Anyone own a Tamron Lens? I bought a 18mm - 200mm lens for my Canon XTi, but am noticing that the focus is not really that sharp. ANyone else have issues with a lens?

Never owned a Tamron, but I hear good things about some of their lenses. What are you comparing the lens to? Is it soft at all focal lengths and apertures? Have you tried manually focusing and comparing results? That may help you determine if it's just a soft lens or if there is an autofocus calibration problem. If it's a calibration problem, you should be able to send it in to Tamron to have it calibrated under warranty.

FWIW - superzoom lenses will generally be softer than a less ambitious zoom or prime lens. There's always a trade-off it seems.

I have an 11 year old Tamron 200mm zoom. Loud as heck and takes a little patience while it focuses. Sharp images though. Haven't put it on the digital yet but would expect the same.

Owner of Tamron 28mm - 300mm. I have not noticed it not being sharp, I think it makes sharper pictures than the kit lens that came with the camera. I have noticed that in lower light (indoors) it is slower, which means more motion blur. It's not a very 'fast' lens when you are using the zoom, except when you are outside with bright light.

Croixboy96

I am not a fan of the lens you own. I have owned mine for several years now and just about everything bothers me about it. Slow focus, inaccurate focus, poor low light abilities, distortion on each end of the focal length, poor build quality (mine has dust build up on inner elements), definitely not the sharpest lens I have used.

Other than the fact that it is light and can cover a wide range of focal lengths I have little good to say about it.

Some other lenses tamron makes are of good quality, however. Super zoom lenses like this one usually have problems like i listed.

I have one of the first "superzooms" from Tamron. It is a 18-250 and I can't say anything bad about it. I knew that I was buying a cheaper lens and I knew going into it that I would be giving up some quality to save a thousand bucks.
In bright conditions the lens performs great.
In lowlight conditions the focus is a little trickier and there are some quality issues at each end of the zoom range.

when you factor in the lens cost, I don't think there is anything wrong with it.

I suppose cost is something beneficial about these lenses too. But I wish I would have taken my money and picked up a quality used lens or two, rather than spend nearly 500 for that one superzoom.