Sunset at Tulum, the Mayan trade city by the Caribbean ocean

It is of polycarbonate construction, with a metal mount. It is well finished in black, with Tamron's gold rings and lettering, which is a distinctive feature of the SP range. It is somewhat smaller, and quite a lot lighter, than the superb Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8 AF-S lens. While not to the same build quality of the Nikkor, it feels sufficiently robust, and should be quite durable. It is not a lens that can be thrown in the back of the truck, but then I treat my equipment with more respect anyway.

The front element of the lens has a very high degree of curvature, but is well recessed into the barrel. The supplied lens hood (which is compatible with the Nikon 17-35mm lens) provides additional protection.

PERFORMANCE

Mechanical performance

The zoom, focus and aperture rings are all well sized and quite positive in their operation.

The zoom ring is smooth, but far short of the oily smooth feel of the Nikkor 17-35.

In manual focus mode, the focusing ring is well damped, with a smooth, positive feel. In autofocus mode, the focus ring can be turned by hand for "touching up" the focus. This is similar to the manual focus adjustment available on Nikkor AF-S lenses, though the Tamron has a conventional screwdrive autofocus drive.

Auto focusing is rapid and quiet on an F/N80, and would be even faster on an F100 or F5. At this focal length, the AF-S focus motor is not really missed.

Om a minor note, Tamron's lens caps are worth a moment's consideration. The front cap is the pinch style, which can be easily fitted and removed with the hood in place. It works really well, and is an idea which Nikon has recently adopted also. The rear cap is slim-line, with a diameter equal to that of the lens mount. It clicks positively in place and is very secure. However it won't fit properly on a Nikkor, or on many third party lenses. It's a great idea, but becomes distinctly inconvenient in the field. My Tamron caps are all in the drawer, and I use either proper Nikon caps or generic copies on my lenses.

Optical performance

I. Sharpness

All reports on this lens indicate that it is very sharp, and my use confirms that impression. The lens is very sharp across the whole frame.

As mentioned above, no formal testing was performed, but I was very satisfied with the results on both the D100 and F80 cameras. On one occasion I exchanged lenses with JRP (who was seen wandering around with the Tamron on his F5, muttering "sacrilege!" :) In reviewing my pictures negatives later I was unable to identify which I had taken with the Tamron, and which with the Nikkor 17-35 f/2.8 AF-S. I would need enlargements.
II. Distortion Distortion was handled extremely well. Although many of the shots were of architectural subjects, little or no distortion was apparent in the pictures.
III. Flare A few Nikonians have complained about poor flare characteristics of this lens. My experience was that flare was handled very well, even with the sun in the frame.