A complete waste of my hard earned pay .

This lens is slow, noisy, and soft. I struggle to find enough light for long focal length shots. The noise of the auto-focus annoys me so much I wonder if the internal parts aren't grinding into pieces. And I've yet to take a photo that's sharp and acceptable - they are all incredibly soft. The focus is so bad I wonder if there might be a problem with the specific combination of my Canon 20D and this lens. I've shot a few hundred pictures with this lens and not one has been worth printing. It's become an expensive paperweight. The 20D's kit lens takes better photos.