One of our wisest purchases

This lens exceeded my expectations by a lot! I agonized for months about getting it. We had used a 35mm SLR for years with a variety of lenses. But, we like to hike in the mountains, take wilderness canoe trips, and we were planning a lengthy trip to China. Lugging all the lenses had lost its appeal, and seemed quite impractical for the China trip. We had tried the zoom point-and-shoot approach, but definitely missed the compositional control available with an SLR.

We finally bit the bullet and got it. I was amazed with the first roll of test pictures. They had all the sharpness and zap that we were accustomed to. The zoom range is phenomenal. It could easily be switched to manual focus for those tricky shots through foreground that always seem to confuse the point-and-shoot cameras. I think the best part was that the right lens was always on the camera -- no fumbling for a lens while an animal runs away, or the scenery drifts around a corner.

For fairness, I must point out that while this is an excellent general-purpose lens, it does have limitations and is not right for everything. Most notably, it is rather slow, particularly at its longest zoom. It is primarily for outdoor daylight use, and not for high-speed sports action, etc. In China we used Fuji 800 NHG film, which is another story, but the extra speed is useful with this lens. The results were magnificent! To see some pictures taken with this lens, visit www.usol.com/~rmcmeeking and view the China pictures.