At one time, the EF-S 17-55 f/2.8 IS USM was in this race, but I think I was scared off by the price vs. build quality (constantly read about dust issues), the (perhaps overly hopeful) thought that I will be upgrading to ff in the not to distant future, and the focal length range being slightly wide for most of my use. It would be great for indoor group pictures though, you should have seen me trying to take a picture of my family at the dinner table on thanksgiving with the 50/1.4. The tripod was in the other room, lol.


I really never gave that 15-85 much of a look, probably because of the slow aperture and ef-s mount. When I finally made the jump from the kit lens to the 100/2.8, I realized how nice it is to have that extra stop or two. I was actually wondering if the max of f/4 on the two lenses that I'm still considering would bother me, but I have decided that I have to make a sacrifice for the flexibility of a zoom in the price/size/weight that I find acceptable. One of the major reasons I like the fast aperture is the subject/background separation (because most of my shots have been outdoors with plenty of light anyway), and from what I've seen in the sample pics of the 24-105 and 70-200 even more so, it seems like you can still achieve that with f/4 on a longer lens. I'll give that one some thought though, thanks for the recommendation.


Still processing everyone's input, but will respond when I have a bit more time. It's kind of funny how my choice on this lens effects what I get for my next lens too. So many possible permutations!