This lens surprised me. AF is excellent, with macro or regular shooting. Sharp as a tack and spot-on. The IS is also excellent, I test-shot down to 1/30th consistently wide open and stopped down with sharp results. A great lens for indoor shooting with no discernible barrelling on straight lines. The colours and bokeh are very pleasing IMO. I've not yet used it for astro and will update on that.
The packaging was a bubble wrapper in a Canon box, lots of protection but not pretty. No hood, but I'm not sure yet if it really needs one, as I will be using nds and other filters fairly often.
Focusing ring is smooth, and the control ring has a nice soft clicky detente for ease of use.
The quality and finish are excellent, given the price point. It's a matte finish that does pick up a little dust occasionally but wipes off easily. The price point delivers a great return, and I think this will be one of my favourite lenses.