You might not want to take expensive lenses with you abroad even if you did buy them. The Tamron is supposed to be a good lens, but often hunts in low light even though it is a 2.8 lens. Kinda loud too in case you're trying to take pics in a church. Don't worry about stabilization on that range. Most people can drink four cans of caffeine-infused soda and still fire off crisp shots at 17mm. The plus side of getting EF-s stuff is you can genuinely offer up your lens for him to use knowing he can't use them.