Hi Ken,


Why are you thinking that weather resistance is now a higher priority? Are you planning to shoot in heavy rain? I think the T2i is a perfectly good dSLR especially with an initial total kit budget of ~$1500-2000 from what I'm hearing you talk about. You won't get really good weather protection without going to the fully pro 1D/1Ds bodies anyway as far as I know.


Back to the 24-105, in case that's still under consideration. I'd say pass on it. It's not too much lens - no such thing - but your money is probably better spent elsewhere. I own that lens and have used it as my main standard zoom / walkaround lens on both a 40D and 5DII. I don't think it's worth the money on crop, there are better options in terms of range and also sharpness for your dollar. I personally upgraded from the 17-85 to 24-105 on my 40D and didn't think I got very much of an upgrade considering that the L cost 3 times as much. 24 isn't nice to have as your widest lens, especially since you're talking about landscape being a focus of yours.


If IS isn't a high priority, you can get the Tamron 17-50 2.8 and the excellent Canon 70-200 F4 for about the same money as the 24-105 alone and the 50-70 gap on crop isn't a big deal in my opinion.


If IS is a priority you can save up towards the 70-200 IS since IS will be most beneficial on the long end, and/or switch to the 17-55IS, 15-85IS or 18-135IS which all offer a nicer wide end than the 24-105IS. Yes you can stitch to cover the wide end, but it creates imperfections because of slight perspective changes. Wide angle lenses, especially crop-only lenses, are not all that distorted anymore. Distortions are also very easy to correct with Photoshop/ACR now, especially since they just released a lens profiling tool which autocorrects distortion for you.