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Lens review

Tamron AF 18-200 mm f/3.5-6.3 XR Di II LD Aspherical (IF)

12 January 2011
Arkadiusz Olech

3. Build quality

When you hold the Tamron 18-200 mm in your hand, the lens’s compact dimensions in the folded position are the first thing that sticks out. It is not much bigger than a kit lens and you can see it very well in the picture below.

Tamron AF 18-200 mm f/3.5-6.3 XR Di II LD Aspherical (IF) - Build quality

A closer inspection of the housing reveals that we don’t deal here with a high quality equipment; looking at the price and parameters, though, you could hardly expect such a thing. Although the housing is stylish, with a big and comfortable zoom ring and a bit smaller manual focus ring, there’s too much plastics there. The 200 mm focal length, when the front element extends on a long, plastic telescopic inner lens tube, made us especially concerned. If you happen to catch on something hard you might damage the lens.


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Tamron AF 18-200 mm f/3.5-6.3 XR Di II LD Aspherical (IF) - Build quality

In order to get a lens which, in the 18-200 mm range, can provide good quality images, the producer decided to use a quite complex construction, including several special elements. The Tamron 18-200 mm consists of 15 elements in 13 groups with one low-dispersion LD element, one higher refractive index glass element (XR) and three aspherical elements. Additionally we get an aperture with seven diaphragm blades, which, depending on the focal length, can be closed down from f/22 to f/40.

Tamron AF 18-200 mm f/3.5-6.3 XR Di II LD Aspherical (IF) - Build quality

The lens is available in Canon AF-D, Sony/Maxxum AF-D, Nikon AF-D and Pentax/Samsung AF mounts; a petal-type hood is also the part of the package.