Does a whole lot in one package and seems very well made

heavy, slow focus and zoom action, I'm mixed about the image quality

I was pleased to find this site where others had reviewed this lens. My dad gave it to me about 20 years ago with a Nikon F when I was in highschool(my third camera after a Kodak 110, and then a Pentex K system). It was my only lens, so I used it a lot and got very good results with it. It was only years later that I got cynical as I had the money to spend on over priced prime lenses which I now rely on and love. My Dad had Leicas and Hassellblads, but he still seemed to take a lot of pride in this lens. I suppose it was because at the time, its feature set was impressive, especially a claimed constant 3.5 aperture over a very broad zoom range. Like me now, I think it was the only zoom he ever bought. Its clearly terrible compared to my Nikkor 85 1.4, but that should come as no surprise, and before I knew better (or lost my purer exhuberance for picture taking), I thought it was awesome. I've always wondered how it really compares to zooms then and now. I've used it so little in the past 15 years that I can't make quality claims with confidence. I suspicion it is only an average performer, but I am sentimentally attached to it and always hope that some professional lens tester will say that it was acutally great. If someone has ever performed full tests of it, I'd really like to hear about it. I'm keeping it very safe even if history says it was crap.

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mainly only fine prime lenses

It's a zoom. . .

It's heavier than yo mamma's -- I won't go there. .

Pretty good lens, as far as I can tell. I won't lie to you, I'm pretty much a beginner, but I know thing - this thing is #$^!$%@ heavy. I want to get into street photography, and I would think carrying around a zoom could be handy. . But I have the hardest time carrying this thing around, b/c it's so ^@$@!#!% heavy. It makes it hard to focus and change zoom b/c you use all of your strength supporting the thing. I think I read somewhere that this is .8kg. Bah. I think I may look for another lens or use the standard 50mm.

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Canon 50mm lens?

Clear. Macro focuses to 1:3 with a non-macro minimum focal length of about 4 ft, allowing it to focus in to about 6 inches. Nice for photographing flowers. Yet, as an all-in one lens it zooms in to 140mm and out to 35. Nice grips on zoom, focus, and macro, which are easy to make slight adjustments on, and do not move when bumped. Solid feel. 5" long by 72mm diameter. Mine's an Olympus OM mount. Allows full manual control.

Very heavy. Weighs more than my OM2. It has a narrow, hard to find, smooth aperture adjustment ring, which is too close to the releases for the mounting, so your fingers ram into them when you change the aperture. The adjustments all have a heavy, slow, lubricated-with-vaseline feel that makes it a slow lens. This may be necessary to make them feel as sturdy as they do, but they sure are slow. The lens cap falls off. 72 mm filters cost a bundle.

A nice, sharp, little known, affordable lens that covers a large range of possibilities with its decent zoom, decent aperture, wide-angle, and macro. I like it.

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Tamron 28-70mm zoom, Kodak 38-120mm auto zoom, others.
I have not used this lens with a camera that is auto-zoom capa