Beginner Is my lens faulty?

SamSamPhotoMan

SamSamPhotoMan

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I have recently bought a DSLR camera and was given an old Tamron 28-200 71DE AF lens. I'm aware I shouldn't be expecting a professional quality lens but this is OK as I'm just starting out so don't want to splash out loads of money just yet. However, all the photos I have taken with it don't look great (example attached), nothing looks sharp at all. I have tried various zooms and a mixture of manual and autofocus. The attached example was just taken using the camera's (Canon 40D) automatic setting, but I did try aperture priority and shutter priority too and similar results. This was one of the better pictures I took...

I also have a 50mm prime lens. The photos on this look really good, so I'm trying to work out the reason for the big difference.

What are your thoughts? Is it just a rubbish lens, is it faulty or am I an incompetent photographer?

Thanks for your help.

105346-5be6eeef5cc0c4ec353b47177cbf4f95.jpg
 
It is impossible to tell from that little thumbnail, but begs the question
In a scene like that what details are you expecting to be sharp?

I have seen people expecting to get sharp foliage detail in the far distance, not happening.

Maybe provide a bigger photo and some additional details like where was your focus point
 
Can you post a proper sized version, preferably from Flickr or suchlike with the exif intact so we can see the photo and settings?
 
SamSamPhotoMan said:
Hi,

Apologies. I'm new to this forum. I just assumed you'd be able to click on the photo to see a full size version.

https://flic.kr/p/VS6eVw

The tree was supposed to be the in focus bit.

Thanks
Click to expand...

Yes it looks like it's all out of focus.

Have you tried focusing manually?

What focus points / modes are you using?

Do you have a UV or 'protection filter' attached to the lens?
 
Yes, the lens has an AF/MF switch. I have tried both the autofocus and focusing manually with similar results.

With regards to the focus points it was just in the automatic half press mode. I can see that this might be an issue with the tree off to the side but I also took some straight up photos that were similarly out of focus. I don't have them with me at the moment but can post tomorrow if that will help?

I'm pretty sure I could hear something whirring during the focus stage, I'll get my camera out tomorrow evening and confirm.
 
Shutter speed? It needs to be high enough so you are not shaking the camera. At 200mm, shutter speed needs to be faster than 1/300.
 
EXIF says 1/250s at 77mm focal length so I'd be surprised if it's camera shake.

However, something's not right. It looks completely out of focus for some reason.
 
The Op says he has tried manual focus as well as autofocus. If manual focus is just as bad, and the 50mm is fine, it must be a faulty lens.
 
The image looks more like it has some sort of ghosting rather than mis-focus which could suggest an element out of alignment possibly? I take it you're not aware of the lens having been dropped/knocked? Also, it was asked before but no answer, do you have a UV/protection filter on the lens?
 
Have you tried stopping down or up a little & playing with the focal lengths?

I've got some older lenses (MF, but the same principles apply) & they've all got a very specific sweet-spot. Outside of this spot and the quality deteriorates nastily.

(e.g. OM mount Vivitar 28-200mm with Canon adaptor. Decent quality when the focal length is over ~120mm or so, and needs to be stopped right down)
 
leezer3 said:
Have you tried stopping down or up a little & playing with the focal lengths?

I've got some older lenses (MF, but the same principles apply) & they've all got a very specific sweet-spot. Outside of this spot and the quality deteriorates nastily.

(e.g. OM mount Vivitar 28-200mm with Canon adaptor. Decent quality when the focal length is over ~120mm or so, and needs to be stopped right down)
Click to expand...

This was shot at f/9 on a crop, about as much stopped down as you'd want [emoji3]

This is just out of focus everywhere.
 
Have you tried the lens on something close, at around it's minimum focus distance, starting at its shortest focal length and then working your way up through its full zoom. Just to see if you can get anything in focus. If not then i would suggest the lens is kaput.
 
SamSamPhotoMan said:
was given an old Tamron 28-200 71DE AF lens.
Click to expand...

Personally I think the answers in the question.. cheap nasty old lens that was given away? Borrow a decent lens and try again would give you a lot more answers than we can :)
 
It does sound like the lens isn't very good and/or is out of alignment.

One more thing to try to get a better result would be to do what Orangecroc suggested: put the camera with the lens on a stable surface (such as a table) and take another shot at f/8.0 to eliminate camera shake.

Most lenses perform at their best (sharpest) at f/8.0 or thereabouts so if you still get poor results it's probably the lens that is the problem.
 
Orangecroc said:
Also use the self-timer or live view to cut out any possible mirror shock aswell.
Click to expand...

You should be able to get a sharp photo in the daytime without doing that.

The lens is just knackered!
 
Hi all,

Thank you for your help and advice. I do not have a UV filter or similar on the lens and it looks like it is the same lens from the link stevelmx5 sent that they said they were disappointed with.

Following on from some of the ideas banded about I went outside and took some more photos with various zooms, both hand held and supported on a solid surface.

It didn't seem to make too much difference whether it was hand held or not but I noticed the photos look a lot better when I have no zoom (28mm)
https://flic.kr/p/Wuk1ZT (handheld 28mm, looking decent)
https://flic.kr/p/WejJod (handheld 59mm, 1/500 blurry)
https://flic.kr/p/VfK9up (supported 74mm, 1/500 still blurry)
https://flic.kr/p/WqGFDQ (handheld 55mm, slower shutter speed at 1/100, still not super focused but surprisingly better)
https://flic.kr/p/VfKev6 (28mm, 1/80, looking pretty good)

It seems to me that the blurriness is not caused by camera shake as 1/500 should eliminate that as far as I'm aware and it was still blurry when supported on a surface. It seems I can only really take good photos when I am not zoomed at all (not much use for a zoom lens). Perhaps if I were a better photographer and knew more about adjusting the settings at higher zooms I could take better photos, but it seems to me that either something is faulty with the zoom, the lens is just old and not so great, or it's just not a beginner friendly lens and I should park it until I'm better at photography.

Sad times, was very excited by the free lens, does my interpretation seem reasonable or do you think I have missed something?
 
I've had a look at all your test shots and it seems you get a reasonable (although not great) result at 28mm but from there the lens seems to be incredibly soft or the focus is completely off.

I don't think you're ever going to get much better results from this lens. Given the residual value it's probably not worth trying to get it inspected and/or fixed.

The Canon EF-S 18-55 IS actually has a decent reputation and is pretty affordable. I would suggest trying to seek out this lens if you need an affordable general purpose zoom.
 
Inclined to agree. I'm not normally quick to assume something is knackered but the results above seem to speak for themselves. Agree with the idea of picking up a cheap kit lens.
 
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