This is slightly off main topic, but can't resist tossing it out there. A couple months ago my Bluray player started giving me problems, crashing about 3/4 or so thru a movie, or sometimes freezing up and I would have to eject the disc and fast forward to the point where it crapped-up. The set was about 18 months old and I figured, well that one didn't last very long. It did this on almost all the movies we watched.

Off to Best Buy in search of a new one. I lucked on a young sales fellow who said he had the same thing happen to him. He urged me to buy a new cable, keep the sales receipt and try it for awhile but bring it back and return it before the 2 week return period was up if it didn't fix the problem! It cured my problem and saved me big bucks! And he didn't try to push one of those $25 jobs on me either, I paid $12!

I'll be 69 in a month and I have this lens. It is a really nice lens! A bit stiff in the beginning when zooming in & out, but after snapping a couple hundred clicks has loosened up slightly. Just needed to be broken in a little, always smooth and precise. Good not having to change lens and good photos, but I'm easy to impress!

The only negative I have found is when you are shooting indoors with a flash mounted on the camera and zoomed in on something for detail, the long barrel might produce a shadow. So best to mount the flash on a stand. If you just change zoom/distance combos you can overcome the stand setup.

I bought it the second day it was available, if I had it to do over again, I would have bought it on the first!

I'm a newbie too, been reading on this site for about 6 months. I picked up the Tamron 18-400 the second day after it was available from Wolfe's Camera in Topeka and really like it. It cost about the same as my D5500, just about have it figured out now too. I do find it sometimes takes awhile to focus properly at 400mm range when I am a little close to my subject, but most of the time find it is due to me not having my camera set right. Otherwise, produces good & sharp results. I am really thankful for VC, helps steady-out my shaky old hands.

I think anyone would enjoy this lens, at the price, quality and warranty it is hard to beat!