Lens showdown: Nikon 50mm 1.8D vs the Tamron 28-75mm 2.8 XR Di LD

Exhibit A: 50mm 1/50s f/2.8 ISO 200

Most lens reviews talk about technical details, show charts and some image samples. It seems to be common knowledge that a Branded prime lens is superior to a third-party zoom lens. But can you tell the difference in a resulting image? Yeah? Prove it.

Here I will show you three sets of images. For each one I took the same photo with both lenses. One is shot with the Nikon 50mm 1.8D and the other is shot with the Tamron 28-75mm 2.8 XR Di LD. Take a look at them and make your guess as to which image was shot with which lens.

Some hints

Each pair was taken with identical settings, with the Tamron set to 50mm
All photos were taken on a tripod for consistency, using available light
They’re not in the same order (as in it’s not photos A,C and E one lens and B,D and F the other).
I’ve removed the metadata from them so don’t bother trying to figure it out that way.
There’s a link at the end of the article to download full resolution images

First pair

The first set were taken indoors at 1/50s, f/2.8 ISO 200. Image A is above, image B is below:

Exhibit B: 50mm 1/50s f/2.8 ISO 200

Second Pair:

The second set were taken outdoors at 1/640s, f/5.6 ISO 200.

Exhibit C: 50mm 1/640s f/5.6 ISO 200

Exhibit D: 50mm 1/640s f/5.6 ISO 200

Third Pair:

The third set were taken outdoors at 1/125s, f/22 ISO 200.

Exhibit E: 50mm 1/125s f/22 ISO 200

Exhibit F: 50mm 1/125s f/22 ISO 200

Full resolution download:

Download the files here

Gear used for this test:

So there you have it – take a look, make your guesses in the comments below, and come to your own conclusions about what this means.

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Tagged as: field, image quality, lenses, nikon, Photography, review, tamron, test

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_QIZLAO5HCQKCQSJKEPQFKLA3E4 ednsb

1st set – 2nd one is Nikon, 2nd set 1st one is Nikon and 3rd set 2nd one is Nikon
http://twitter.com/corrosphoto Cor Oskam

I think A,D,E are from the prime, B,C,F from the zoom.
- bclark
  
  My guess too
Melissa Harry

i think the nikon 50mm is A, D and E…
- Wonderdawg
  
  I agree as well a, d , e.
  The colors are crisp
Sander-Martijn

Let me just say no one has gotten it 100% right yet.
ballinaboy

A,D,F are Nikon 50
Dan Holahan

B,C, F are the Tamron.
Spoorthy Vemula

My guess is that B, C, and E are the tamron.
- Spoorthy Vemula
  
  I say this because, B, C, and E have cooler color renderation
Anonymous

And now for the surprising answer… B,C and F are the Nikon 50mm. A,D and E are the Tamron. Most of you were completely or almost completely backwards.
ednsb
was the only one that came close – you were only wrong about the f/22 image. I will grant you that a small aperture is going to be the most difficult to differentiate.

I’m going to take a guess here that most of you went with the images that had more pleasing Bokeh and color as the Nikon prime, yet those were the Tamron.

I’ll remind you guys that the Tamron I tested with is 1/3 the price of its’ Nikon equivalent.
John

who compares a prime to a zoom? Useless
- Anonymous
  
  It’s not useless if people can’t tell – or even guess wrong – and that’s what happened. If I can’t take a better image with my 50mm than I can with my zoom set to 50mm, why carry around the extra lens? Not to say there aren’t uses for the prime, but I show both that the idea that the quality of a branded prime being so dramatically better than a third-party zoom is a legend with modern optics.
- Chris Gampat
  
  Hi John,
  
  I believe you’re completely missing the point of this test. The point was to educate our readers on whether they can tell the difference between prime lenses, zoom lenses and whether or not a lens is first party or third party. The reason why we did this is because people often say that first party lenses are better quality and they also state that primes are often much better in image quality than zooms.
  
  We took away some of the information to see if our readers could tell the difference or not to prove said claims. It was meant to be educational and as most people could not get the correct answer, the readers have indeed learned something new.
  
  I apologize if we let you down, but to defend my Educational Director and the Phoblographer’s tendencies to go out of the norm, our point is to educate our audience and enlighten people.
- Anonymous
  
  Hi John,
  
  I believe you’re completely missing the point of this test. The point was to educate our readers on whether they can tell the difference between prime lenses, zoom lenses and whether or not a lens is first party or third party. The reason why we did this is because people often say that first party lenses are better quality and they also state that primes are often much better in image quality than zooms.
  
  We took away some of the information to see if our readers could tell the difference or not to prove said claims. It was meant to be educational and as most people could not get the correct answer, the readers have indeed learned something new.
  
  I apologize if we let you down, but to defend my Educational Director and the Phoblographer’s tendencies to go out of the norm, our point is to educate our audience and enlighten people.
Anonymous

To put this another way – this is not a lens comparison of the normal type, intended to answer the question “Do I buy lens A or lens B?” These are both great lenses with different uses and I use both regularly. My goal here was to show that some things aren’t as they appear and to debunk some of the legends surrounding glass. What you do with this information is up to you.
Alex

Hey man, amazing review I was actualy really looking for a comparison test like this. This really should get more attention. Would you be able to to a similar test but with the nikon at 1.8 50mm and the tamron at 2.8 75 mm? Thanks man!
- sandermartijn
  
  Thanks. It wouldn’t really make a lot of sense to compare them at different apertures and focal lengths. I was already comparing drastically different lenses so it only made sense to reduce the variables as much as possible by using the same apertures and focal length. Is there something in particular you’d like to know about the Tamron at 75mm?