Best (valued) fuckin' standard zoom in the world!

The bond between me and my Tamron SP AF17-50mm F/2.8 XR Di-II LD Aspherical (damn that’s a long name, Tammy for short!) runs deep. Whenever I bring my camera with me somewhere, my little Tammy comes with me — no questions asked. It’s the best standard zoom lens out there for the money, period. Sure it’s professional grade big brother the Nikon Nikkor 18-50 f/2.8 is nice too, but it’s 4 times the price and way too big to lug around everywhere.

So naturally, I was devastated when I picked up my camera out of my trunk one day to find that the focus ring on the Tammy was jammed up and the front plastic cap was loose. Shivering out of great sadness and despair like a coked out Eskimo with nothing to live for I ran (okay, I probably drove) to the closest camera repair store.

Thankfully, the Tamron ALSO comes with a 6 year warranty, I sent it to Japan to make peace with the higher robotic beings that live there — and 4 weeks later I got a call from the camera repair store saying that my precious was ready. I skipped (okay, I probably drove again) back to the camera store and immediately stuck it onto my Nikon D200, squeezed the shutter trigger and filled the buffer with sharp, beautiful, contrasty RAW image files.

I think I may need some help. Professional help.