Working with git repo tagged versions

Howdy folks,

Occasionally I need to grab an older release from git based on a tag
rather than a branch, eg the REL8_3_10 tag vs the REL8_3_STABLE
branch. I used to know how to do this in CVS, but I find I tend to
revert to grabbing tarballs now that we're on git. So, I'm wondering
if anyone knows a way to do this directly from git clone (or similar),
and ideally as a shallow clone (ie. I just need a copy of the code at
that tag, rather than needing the repo for development purposes). If
anyone knew a way to do this down to a specific commit, that would
also be interesting to know. Thanks in advance.

Robert Treat
conjecture: xzilla.net
consulting: omniti.com