Instruct: Classify Amazon reviews into positive or negative sentiment
Query: Only virtue is zoom range.

The only virtue of this lens is the zoom range.Chromatic abberation, highly abnormal distortion, and slow aperture above 17mm make this a bad value.The new Canon 18-55 IS is much better optically. Even better, go for the Tamron 17-50 f/2.8 or the Canon 17-40L for a bit more. This is the worst lens I have ever used without a doubt.Check photozone.de for detailed comparisons of the lenses and save yourself some money and get quality instead!