Great Lens for Macro Photography - Tamron 60mm Macro Lens

If you are looking for a macro lens that gives excellent quality, look no further than the Tamron SP AF 60mm F/2 Di II LD[IF] Macro 1:1 lens. It is available for purchase at your favorite online vendor. That is a name deserving of a champion, right? I mean what are all those letters - are they important?Here's the break down:

• SP = High performance specifications (I know, pretty obscure)
• AF = auto focus
• F/2 = aperture designation for the largest aperture(lens opening)
• Di II = digital images only, not film images
• LD = Low Dispersion glass
• IF = Internal focusing

Lots of techy information represented in those letters. Are they necessary? They certainly are.The features available in the Tamron 60mm Macro lens are what make it a fantastic lens.In spite of the long list, there are a couple of "letters" that could make this an even sweeter lens - VC and USD. VC, Vibration Compensation, is similar to Image Stabilization, and USD, Ultrasonic Silent Drive, is for very fast focus. In spite of being excellent additions to the technology of the lens, they would add lots to the price tag, making it too expensive for the many intended users.Who are the intended users? It is only good for use on APC-C cameras... I know, more letters. Are you an APS-C camera owner? You are if you own a digital SLR cameras with a modified sensor that is less than "full frame". These are cameras like the Digital Rebels in the Canon line and the D5000 in the Nikon line.This is a good thing, because the Tamron engineers have focused on a single type of camera rather than trying to make a lens that will be perfect for every camera.There are two features, in particular, that have been mentioned in each review of the Tamron 60mm Macro lens.1. Super quality images. The excellent image quality was acknowledged, and a few even mentioned that the image quality was a pleasant surprise to them. It must be mentioned that using a prime (or single focal length) lens does give a much better chance for high image quality than a zoom lens.2. Depth of Field. The plane of focus, being a macro lens, was narrow enough, even at the smaller apertures to produce a nice blurring, or bokeh, effect.This declaration by the manufacturer is important: The Tamron 60mm Macro lens is the only lens in the World that can boast an F/2.0 aperture at that focal length. The closest competitor has as its largest aperture F/2.8.This lens is not merely for macro photography, although it is very good in that category. Portraits are also produced with excellent results using the 60mm lens. Many photographers use a 50mm lens for portraits, but this one worked exceptionally well for taking sharp portraits.Much has been mentioned in favor of the Tamron 60mm Macro lens. But are there any negatives?There actually is one feature that has caused some negative comments. The lens has auto focus with a manual override. That means that you can use the camera to get the focus automatically, but if you feel that you can tweak the focus manually to get it sharper, you can do that. The reviewing photographers seemed to have trouble with this feature, because the lens would try to auto focus while they were using the manual override.This is a problem with some other macro models, too. Because you are so close to the subject, and the plane of focus is so narrow, it is sometimes difficult for the auto focus feature to get a tack-sharp focus. With the Tamron 60mm Macro lens, the testers agreed that they were able to master this problem, but it was somewhat of a negative in their evaluation.All in all this is a really great lens for entry level to mid level digital slr cameras. This lens offers photographers a affordable macro lens that gives great image quality.