Functionality versus performance

[geoffr]

Dec 26, 2022 15:25:16 GMT squeamishossifrage said:

Today I decided to remind myself of what it was that got me so frustrated with the Tamron 70-300mm, so went out to photograph the various water fowl on a local nature reserve. This would absolutely necessitate the use of the zoom. It was worse than I remembered! 

The focus ring is hard up against the zoom ring, with no gap between. Manual focus is by way of of the USD servo motor and is set by the focus ring. It is very sensitive. If you should happen to touch it while groping for the zoom ring, with it being so far down the barrel, then you have just disengaged autofocus and nudged the focus point elsewhere. You then have to half-press the shutter button again to refocus, and have another go at setting the zoom.

It will be retired to the status of a backup forthwith.

I think that would annoy me too. The Nikon I now have has a sizeable gap between zoom and focusing rings, in the gap, at 90 degree spacing, are AF activation buttons (the camera can actually be programmed to give them one of a selection of different functions but I find focusing useful).

 I would probably sell the Tamron and look for something with a better control layout. To my mind a backup needs to be intuitive to use and your lens doesn’t sound that way.