Yeah, I had one of these, a great lens with a nice meaty hood.. Not got it anymore unfortunately. I am a big Tamron fan, and also used the longer 400mm f/4 variant for a while whilst doing some Cricket photography. If you can find one (a little rare now) its a smashing quality lens, if a little less versatile than the 300mm 2.8 + 1.4x converter.
One lens I truely regret selling was my favourite limited edition anniversary SP 180mm f2.5 with lovely smooth lightweight feeling internal focusing, it blew the socks off the Nikkor 180mm 2.8 in the handling stakes. I not seen one since, and think it unlikely I probably will
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