The challenge for me was finding the right combo of features and price. I've been using the Canon EF-S 18-55 kit lens predominantly for the past few years and while it really is a decent lens, it has some real limitations as well. For me the biggest problem was how slow the lens is (f/5.6 at 55mm is painful in anything but great light). So I've been looking for something to replace it as my standard walk around lens. One of the main contenders was the L series 17-40 f/4 which is a really nice lens, but I wasn't convinced on the f/4 part. Canon's 17-55 f/2.8 IS looks like a nice enough lens, but there's no way I was going to throw down that much cash on it. WAY overpriced if you ask me.
Another factor is that I would like to move to a full frame sensor camera sometime in the future (from my current 30D), so I don't really want to sink a lot of money into glass that won't work with a full frame sensor. So with all of that, I ended up picking up the Tamron 17-50 f/2.8 for a really good deal (just had to wait long enough for one to show up). It's a pretty huge step up from the old kit lens, and constant 2.8 is amazing. Unfortunately I think that could become an expensive habit.
After only a couple days shooting with it, I do like the lens even though it does have its shortcomings. The backwards zoom ring (compared to Canon's) is a little weird ... more so than I expected. The real compromise though is the auto-focus. It seems pretty fast so far, but it is very loud compared to even the cheap kit lens. Most of the time though, I don't think that is going to be a problem (we'll see). For really quiet situations, it's easy enough to switch it over to manual and still get the focus confirmation in the viewfinder. Overall this are pretty minimal issues for a lens that cost me less than $300, particularly considering it has good image quality and is so fast.
I'm looking forward to heading out to the Minneapolis World Wide PhotoWalk event on Saturday and getting more familiar with it.
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