I just got this lens this past week and took a trip to the beach with the family yesterday. This was a great place to test out this lens.
The image quality seems to be very good. Shots look crisp to me and color seems excellent. There is certainly some barrell distortion at the widest focal length but you can make that work for you.
You do have to be careful not to take photos that basically look like nothing. I wide shot of a large expanse of beach doesn't look like much without something to focus on in the foreground.
There is certainly a learning curve with this lens but I could see using it for a variety of shots.
The photos below are right out of the camera: