When I originally posted my reply, the site was having technical issues and it did not appear my post was submitting correctly. I posted this afternoon before checking again to see if it had. My apologies.
Thanks to all who have replied, I have been struggling with this for over a month now. I am definitely on a tighter budget than a couple of the posters. I was looking at a 40D or 50D, for whatever reason I like Canon, my 35mm SLR took some awesome pics and my current Canon point and shoot does very well too. Like some of you stated, I think Canon and Nikon sensors are extremely close based on the reading I have done. It looks like I may lean towards a Rebel XSI and put the $400 to $500 savings towards a good/fast lens! Any thoughts on a XSI .vs 40D from the Canon users?
Sorry for the double post.
I agree with the advice you've been given. I shoot indoor hockey and VBall for my kid's teams and have struggled with this. I recently bought a Nikon D90. Its my first Nikon and I'm very happy with it. The D90 has low noise up to 3200 ISO and I need it indoors. I don't have the 70-200 ISO f2.8 and wish I did. Can't afford it right now. I have a Nikkor 18-200 f 3.5-5.6. I can get the indoor shots but am pushing the limits. If I were going for a 3rd party lens, I'd go for the Tamaron over the Sigma. 70-200 f2.8.
The thing to remember about Tamron lenses is that as far as autofocus goes they are reverse engineered for each camera manufacturers bodies. This means they should work well with bodies that were already out when Tamron released the lens. Because they don't actually license the technology from the camera makers, there is no guarantee of 100% compatibility with the newer bodies. I would be careful to buy the lens somewhere I could return it when putting a lens released in late 2003 (the Tamron 70-200 f/2.8 Di) on the D90, a body released less than a year ago. I'm actually surprised we haven't seen an updated DiII version of this lens by now.
I didn't know about the compatibility but it makes total sense. Thanks for the tip. I'm usually preoccupied with the quality of optics.
There are at least 2 reviews that notice subpar autofocus performance of the Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 lens. For an action lens, AF accuracy and speed are the most important, but Tamron seems to have the worst performance when compared to Canon, Nikon and even with Sigma. Its still images have high quality but most people bought this type of fast tele for action photos rather than portraits.
Here are two reviews:
http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Tamron-70-200mm-f-2.8-Di-Macro-Lens-Review.aspx
http://www.dpreview.com/lensreviews/tamron_70-200_2p8_c16/page5.asp
And this is a Nikon user opinion about the Tamron lens, again slow focus in low light is the main weakness of this lens:
http://photo.net/nikon-camera-forum/00QfnB
The very reason why people pay extra money and sacrifice their shoulder to get a fast tele to be able to capture low light actions. And the Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 seems to have failed this very purpose.
Please note that the bodies used in every one of those reviews was released after the lens in question, which has been out about 6 years. These bodies have been out 3 years or less, with the exception of the EOS 1D mkII, which came out about six months after the Tamron 70-200 f/2.8. When reverse engineering a lens, it would be hard to make a lens compatible with models that don't yet exist, and won't for several years. Some bodies, the Nikon D40 for example, don't have the focusing issues with this lens until you're in almost total darkness.
Would I buy the Tamron 70-200 f/2.8? Only if I could return it for a full refund if it proved to be incompatible with my body. If Tamron releases a Di II version of this lens would I be interested? Absolutely.
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