I'm a big advocate of off-camera lighting. Getting comfortable with off-camera lighting is, I think, it's the best way to improve your photography. That said, it's difficult to do alot of things with the 70-200 lens. I own the 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS, and it's fantastic--but it stays on my 1.6 crop sensor camera bout 10% of the time. The rest of the time, my 17-55mm f/2.8 IS stays glued to the camera.


Even with all my off-camera lighting gear, I still fantasize about fast primes (50mm f/1.4 will be my next lens purchase...useful focal length, fast, and decent quality for the small amount you pay for it). If you have even decent glass on your camera, then the lighting makes the image shine.


I think it's a tough call, actually...whether to advice you to get a better all-purpose focal length lens (like the 17-40mm f/4), or to invest in some off-camera lighting.


How about both? The 35mm f/1.4 is about $1200. Don't get that. I'm sure it's a fantastic lens, but for the money, you could get either the 50mm f/1.4 or the 17-40mm f/4 and spend the rest of the cash on light stands, umbrellas, umbrella swivels, CTR-301 trigger/receivers, and Vivitar 285HV, Cactus KF36, or Lumopro LP120 flashes (a 580EXII is a great flash, but if it's off-camera, you don't really need all the bells and whistles..learn how to set your flash output manually, then you won't have to spend so much on the flash).