I’ve bought this lens quit a while ago somewhere beginning of February after reading quite a few reviews on different ultra wide angle lenses for crop camera’s. Actually, I had tried a few out last year (see this post) before ending up buying a Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 to replace my kitlens as a walk around. How things change in half a year as I quote myself:

In the end I started thinking that I really don’t shoot that much wide angle at this point in time so I started looking around at a replacement for the kitlens and after some test shooting I decided to buy the Tamron SP 17-50mm F/2.8 XR Di II.

Well since I noticed I was missing range on the wide end I decided to get a wide angle for my Canon 500D. This time the contenders were the Tokina 11-16mm f2,8 AT-X, the Sigma 10-20mm f3,5 EX DC HSM and the Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3,5-4,5 USM. Each has it’s pro’s and con’s.

The Tokina has f2,8 across the whole range which is very nice in low light, the price isn’t to bad (cheapest of the three lenses) and it comes with the lens hood. Cons for this lens (at least for me) are, the range is very limited, I don’t like the way switching AF to MF works. Both those cons would irritate me a lot though it’s a nice lens.

The Sigma has f3,5 across the whole range and a better range compared to the Tokina, it also comes with the lenshood and pricewise isn’t that much more expensive then the Tokina and cheaper then the Canon 10-22mm. To be honest I don’t really know why I didn’t check this one out. Probably because the Canon wasn’t what much more expensive compared to the Sigma and I know the Canon 10-22mm is a great lens looking at the reviews and reading user experiences.

So in the end I decided to buy the Canon 10-22mm eventhough it’s the most expensive of the three and it doesn’t some with a lenshood. Really Canon, this lens is mad expensive for a crop cam just like the Canon 17-55mm f2,8 and you don’t throw in the lenshood? Oh well, guess only L lenses get a lenshood included. Though both the 10-22mm and 17-55mm could be considered L class equivalent on crop camera’s imho. Ever since I bought this lens it’s been used quite a lot, specially on trips I’ve made since buying it. During my vacation to Barcelona and my recent daytrip to Dusseldorf I probably used it for 80 to 90% percent of the time and the rest of the time my Tamron 17-50mm f2,8 was on. I absolutely love this wide angle and am able to capture a lot more scenery and it makes shooting pictures of me and Ana (aka self portraits of us together) a lot easier.

All in all it’s a good lens and I am very happy with it. For now I guess I have most of the focal ranges I shoot at covered. Wide angle with my Canon 10-22m and a walk around and low light with my Tamron 17-50mm. The only range  I don’t have it tele but I don’t think I’m gonna get a tele lens soon. And if I do it will probably be eiher the Canon 24-105mm f4 IS or the Canon 70-200mm f4 IS.

Well I started writing this post quite a while ago but I got lazy. When I was in New York about 1 1/2 month ago on the day I left for home I bought a new lens to replace my kitlens (18-55mm). Well, that’s what ended up happening though. I was first thinking of getting a wide angle lens to compliment the kitlens and was trying out the Tamron SP AF 10-24mm F/3.5-4.5 Di II, Sigma 12-24mm F4.5-5.6 EX DG IF ASF, Tokina 12-24mm F4 Aspherical and the Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3,5-4,5 USM.

In the end I started thinking that I really don’t shoot that much wide angle at this point in time so I started looking around at a replacement for the kitlens and after some test shooting I decided to buy the Tamron SP 17-50mm F/2.8 XR Di II. The reason I didn’t buy the Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM is because it’s more than twice the price I paid for the Tamron. The advantages of that the Canon lens might have over the Tamron aren’t worth the price premium for me at this point in time.

I’ve been happily shooting with the Tamron and it has (logically) become my walk around lens replacing the kitlens (which now purely serves as back up) and I’ve been using my nifty fifty (Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II) less often. Eventhough I still carry it along everywhere I go because you never know where it might get in handy. Plus it’s not that big and heavy. For the people that want some more reading material and reviews of the Tamron just follow the links posted below.

• http://www.tamron.com/lenses/prod/1750_diII_a016.asp
• http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Tamron-17-50mm-f-2.8-XR-Di-II-Lens-Review.aspx
• http://www.bobatkins.com/photography/reviews/tamron_17-50_review.html
• http://www.photozone.de/canon-eos/289-tamron-af-17-50mm-f28-sp-xr-di-ii-ld-aspherical-if-canon-test-report–review
• http://www.canon-reviews.com/reviews/tamron-17-50mm-f-2.8-di-ii
• http://www.slrgear.com/reviews/showproduct.php/product/355/cat/23

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Sunday 27th of September, was the day for some camera nerding with Marco & Jooky in the Spaarndammerbuurt in Amsterdam. For the non Dutch folks that are reading this. The Spaarndammerbuurt is a neighbourhood in Amsterdam. One out of the eight neighbourhoods where groups of up to 30 amateur and hobby photographers could participate in a fotosafari under guidance of a photographer from the organization. It was a good excuse to test out my new Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 lens that I bought in New York and see how I shoot pics with it on my Canon 500D.

Around 11am I met up with Marco & Jooky at Amsterdam Central Station where we took the bus towards the meeting point in the Spaarndammerbuurt. We got there early and we had something to drink and a snack while we waited for our guide. At 12 pm the guide started explaining the rules and gave some tips after which the fotosafari started. The theme for the fotosafari was “Amsterdam of Yesterday and Tomorrow.” But I didn’t really have that in my mind while walking around and snapping pictures in the Spaarndammerbuurt. I was just trying out different compositions/framing and stuff like that while taking pictures that I thought would be nice. After 2 hours of walking around we went back to the meeting point where everyone had to filter out their pics and select their 8 best pictures. We were told to be at Trouw Amsterdam in the Wibautstraat at 4pm because that was when we could start uploading our 8 pics to their laptops. Oh, btw. Trouw is a Dutch newspaper.

Before Marco, Jooky and me started to filter out our pics we copied them on Marco’s netbook and on my imagetank. And then the filtering started, I had to filter 8 pics from roughly 100 pics that I took. Yep, I still am a picture taking madman But anyway, the first few selections went pretty fast. I went from roughly 100 pics to 40, from 40 to 16 and then it got harder. Well at that time it did but it went from 16 to 12, then from 12 to 10 and the last 2 took longest. But I managed to select 8 pics which I thought were the nicest out of the 100 that I took. Now (tuesday) I probably would not have selected 2 of those but others. Like they say looking back it’s always easier …

After we selected our pics we were off to the Wibautstraat to upload our pics at Trouw Amsterdam. When we got there we proceded to upload our pics and after everyone’s pics were uploaded we had to select 5 pics that would represent the Spaarndammerbuurt for the finals. So the most honest thing to do was as a group select the best picture for eacht person which would reduce the total selection from 240 pics (30×8) to 30 pics and then our guide selected the best 5. To my big surprise my picture was one of the five to go to the finals.

During the whole uploading and selecting food was served and you could get drinks. At 7pm all the neighbourhoods had their selections and these were projected on a big ass screen and all participants voted for their favorite picture per neighbourhood and then for the overal winning picture. The winning prize for the neighbourhood is a print out of your picture on A0 format (which is pretty huge if I remember correctly) and the overal winner prize is a 4 day fototrip to New York for the winner and a friend. The votes were collected and then the waiting started. A bit after 8pm the results were in and I was in for a BIG surprise. I actually won with my picture O_o which I totally did not expect. After the overal winner was announced the three of us were off to have some all you can eat sushi after a tireing day of camera nerding.

In each neighbourhood there will be an exhibition with the pictures taken in that neighbourhood next month. So I’ll definately go take a look at the exhibition and bring along my camera to do some more camera nerding For the people that are curious and want to take a look at the pictures that were taken just follow the links that are provided just below.

If you click on the pictures you’ll get to see a larger version, if you want to see the other neighbourhood pics use the link “Bekijk alle foto’s uit …”

• Shoot Wibaut website
• Overview of the 8 winning pictures

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