Super sharp and zooms with a large range don't go together. The
Sigma 50-500 is often cited as a very very good lens for the money.
It is often referred to as 'bigma' and people like it a lot. It gets
a bit soft after 450 but there is probably no better lens for the
money. It does not have IS. If you want sharper and better with IS,
the 100-400 Canon lens is also very well liked but the early batch of
these is well known to be softer than more recent ones (after the
year 2000 or so is often mentioned) so be careful of used copies. All
these zooms can vary from copy to copy so also be careful of used
zooms so you don't buy somebody elses problems (like the 24-70 I sent
back that was horrible). If you can only buy it once and want a big
range I would get the Bigma as a new lens or as a used lens you can
test before you have to commit to it but keep in mind it has no IS.
Try for some answers at the Canon SLR forum at www.dpreview where
you will get a lot of responses (ignore those who give you a hard
time :) ) I know there is one third party version of the 70-200
that is considered quite good but I don't recall which brand. I don't
have any of these but I've read a lot of reviews and comments and
pass on what I have heard so take this with a grain of salt.
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