I saw in another post that you rented this lens. I'm curious how you will like it. I have had it for a year, but have not done much beyond snapshops. Mostly casual family outdoor fun stuff and sports pictures of my daughter. I've also gotten good pictures of kids on stage at school from my seat without a flash. I like the lens for the all-in-one reasons that I got it. No trouble with it and the VR works well. I did notice that some portrait style shots I took indoors at 70mm had a good amount of distortion of door frames that was easily fixed. I have not been able to make time to get out and try it on wildlife.
Even though I really like the lens and the convenience it brings, it mentally holds me back from considering other lenses that fall in the same range. For instance, I had to beat myself up for a few days to buy the 35mm 1.8. Of course I love that 35mm lens now and it obviously performs better than this zoom does at 35mm.
I am currently deciding what lens I might want for wildlife and going through the same thinking of I'm already covered for up 270mm so I'm reluctant to get something similar. But this lens can be soft and there is a phenomenon of this lens and other lenses in this range that may force me to make the move. At close focus distance, you are not getting the full zoom. So if I'm zooming in on something tiny that is only 20 feet away, observed zoom looks more like that of a 200mm even though the lens is set at 270mm. This has not been a problem for all the casual shots, but if I sneak up on a tiny animal, I'd rather not loose that zoom. I'm hoping to have more time this summer to get more serious and see what this lens can and cannot do for me. I think its a good lens to have for casual stuff, but might not be the answer as I try to move more into the hobby of photography.
