Hey Randy,
thatks for your detailed reply.
I must say I have never used the 15-85 nor the 18-200 and so my knowledge of these lenses comes from reading reviews, so at that point I'm just as far as you are.
I can put some general thoughts into the equation though []
From reading your answers I can get a lot of information regarding lens choice. For me it doesn't seem like you'd really need a long focal length. I'd really doubt it that you would miss the 85-200mm range when choosing the 15-85. You've got the ability to crop and you're willing to use it. 18MP is more than plenty to crop quite a bit I can tell you.
Of course there will be times when you wish you have the 200mm, but when you do have 200mm there will also be times you want even longer. It's a non-stop road. If you shoot a lot of wildlife for instance, the 200mm will be a benefit. But then the f5.6 won't help you out a lot since wildlife is often seen in the less brightened times of days. (Not to mention you'd have to stop your lens down to f8 to achieve best results...) Also for your kids ballgames, you'd probably like something faster with a fast auto-focus.
In my eyes you could do great with a decent general lens (like the 15-85) A lens with a nice wideangle to a good portrait focal length.
I don't know a lot of people who buy the 15-85, mainly because normally the Canon 17-55 f2.8 is just a little more expensive and has a constant maximum aperture of f2.8. That being said, normally I would advise you to look at the Canon 17-55, but after rebates I'm not sure what the differences are.
My conclusion, from what I've read the Canon 15-85 delivers very good image quality, a very nice IS implementation and good use for you. The only downsides to that lens is the variable and slow aperture. Not really an issue for normal outdoor snapshots, but the f5.6 maximum aperture is very often too little for inside.
Also f5.6 minimum makes it hard to create that desired foreground/background blur.
But when you're willing to buy a fast prime, this won't be much of a problem I think. (for instance: 50mm 1.8/1.4 or 85mm 1.8)
Originally Posted by lynx
Good points for choosing the 15-85. You could also look at the more expensive Canon 17-55 f2.8 IS(L-quality images, constant aperture, IS) or the Tamron 17-50 f2.8(cheaper, great image quality, no IS and no USM) perhaps with another lens?
The Canon 18-200 proves to be more versatile, but at the expense of some, in my eyes very important, qualities. With that 18MP, you can crop a lot. Also if you can try it out, just put the 18-200 on your camera and start shooting and limit yourself to 85mm. See what the real life difference is between 85 and 200mm and how it affects your photos.
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IQ stands for Image Quality. It's defined by things like sharpness, colors and contrast of the pictures.
I hope I didn't miss anything.
Good luck,
Jan
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