Tamron’s new 15x zoom lens: Should you get one?

Tamron has announced the development of a new 15x zoom lens. The full name of the lens is:

AF 18-270mm F/3.5-6.3 Di II VC LD Aspherical (IF) Macro

The new lens will work on Nikon and Canon cameras with APS size sensors like the Canon EOS 450D, EOS 40D, Nikon D80, Nikon D300 and others. It does not work with full frame cameras.

The new lens has the advantage of a huge zoom range which would be enough for most situations a photographer encounters during his daily work. It’s small and light and easy to carry, even on airplanes.

The disadvantage of the lens is, that it will probably not reach the optical quality of more expensive lenses with a smaller zoom range like the Canon EF 4/70-200L IS. The larger the zoom range, the harder it is to get a high quality lens. Also, the maximum aperture of 6.3 at the longest focal lenght may not be enough in all situations.

Should you get one?
It depends on your needs. If you want a small, lightweight lens suitable for many situations, you might find the new Tamron lens very interesting. If you want the best image quality, I suggest you invest in several other zoom lenses. For example, if you shoot with Canon, a 4/17-40L and a 4/70-200L IS will probably give a much better results, but you won’t have all the focal length of the Tamron, the lenses will be much heavier to carry around and that combination is much more expensive.