Instruct: Classify Amazon reviews into positive or negative sentiment
Query: A Good Lens for Hobbyist.

I had researched a while for a good "walk-around" lens, and it was a toss-up between this one and the Canon. I honestly went with the Tamron because it was available at my local camera store whereas I would have waited at least a week for the Canon. I'm impatient that way.It took me a while to get used to it. For one it's a bit heavy, although surprisingly well-balanced on my Canon Rebel XTi (400D). It's also the only non-Canon lens I own. Since it's more of a macro lens, and therefore the depth of field more narrow than I was used to, my other shots seemed to appear out of focus at first. With more practice (and several hundred shots), I discovered the problem was user error. Once I set the aperture to 8 or higher for landscapes and messed with other settings such as the autofocus points in the camera, the images improved dramatically.The Tamron is sturdy, well-balanced, and the IQ is excellent. As one other person said, it's a sleeper lens and deserves more attention.