Quote Originally Posted by Sheiky


Hmm Brendan...what do you say about this...both lenses wide open and you can also put the tamron to f4 if you want to make it really honest.


Try both the wide and long end.


Link to Bryans ISOchart


Anyway I would buy a Canon f4L over a Tamron or Tokina, but just because I had one and I liked it a lot... it rocked! But for my eyes the Tamron seems just as sharp and even a little sharper than the Canon...(or perhaps I don't get the charts)


And the Canon-AF makes this lens much more versatile and usable...at least to me.



Hmmm...the Tamron is definitely sharper at the wide end (even with both lenses wide open where the Tammy is a stop faster). At the long end, they aren't really different at f/4, and the Tamron @ 200mm f/2.8 is definitely softer than the Canon at 200mm f/4. Also, note that Bryan tested two copies of the Tamron 70-200 f/2.8, and copy 1 (which your link uses, Jan) is sharper than copy 2 across the range - except at 135mm, where both copies of the Tamron fall apart at f/2.8. (Of course, there are copy-specific variations in Canon lenses as well.)