Tamron SP A016 17 mm-50 mm F/2.8 XR AF Di-II IF Lens For Nikon

Picked this Brand New-In The Box lens up for $325.00 on ebay. What a great buy I got for a most excellent walk about and landscape lens. I live in Oregon and shoot a lot of coastal and mountain landscapes in low light conditions as well as bright light. Great contrast and color from this F-A-S-T lens. I tested Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM lens but couldn't justify spending that much $$$ and needing to haul a tripod to use with it. I have been a Canon user for over 30 years and have a great selection of Canon prime lenses to choose from. This Tamron AF17-50mm replaced my Canon 1.4 50mm on a Rebel XSi and I don't anticipate putting the Canon 50mm back on it anytime soon. I still shoot film but can see that coming to an end except for hauling out a medium format camera now and then.
The seller listed the lens as for a Nikon but corrected it in the details.

It’s simply a great lens excellent for the price an exceptional value used. But it has its faults if you are a heavy user like me. It is not up to task of heavy daily use. However it is lighter, smaller and much cheaper than the Nikon version and just as sharp. I own or have owned two copies of this lens the original Tamron version and the second copy is the Promaster. Both are the original, older with no AF built in internal motor, non VC versions. This current Promaster copy I have now is even sharper then my first lens. The first one I had used on four different cameras over a 4 or 5 year period, a Fuji S2, D200, D2x and D300 and I basically completely wore it out. A rough usage estimate is somewhere in the 60,000 + capture range. It never me down though right up until the very end when it was due for great retirement center in the sky. I am a working pro and this lens is capable of consistent professional results under many different types of shoots. Just treat it well and keep in mind your trade off is ruggedness for cost, size and weight. If you are a light to moderate user and are not rough on your equipment like I am then you should consider this lens as a solid inexpensive choice. I have not tried the built in motor or VC versions of this lens. So I cannot speak to their quality so keep that in mind. Although I did decide to seek out the older version used rather then one of the current versions new after reading many reviews on line if that tells you anything.

I hate kit lenses for one simple reason, f-stop. With previous cameras, I had to deal with the slow kit lens (3.5-5.6). I missed so many shots because of camera shake and too high noise (on older bodies). I'm loving this lens and would suggest if you're looking at a new camera skip the kit lens and get one of these.

This is a fast,light lens. It is bright and focuses fast. It has been attached to the front of my well used D100 Nikon since I purchased it and the photos are FANTASTIC!! I had decided to purchase a wide angle lens since my old 28-300mm did not cover the area it had when it was on my N90s. I also wanted a bright lens that would not be cost prohibitive and this Tamron fit the bill and more. What a grand surprise when I found that all the filters that I had purchased for the 28-300 fit the Tamron, just an added benifit. One problem I did find soon after was this, don't leave the hood on when using the pop-up flash, because it produces a shadow in the photo. I really don't use the pop-up all that often but in a pinch I do and the first time I did use it I could not figure out where the shadow was coming from. I thought it was the camera strap or something else. What was it? The flash is too low when at 17mm.

Please note: I am not a professional photographer, it is just a very expensive hobbie and one I've been doing for 45 years now.

If your in the market for a fast lens and can't afford Nikon or Canon then the Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 is a great option. It's a great walk around lens perfect for shooting everyday shots. The lens is really small and light which makes it a good travel size. The quality is not as great as Canon or Nikon glass but its not noticeable unless you zoom 100% in and the focus is a little noisy but not enough to be a problem. I would highly recommend it for any photographer that's on a budget and need that constant fast aperture