A used tamron 28-200 to supplement my kit 18-55. According to the reviews it will rape all my neighbors, borrow money from family members, and eventually lead to the moral decay of the nation.

Seems to take pretty good pics to me.

Some test shots from the parking lot at work during lunch.

75 yards



150 yards



quarter mile



I realize that it aint fast, and it's made of plastic, and it's kinda noisy.... but good grief. The reviews make it sound like the worst thing you could possibly get a camera near.

Since I'm a complete newbie, could anyone tell me if this is par for the course for lens reviews?

The 28-200 was the very first lens I got for my Canon 10D. Your copy looks much much better than
mine. I remember that everything above 100mm went soft regardless of aperture. I sold the lens a
couple of weeks later and upgraded to the Tamron 28-75 and have never looked back since.

Maybe that big dent in the corner of the box mine came in knocked some sense into it.

I realize this isn't one of the big white lenses with a red ring. But what really confuses and worries at me, is that the reviews were pretty unforgiving. That brings up some questions.

Did i just happen to get " a good one"?
Should i mentally flavor the reviews with a touch of optimism because they arent aimed at beginners like me?
Are the lens reviews accurate and am i going to re-enact the melting scene from raides of the lost ark if I ever get one because they're that good?

Oh, and i had a typo in there, mine is the 28-300 instead of 200.

Well 28-300 is much better than the 28-200 ... the Tamron 28-300 VC is even better than the non-VC version you got.