My wife bought me this lens a couple of years ago and it straight away made photographic life much easier. Prior to this, I had a standard 18-55mm lens, and an 18-200mm zoom. This meant carrying both lenses around with me, and swapping them around depending on the shot I was going for. The 18-300mm lens, paired with my nearly 10 year old Canon Rebel T1i, means that I can do detailed close-up work, and switch straight to distance shots without changing lenses.