Originally posted by realitarian Sigma 18-300 (I have the older 18-250) is great when you need to shoot for memories sake and convenience counts, not necessarily for displaying or printing.
I absolutely agree. This is 95% of what my shooting is anyway. If there'd been an 18-300 or even better a 16-300 in the store instead of the 18-250 I actually bought, I'd have got that instead. But LBA has bitten, and my 18-250 has gone from being my almost-everything to spending a lot of time on the shelf. Except on our last family holiday - it covered itself in glory then. On the other hand, my screwmount lenses have migrated out of my camera bag and more often find themselves on my Spotmatic.
I don't think even 1% of the shots I print are above 6x4, and most of the ones that were, I did purely to see what would happen. The results haven't been too bad. Obviously others have far more exacting requirements, and they will direct you to lenses which will meet them.