[shipwack]

For what little it's worth, I have a Tamron 70-300 and am very happy with it.

I've taken some excellent pictures with it. It feels nice in my hand, comes with a lens hood (instead of beig forced to pay 15 bucks or more for a piece of plastic) and the macro mode works well.

Minuses: Sometimes it won't easily switch out of macro mode once I enter it, and the barrel needs a little more torque than I would like...