A lot has happened in the little more than a year since I wrote this post about choosing a walk around lens. For one, I ended up spending the money I was accumulating for a lens on other hobbies. Secondly, I sort of got busy and distracted and dropped the daily photo blogging. My last photo was posted in October of 2006 (and July before that). In spite of this, I have learned a lot more about photography and equipment.

I am still searching for a good walk around lens, especially since my daughter recently broke the Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II lens that came with my Rebel XT. Dropped from the previous list is everything except for the two L series lenses (the 24-70 and the 24-105). Added are the following: Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 EX DG, Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 XR Di II, Canon 17-40mm f/4.0 L USM, Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM and the Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8 L II USM. It is highly unlikely that I will be buying from the end of the list (they are ordered ascending in price), but I am seriously considering the Tamron f/2.8 and the Canon f/4.

Also, while I really am in search of the perfect short to medium range zoom lens for my budget, I am also dying to get a 70-200mm zoom lens to take photos of my kids playing sports. My oldest son is currently playing T-ball and his first game is this Saturday. I need something fast, so the Sigma and Canon f/2.8’s are both on my short list.

In the meantime, I just recently purchased a Sigma EX 30mm f/1.4 DC HSM lens used off of Ebay. It is in excellent condition and feels great on my Rebel XT. I have been shooting around with it some this evening, but have not looked at the images on my PC yet. I will try to post one on the photo blog after I finish this post.

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