Your opinions of the Tamron 28-300 on the D700

[DavidLake]

Is this lens as good on the D3/D700 as the Nikon 18-200 is on the D300 for overall sharpness & IQ? I am thinking of replacing my D300's to get a pair of D3x's - to go nicely with my two D3's :), but don’t want to lose the fun 18-200VR FL range usability. Also, my girlfriend who often 2nd shoots at my weddings, will use the 18-200VR on a D300 for the non-portrait shooting (reception & getting ready stuff). I find it performs very well when stepped down to f8, but is quite soft wide open.

2nd concern is AF. I have heard it hunts a bunch - especially at the long end

3rd concern is noise. Since it has a screw drive rather than lens motor, is it very noisy compared to lenses like the Nikon 18-200VR

Thanks for any opinions and thoughts...

[Stany Buyle]

My findings with the tamron 28-300 VC are:
Reasonable sharp over the whole focal lenght, also wide open .
AF is slow to very slow and hunting in lowlight.
AF is good if sufficient light.
VC is working very well, TMHO @least as good or perhaps better as Nikon's VR.
28-300 is a great travel lens to sunny locations.
I would never use it in a church or similar lightning situations.
VC is quiet noisy...
Some more on this with sample pictures here.
...
I would prefer Nikon coming out with a similar FX lens in AF-S...

[Guy Van Hooveld]

This is a good all round lens on FX, but with limitations. The 18-200VR on DX is better, with faster focus and 5.6.

I put my mini-review of that lens on my site:
http://users.skynet.be/van.hooveld/Reviews/tamron28300vc.htm

Another comment, in the beginning pictures were not very sharp, I could improve this by using the AF adjust in the D3 and quality improved significantly.

[DavidLake]

So if I am 'dumping' my D300's what would you recommend to try as an all around for the D3/D3x/D700? The 24-120VR - even though its not even close in range. I noticed your test of it showed pretty well: http://www.fotografie.fr/n3-test3-e.htm

I guess with the 24-120 on the D3x I could crop it down to 10MP (DX mode, or in post) and get out to 240mm. But then what is the point of the D3x. Maybe just keep one D300 for this purpose and get one D3x - decisions, decisions...

Will likely buy one D3x to start and then see if I miss the D300, if not then swap the other.