tamron 300mm f/2.8 until the 1DIIn bit the dust a couple months ago.
Picture
1D IIn, Tamron 300 f/2.8 @ f/2.8, ISO 1600. Nice bokeh and beautiful subject isolation. Notice the excellent detail on the subject and her instrument.
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It's also a superb portrait lens when you have the working distance that allows you to shoot with a 300mm. The bokeh is beautiful, and might be my favorite behind the 85mm f/1.2. The telephoto compression at 300mm is amazing and yields a very shallow depth of field at f/2.8.
Picture
Canon 5D, Tamron 300mm f/2.8 @ f/2.8, ISO 100. Stunning bokeh and field of view compression. It really puts the viewers attention on the subject.
Even at a distance, the subject isolation is very apparent. When I used to shoot the horse races, it was always fun to grab photos of people in the crowd and create a sea of bokeh around them.
Picture
Canon 5D, Tamron 300mm f/2.8 @ f/2.8, ISO 100. Horse racing in Aiken, SC. Extreme subject isolation at 300mm + f/2.8.
Although the lens is manual focus, you can shoot sports with it. It takes some practice, and having a chipped adapter that provides manual focus confirmation helps a lot. In addition, Magic Lantern's trap focus system is brilliant. You can set it to automatically take a photo during manual focus when focus is achieved. All you need to do is half press the shutter and manually focus. The minute it's in focus, it automatically fires. You don't even have to press the shutter all the way.
Picture
Canon 5D, Tamron 300mm f/2.8 @ f/2.8, ISO 400. Nailing focus on the goalie.
With just a little practice, manually focusing and tracking subjects is pretty easy. I mean, photographers did it that way for decades, and some people are still doing that. Rangefinder cameras dont' have AF, and plenty of mirrorless users (Sony, Fuji, Olympus, Panasonic) are adapting manual lenses and manually focusing all the time.
Picture
Canon 5D, Tamron 300mm f/2.8 @ f/2.8, ISO 800. Nailing focus on the action and tracking it with ease. One of about 12 frames, all in focus.
Picture
Canon 5D, Tamron 300mm f/2.8 @ f/2.8, ISO 250. When you are shooting sports, don't forget about the moments of downtime. They make some of the best shots!
The only real fault with this lens is the longitudinal chromatic aberration. That's the slight colorization seen on high areas of contrast in front of and behind the plane of focus. In front is usually purple, behind is green. It's an older super fast telephoto lens, so it's almost a guarantee it will be present. Most large aperture lenses suffer from it, particularly prime lenses. Even the Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM has chromatic aberration. The great news is it's super easy to remove in Lightroom and takes all of 2 seconds, so it's not really that much of an issue. I think that the Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 even has more chromatic aberration than the Tamron 300mm f/2.8.
Picture
Canon 5D, Tamron 300mm f/2.8 @ f/2.8, ISO 3200. Full image, chromatic aberration corrected
Picture
Enlarged area in middle of the frame, chromatic aberration corrected.
Picture
Enlarged area in middle of the frame, chromatic aberration uncorrected. Notice the purple and green borders on the high contrast edges.
Looking at the images above, it's not all that bad, and easy to correct, and pretty much every fast aperture lens will have this problem except for the newest 300mm f/2.8 lenses like the Canon 300mm f/2.8L IS and Sigma 120-300mm f/2.8 OS.
Picture
Canon 1D IIn, Tamron 300mm f/2.8 @ f/2.8, ISO 1600. Love that depth of field and bokeh at f/2.8.
Over all this is a really nice lens. I shot with it for several years, and it was my go to lens for stage and event work when I worked for the Jacobs School of Music Publicity Department. I shot many operas, orchestra performances, and ballets with this lens. The image quality and build quality are fantastic, and this lens definitely does make a statement with it's large size and army tank green paint!
I ended up replacing it with the Sigma 120-300mm f/2.8 EX DG OS APO HSM (a lens with too many letters) for the image stabilization, auto focus, and ability to zoom. My old Tamron 300mm is currently being borrowed by my brother until I tell him I want it back. I never plan on parting with it as it is such a little known and beautiful lens.
If you are in the market for a relatively inexpensive 300mm f/2.8 lens, you like to manual focus, and shoot multiple systems, I highly recommend the Tamron SP 300mm f/2.8 LD-IF. It's a one of a kind lens since it has the ability to change mounts with ease. I've shot this on Canon EOS, Minolta MD, and Nikon F mount. There are of course many modern AF options out there, but there is something very special and charming about this old 300mm f/2.8.
To view other photos from this lens and view photos in high resolution, head over to my Flickr page where I have the photos posted in full resolution, and check out the results for your self!

https://www.flickr.com/search/?user_id=scottscheetz&tags=tamronadaptallsp300mmf28ldifmodel60b&view_all=1
​

In addition, you can find the original specifications and tests here:
http://www.adaptall-2.com/lenses/60B.html
The original brochure scans located on the Adaptall-2 website
​The adaptall-2 website has a wonderful amount of resources on these little know early Tamron lenses. There are some real gems in the early Tamron SP line besides the 300mm f/2.8 like the 400mm f/4, 180mm f/2.5, and 90mm f/2.5 macro to name a few.
14 Comments
Dave Rowland
1/29/2018 03:05:30 pm

I have a 300mm f2.8 Tamron IF with hood and lens bag. Great lens but I retired from photography about 7 years ago. It has a Nikon Mount
and everything works great. Do you know anyone that would buy it? I am asking $550.00 for it. Would supply photo to anyone interested.

Reply
Scott Scheetz
1/30/2018 01:15:04 pm

Hello Dave,

I'm not sure. I'd try posting it on eBay, or selling locally through something like Craigslist, Facebook marketplace, or offerup.

There's also the photo community on Fred Miranda's website which has a buy/sell forum. I think to sell there you have to pay though. Buying is free.

Best of luck!
- Scott S

Reply
Peter Fischer
2/3/2019 10:26:56 pm

I'll buy the lens if you still have it

Reply
JOHN.HUGO
7/20/2019 05:19:15 am

I have used the TAMRON 300mm f2.8 since the 1980s a am using it with a digital camera body today. An excellent lens. Top quality can in
my mind not be matched

Reply
Scott Scheetz
7/20/2019 09:00:23 pm

Yes, definitely a beautiful lens. I loaned it to my brother and he is using it from time to time.

Reply
Owen Heuston
9/28/2019 11:16:41 am

I use this lens for sports and portraits myself. It really is an underrated lens. I use it with my Nikon D850. My question is, did you create a lens profile for it in LR or photoshop? Here are some of my pics with the lens: https://www.flickr.com/photos/owenheuston/48805737308/in/dateposted/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/owenheuston/47040134004/in/album-72157708564709954/

Reply
Scott Scheetz
4/20/2020 09:35:35 am

Hello Owen,

I did not make a profile for this lens. Sorry.

Reply
Nigel Voak
6/20/2020 08:16:00 am

I found your review whilst searching for some views on this lens. Thanks for a very informative piece.

It was my standard Jazz photography lens when I shot theatre professionally back in the nineties.

I have just switched back to Nikon after some years with M43 and I tried it out this morning to see if it was still viable for long lens duties, or if I should buy something more modern.

I shoot mostly architecture now and I rarely use long lenses, so a cheap slow Sigma zoom was considered

It works really well with the Nikon D810 using the focus confirmation, not so well on the Z7 with the "blinkies".

Conclusion, it is still a very good lens if you do not need autofocus. It will return to service after 10 years in the gear cupboard.

It is so battered and bruised like my other theatre lens, the Nikon 180 F2.8 and I knew I would get little for it SH. So luckily it did not get traded in like the rest of my old MF Ai gear.








Reply
Scott Scheetz
6/26/2020 12:38:18 am

Thank you. My goal was to have it be informative and thorough but not too long.

I have photographed many jazz concerts with this lens. It was absolutely perfect for stage work.

I've used it and some of the older manual focus Nikkor primes on the D800, and I remember the focus confirmation working very well. It's nice that they have allowed for that backwards compatibility.

I agree that it is a marvelous lens if you don't need AF. My brother stole mine when I replaced it with the Sigma 120-300mm f/2.8 EX OS. I wish I still had it sometimes, but the flexibility of the 120-300mm is so much nicer than just being stuck with a 300mm prime.

Reply
Kevin Arscott link
3/6/2021 01:12:47 pm

I have owned 3 copies of this lens for various reasons and always enjoyed using it. In the end I got rid of it when I picked up a Canon FD 500mm f4.5L, which did not have any purple fringing thanks to the Fluorite element (I have seen from reviews on digital that the Canon FD 300mm f2.8L is also superb in this respect).

I used to own the Adaptall big 4 - 400mm f4, 300mm f2.8, 180mm f2.5 and 80-200 f2.8. All of them superb - the 80-200 was a zoom lens acting as a prime lens.

I no longer have them but am still buying and using other Adaptall lenses but largely for landscape these days.

Reply
Scott Scheetz
3/6/2021 06:59:19 pm

I've never used any of the Canon FD white lenses. I've heard good things about them though. I've used the EF white lenses, and those are superb!

I always wanted to pick up the 400mm and 180mm adaptall to complete the set. I still have the 80-200mm f/2.8 adaptall. That was one of my primary lenses for quite a while until I purchased the EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS. Really remarkable image quality on the 80-200mm and built like a tank. The push/pull zoom was quite nice on it. The only thing I would have wanted changed on that lens was for internal focusing.

I've got 3 other adaptall SP lenses. None of them really get that much use anymore.

Reply
Hardsports New Mexico link
5/4/2021 11:53:07 pm

This is a greaat blog

Reply
Fab
8/7/2022 10:29:48 am

Thanks for your review, I came across this page when I saw this lens for sale locally a few years ago and was looking for info about these. I ended up buying it with both the 140F and 200F teleconverters, all in the original case. Probably the best $250 I have ever spent! I use it with a Sony A9 and it's one of my favorite lens.

Reply
Fred Schumacher
1/15/2023 06:05:00 am

Nice article. I’ve recently acquired one of these lenses but noticed it will not focus beyond 150 ft: focus right stops at 150 ft even though the secondary ring (with the little thumb screw) floats smoothly. Any input is appreciated. Thank you, Fred

Reply



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