Nice addition to your digital camera!

Overall

I recently switched over from the kit lens to the Tamron for use with my Pentax K10D. This lens is a lightweight compact lens that has made some improvements on the existing 18-200mm lens by adding additional telephoto range.

Technical

This lens contains a zoom ratio of 13.9X allowing this lens to cover both the wide angle and telephoto photographs. The minimum focus distance on this lens is 0.45m throughout the entire zoom range resulting in macro capability of 1:3.5. Tamron uses an 'Internal Surface Coating' and multiple-layer coating to reduce ghosting and flare. The zoom locking mechanism prevents unwanted extension of the barrel during carrying.

Thoughts

Upon first using the lens I was impressed with the extreme crispness of the pictures with little or no noticeable distortion regardless of using the macro, wide angle, or telephoto capabilities of the lens. The AF speed and accuracy are very good. With a rather slow max. aperture at the long end it may be better to use an ISO 400. This could have been improved by adding an image stabilizer, albeit at an increased cost to the consumer. However, my Pentax K10D has Shake Reduction in the camera body, which is proving to be very useful with this lens. The lens lacks a little in low light with the autofocus having difficulties snapping in. Regardless, this lens does an amazing job and has a great optical performance with amazing color and contrast.

The lens takes the 62mm filters as used on the 18-200mm lens

Overall, a fantastic lens for everyday use!