BUYERS BEWARE

Once again, another cheap plastic lens from Tamron, including the PLASTIC LENS MOUNT! Save your money and buy the 18-250mm lens for another 100 bucks. You lose a whopping 50mm at the long end, but the optics and build are superior plus a gain on the short end.
If you don't want to spend that much then consider the Sigma 28-300mm, unfortunatly the optics are a bit less than the Tamron 28-300mm, but the build quality is definitely superior. Of course this review is NOT for the VC version of this lens which is far superior in build and worth another 200 + dollars in price and not available until 2008.

Ok lens

Used this lens for almost 2yrs now. It's all propose natureis great, but if you're doing portraits or close up itdoesn't give you the best quality/depth of field... Foraction shots best to use 800ISO, at full zoom it's at 6.3,and the lens isn't so lite so keeping it completely steadycan be tricky.

An exceptional all around lens.

Since I've put this lens on my D100 I have used it almost exclusively. I have shot many weddings, model portfolios, public relations jobs and just about everything else with this lens. I have made wall portraits that are 3 X 4 ft and the image quality is great. It is a real advantage not to have to switch lenses all the time. I have lots of Nikon specialty lenses, but this Tamron is the one that I use the most. It's been knocked around a bit but holds up fine. I like its light weight.

Excellent all-purpose lens

I use this lens on a Nikon D-70S and N-80 and can't remember the last time I used a different lens. I do many school assignments--K-12 where I shoot the activities as well as tight shots of performers and audience members. They are used for newspapers and the school district's website as well as for the schools to make prints to post in their hallways and class rooms. The 300 allows me to zoom in on people some distance away w/o them being aware of it, a necessity for capturing children's expressions. And the wide angle allows me the full group shots I often need. The quick zoom action also is good for sports where the action moves quickly across a field or court. The 1.6 foot close range is good for the many small items I often have to photograph. A standard set-focal length lens may be sharper, but for my use this one is fine. I have gone 16X20 prints with the negative film and found the prints to be quite sharp. I also shoot for a farm bureau newspaper so I do some scenics as well as  more

Good travel lens

After over 40 years of amateur photography, I found a great lens for general use. 10x zoom is very useful, especially on a digital SLR with a 1.5x lens factor. Issues are: barrel distortion is quite noticeable when shooting vertical lines, not too noisy, but still noticeable in museums and the like. Like all wide range zooms, not as sharp as prime lenses, so the images will be soft - could be an issue for big enlargements or photo competitions. May want to get a faster prime lens for indoor work.Good for traveling light! If you never print an image larger than 5x7 or so, you may not need another lens.

Great when only one lens makes sense

Got this lens for my wife along with a Nikon D-50 just prior to a 2 week trip to Africa. Initial impressions were that the lens was very lightweight and compact and gave an amazingly full range of wide-angle to zoom capability. On the plus side, this lense stayed on my wife's camera all the time and she got some great shots that I missed while I was fumbling to change lenses. On the bad side, I swapped cameras with her one evening and found the lens to be less than great in low light (ie required long shutter times) at even modest zoom settings and even with ISO set up to 400 on the camera. I found that shutter speeds got so slow that I could not handhold the camera without blur from lens shake (1/30 or slower) while my other Nikon with the 70-300mm 1:4.5-5.6 was still taking good shots. Also, I found that on the digital camera with its 1.5x lens multiplier that the 28mm wide angle end of the lens was not wide enough for some of those vast African landscapes.
Net, net -- if I were on  more

Glad I bought it !

Finally decided to buy this lens for my Canon 20D and after 1000 shots of all types I know I made the right choice for a lens I don't have to change all the time.

There's no subsitute for a few prime lenses of known good quality when you know what you are after and don't mind taking them all with you, but for this price, the Tamron is a little gem IMO. f2.8 would be nice... but at what price ?

Edit; Now with over 12,000 shots with this lens and still happy owner. As good as the "best" lenses out there ? No.. but look at the price.

Glad I bought it !

Finally decided to buy this lens for my Canon 20D and after 1000 shots of all types I know I made the right choice for a lens I don't have to change all the time.

There's no subsitute for a few prime lenses of known good quality when you know what you are after and don't mind taking them all with you, but for this price, the Tamron is a little gem IMO. f2.8 would be nice... but at what price ?

Edit; Now with over 12,000 shots with this lens and still happy owner. As good as the "best" lenses out there ? No.. but look at the price.

If you buy just one lens, this is it.

When I got my dslr, I did not get the "kit" lens. I wanted immediately to be able to take both macro and zoom shots, and I didn't have money for more than one good quality lens. So I researched and read reviews online and when I bought my new camera, I got the Tamron 28-300. I made a great choice. If you buy just one lens; this lens is it.

This lens' macro shots are clear and detailed. For example, in a picture I recently took of my Pomeranian each individual hair that sticks up is visible and clear, strand by strand.

The versatility of the lens allows me to take landscape pictures, photos of birds in my yard, portraits, nearly whatever strikes me. Every time they are crisp and the colors are good.

I love this lens; it is still my primary lens.

If you buy just one lens, this is it.

When I got my dslr, I did not get the "kit" lens. I wanted immediately to be able to take both macro and zoom shots, and I didn't have money for more than one good quality lens. So I researched and read reviews online and when I bought my new camera, I got the Tamron 28-300. I made a great choice. If you buy just one lens; this lens is it.

This lens' macro shots are clear and detailed. For example, in a picture I recently took of my Pomeranian each individual hair that sticks up is visible and clear, strand by strand.

The versatility of the lens allows me to take landscape pictures, photos of birds in my yard, portraits, nearly whatever strikes me. Every time they are crisp and the colors are good.

I love this lens; it is still my primary lens.

An Average 10.7x Zoom Lense

If you will only buy one camera lense, this is probably the one to get. It is relatively sharp throughout its focal length (almost), and the distortion level is not too bad either. The problem I have with this lense is that it's pretty slow in auto-focus mode, chromatic aberration (color fringing... pinkish color on the edge of shiny or contrasty objects) is quite prominent, and the overall image quality is just average. This is the compromise for having a one-lense solution for a 28mm to 300mm range (10.7x zoom).

If you can deal with a two-lense or three-lense solution for a 28-300mm range (tele-zoom), you would probably have a better satisfaction with the "technical" quality of your photographs. The New Nikon DX lenses 18-55mm and 55-200mm (combined, it gives you 11.1x magnification) is definetly better optically, and the price of these two lenses (combined) is within the range of Tamron. The wide angle capability (18mm) of the Nikon lenses is definitely an extra advantage too.

Great quality, terrific value

(Tamron also makes this lens available for Canon and Pentax digital SLRs, for the same price.)

This new digital SLR-friendly zoom lens from Tamron is a great way to acquire a high-quality zoom lens for a fraction of the cost if you bought from the camera maker (e.g., Nikkor). Tamron claims this is world's "smallest and lightest" zoom lens for the focal range. I have no idea if that's true. It's small and lightweight indeed, about the same size as the DX lens bundled with the Nikon D70 but feels lighter in the hand. To my eyes it's a plastic lens, but this made-in-Japan lens looks and feels solid. It has all the bells and whistles of a modern lens: XR, LD, asperical, plus macro capability. In real world shooting I'm very happy with the result, and I really don't think buying an official Nikkor lens would make much of a difference. Two things to keep in mind is, 1) as long as you buy a namebrand lens (Tamron, Sigma, and maybe Vivitar) you are getting a good deal, and 2) the marginal  more