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Great Lens
I received my lens very quickly. Although the writeup on this lens said it had some box damage and was used, it had never been opened and the box itself only had a slight scuff.I love this lens, it is now my walk around lens for the winter months. Thank you all so much.

Now that's a lens!
You have got to get one of these! I am a postion to afford the L glass from canon, but I am not a pro. All of the side by side reviews show equal pictures. A friend of mine explained it to me this way, if you use your lens all day every day get the L glass, if you are just looking for a picture equal to L glass then this is for you, think of the tamron as L glass in a consumer grade lens body.

Exceeded expectations
I was so apprehensive with purchasing this lens. I bought the lens with the idea that I was going to have to exchange it several times before getting a copy that could focus properly in low light and was tack sharp, but perhaps I was just a very very lucky one. My lens focuses incredibly quickly and sharply even in the darkest of conditions especially compared to my 18-55 IS kit lens that I sold months ago. Yes, as in the other hundreds of reviews the focus is loud, but its not that bad... It is very apparent by the sound that it makes that it is focusing but people exaggerate how loud it truly is. I was pretty scared that I was going to get a very bad copy since quality control on these lenses are so bad so I ran it through a thorough battery of tests and it came through with flying colors. MY lens is even sharp at f/2.8 as some people have bickered about. Yes vignetting is very apparent at f/2.8 but I like that effect for my pictures. The lens build quality is not as bad as I was expecting either. It feels like it was built fairly well with a secure sense of quality weight to it.
Overall, even through the apprehension of receiving a poor copy I received a fantastic copy and could not have gotten a better walk around lens for 90% of my shots than the Tamron 17-50 f/2.8 for my Canon XSi, especially at only 0. Take some beautiful portraits and even better landscapes. The bokeh on the lens is good too.

Specs:
Canon XSi
Canon Speedlite 430EX II
Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8
Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 IS
SOON some nice primes, most likely 50mm f/1.4 and 85mm f/1.8

Multiple copies with Focus issue- Frustating
I want a multi-purpose faster(with some zoom) lens for my Canon XS to replace KIT lens and do not want to spend a fortune.
I want faster lens as I want to capture my little ones actions without using flash, and kit lens is no good for that. I know 50mm prime is great, but on APS-C it is equivalent to 80mm, and not usable indoor because of close quarters many times. I want atleast 35mm to start with.

Though not veryfast, Lenses those match my requirement are Tamron 17-50 f2.8 and Sigma 18-50 f2.8 within my price range.

After doing lot research, reading several professional review, Amazon reviews,I believed Tamron 17-50mm lense is one to buy. I also read from many Amazon reviews it is possible get bad copies often. So I choosed buy this one from local store despite being little more expensive than online prices so that I can exchange with another copy if required.

Good, I got the lens I want though I have to drive almost 50miles roundtrip to the store. It felt good in hand, much heavier than KIT lense, built is good.

Hmm, pretty much all the photos are out of focus, some are okay. None of those are correctly in focus and I was comparing to Canon Kit lens with IS. Kit lens was much sharper.

And another kicker, it was struggling to focus in low-light where KIT lens has absolutely no problem focussing in all Zoom ranges. Anyways since it is a bad copy, I drove again, spend almost 3 hour for getting a replacement.

I was really hoping I would get a good copy. Oh, boy, again same BS. All photos soft. Then I started experiment with manual focus, and picture are tack sharp, and ofcourse as I expected the photos taken by Tamron are better than KIT lens, and I could use faster shutter speed. Manual focus ring is not good, I have rotate it very slowly/precisely to adjust focus.

In further testing, I used liveview(QuickView Mode)focussed with auto-focus(I was using ZoomView on XS LCD), then slide it manual mode, then adjusted focus(slightly turn focus ring to clockwise)(Front focus issue). Now, it is tack sharp. For the kit lens, there is absolutely no issue.

I took several photo where I have lot of fine text on Box in very good lighting with Auto and Manual mode, Auto Mode always Front Focussed.

And to their credit it seem this second copy was not struggling to Focus that much in low-light(still not as good as KIT lens).

But two copies later, 100 miles drive, 20+ hours of time spend over a week, I end up with nothing. Now, I need to drive back to return it, another 50 miles.

In my opinion this ridiculous. Quality control at Tamron seems to be worst than one those cheap chainese toys. One would expect out of two brand new lenses atleast one would be good.

As much as I want to love this lens, this is completely un-acceptable. I can not keep using Manual focus everytime I want to use the camera, which take several seconds with this Focus ring to get precise focus. The main idea is to capture those Kodak moments with kids quickly without using flash, and this can not meet my objective.

I wonder how-many people really got a good copy the first time itself. It seems only 1 in 3 to 5, gets a good copy.

Anyways, now I am tired, I just want to return it and forget about it. May be when I have too much time on my hand I may experiment with some other lenses.

It is possible this is a specific batch issue, and if anyone cares, lens serial starts with 4000.

But bottom line countless hours are wasted and a frustating experience.

And Caution: I gave 1 star, but suddenly when I came back to edit something it took two stars!!!? whats up?

NOTE: I used tripod to test focus issues in good lighting.

Update 11/06/2008: I contacted, hmm tried to contact Tamron before returning. I called them during their office hours, no live person few times I tried, and left with only option to leave a message. I left a message to them with all my details, 3 days later, no one called back from Tamron. I was hoping I could talk to someone and get a suggestion, or may be it is worth sending it to them for calibration rather than trying my luck with another piece. But alas no luck. Again even those cheap toy manufacturer have toll-free numbers where we can talk to some one live, but it seems it is not possible with Tamron.

Far superior to the kit lens, great for the price
I bought this lens primarily as a replacent for the Rebel XTi's 18-55 mm kit lens. Since I received it I've used it to take about 300+ photos, and I am very impressed. The majority of those pictures have been long exposure/small aperture in very low light (night), and I can only say good things. I've experienced very little vignetting, distortion, or chromatic aberration, and would take this over a comparable Canon any day. Even with portraits that I've taken at f/2.8, I have seen little to no negative lens effects. As a student in Boston, price is always paramount, and this lens has not disappointed. I've definitely gotten my money's worth.