I am a novice photographer and have not the money nor the time to research and purchase multiple lenses.  This lens really is an all in one outdoor lens.  I love the zoom feature and have found that it can capture with great clarity things at a long distance.  It is durable, easy to attach to the camera base, fairly lightweight and versatile.  While it is an expensive lens it is cheaper than its Nikon and Canon comparables and was rated better than both brands by photography gurus that know more than me.    I have been very happy with this lens except have found that its aperature is not wide enough for good low light indoor pictures.  It does fine if there is enough light or if you are using a flash, but if you prefer natural lighting and are looking to take most of your pictures in an indoor setting I would suggest going with a lens that provides for larger aperatures (a 50mm or a 35mm to be exact)  But, if you love landscape photography or have busy kids that love to be outside than this lens will fill most of your needs and will be worth the money.

aligirl501

Stockton, CA

I bought this lens to use with my Canon Rebel XT, about a year and a half ago, and used it extensively around home with marvelous results, then took it on a 2-week mission trip to Africa in Sept 09, and to New Zealand in Jan 2010... It performed perfectly until about the last two days of my NZ trip, when it started giving me "Error 99" codes.. The only way to clear it is to shut the camera off for a few seconds, usually losing the picture.  This began to happen more and more frequently until I finally couldn't use the lens at all.  Last week, I took it into a reputable digital camera repair expert, who said he was seeing this more and more often with the non-proprietary lenses...He suggested regularly cleaning the contacts on both lens and camera, which he did, and said that using new memory cards sometimes will help, but that sometimes there isn't much you can do.  I have to say that I took probably close to 10,000 pictures with this lens before it began acting up on me, and the pictures were beautiful - excellent optics, clarity and versatility.  It seems the problem is in the camera - lens interface.  The repairman didn't know of a software or firmware fix, but maybe Tamron will be able to come up with something in the future.  In the meantime, I'm switching to a Canon lens.  My Tamron 70 - 300 is also starting to give the same error code at the upper ranges of the zoom, so I'm definitely switching.

Takazky

Kettle Falls, WA