Canon or Tamron?

The Canon lens is on the left
and the Tamron is on the right.

One of the big questions of many photo enthusiasts who want a standard range zoom lens is which one to purchase, the Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 or the Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8? Is the Canon worth approximately 3 times more than the Tamron? Let me help you decide.

My friend was kind enough to loan me his Canon 17-55mm to help me with the comparison to my Tamron competitor. Initially I was surprised at the size of the Canon lens, it's quite a bit larger than the Tamron. Combined with the lens hood you'd think this was a telephoto lens.

The Canon 17-55mm f2.8

The build quality of the lenses are comparable, tough plastic with a metal mount. To be honest this doesn't bother me, in fact I prefer the plastic housing if it makes the lens lighter. One edge I'll give the Canon lens is the manual focus ring and the ability to override the auto focus. This is not a feature on the Tamron lens, in fact I broke an old Tamron lens by manually focusing while in auto focus mode.

Sharpness is comparable for both lenses, in fact I could make a decision on which one was sharper. I didn't conduct any lab experiments or anything technical, just a little pixel peeping in Lightroom. Both lenses were sharp even at slow shutter speeds with the image stabailzation switched on. I was able to get acceptable shots at 1/20 sec while at 50mm for each lens.

The auto focus is one area where I did see a significant difference in performance. The Tamron had trouble in low light a couple of time and had to hunt around to find the right focus point. During the hunting phase you can hear the loud motor winding the barrel of the lens while I waited for the lens to focus. The Canon on the other hand quietly found its focus point, even if it had to hunt a little you'd hardly notice the quiet motor quickly spinning the barrel of the lens. While Canon wins this round, I know Tamron already released a 70-300mm lens with a comparable auto focus motor comparable to Canon Ultrasonic Motor. I'm sure it's only a matter of time before Tamron lends this technology to the rest of its lens lineup and eventually to the 17-50mm.

So what is the answer to the question? Canon or Tamron? If I had the money I would buy the Canon lens because there is nothing not to like other than the size and weight. I imagine it can get a little tiring having to carry the lens around for an entire day. But if you're on a budget and are looking to get the biggest bang for your buck, I'd go with the Tamron time after time.