>My choice for an >all around lens has been a Sigma 18-200mm. Like Mary said, you do >lose some quality with the third party lenses, but I'm so amateur I >don't notice it much.
Yeah, it's one of those things that until you spend the money on a good lens, you will usually be happy with what you have. I'm so used to the fast and quiet Canon autofocus that I can't deal with the really slow and noisy Sigmas, even though they otherwise sometimes have fairly decent lenses for the money, like the one you suggest. Of course, I do a lot of action shots and wildlife, so slow AF is a killer for me regardless. ;-) You can find good reviews of lots of different types of lens at dpreview.com and dcresource.com. I'm Mary Jo, btw. ;-) It's all my first name (blame my mother for that one!) --- Mary Jo ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Create robust enterprise, web RIAs. Upgrade & integrate Adobe Coldfusion MX7 with Flex 2 http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;56760587;14748456;a?http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/flex2/?sdid=LVNU Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:223375 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
