I just had all my gear stolen and am looking into now replacing it. I am just a part time amateur and shoot mostly landscape and macro. I know this wouldn't suffice for macro... It would be nice to keep the number of lenses i have down both for traveling reasons as well as price.
Is this a good everday lens? Is it decently sharp? For landscape i dont have a problem taking a couple pictures and stitchin together if 18mm isn't quite wide enough...
Would i regret spending a few hundred $ on this lens?
I would also like to hear some personal experience with this lens as well as the Tamron 18-270mm. For now, let me just link you to some of the in-depth reviews on the net.
I was very happy. You don't get teh "magic" you see in L lens shots - but you do get huge flexibility. For anything over something like 135mm though you will need a lot of light.
I think that lens would be perfect with IS - and the new version has it! It's now an 18-270. I wouldn't hesitate for travel and etc. Just not for fine art of portraiture.