ahalpert
Major Contributor
James always sounds so wistful 
Re:aperture ramping that people have discussed - I really don't see it as a dealbreaker. You can set your aperture to whatever the maximum is at full telephoto and then zoom around without exposure changes. I have done that all the time with my tamron 18-270 f/3.5-6.3. Sure, it would be better to have a constant f/2.8 than a 2.8-4. But it's better to have a 2.8-4 than a constant 4, so...
Re:aperture ramping that people have discussed - I really don't see it as a dealbreaker. You can set your aperture to whatever the maximum is at full telephoto and then zoom around without exposure changes. I have done that all the time with my tamron 18-270 f/3.5-6.3. Sure, it would be better to have a constant f/2.8 than a 2.8-4. But it's better to have a 2.8-4 than a constant 4, so...