I need assistance asap!

[ddt0725]

Jan, you are throwing a wrench in my thought process and to be honest I really do appreciate it! You force me to think logically just as my daughter does at home ...I call her my mother because she is the more sensible one!

Yes, so far there has been no logic to my reasoning when it comes to photography gear. So let me try and type this out and hopefully come to a decision ...

You are right, the Tamron is good enough I guess and I do have the 50mm 1.8 II coming today (from what I've seen it is sharp but not the greatest background blur) but I really don't use a tripod too often.
I have the 70-200mm f4 IS mainly for the IS and the weight as opposed to the 2.8. The zoom range is great for running grandkids and dogs and the take-along weight is great for going to the park and I don't have to run around with them as much for a shot as I would have to with a prime. But the 200mm prime is great for low light when needed and blurring the background and again a nice weight for me (so the two sort of make up for not having the weighty 70-200mm 2.8).

So, hmmm ...looks like now the logical decision (and I am trying real hard to be logical on this one) would be to keep the Tamron, sell the 200mm and get the 135L.

[Sheiky]

You force me to think logically just as my daughter does at home ...I call her my mother because she is the more sensible one!

Hihi My girlfriend does that for me. She always needs to calm me down when I get yet another ridiculous idea in my head

Anyway, when you get a physical restrain you don't get to have everything, because it simply doesn't work. That's why I choose my lenses very carefully and logically. I rarely used my macro last year and I needed to cut down weight in the bag so I sold my macro lens. Now that I sold it, I see more and more opportunities where I could really use one. Sellers remorse I guess, because the fact remains that I rarely used it when I had it

When I upgraded from the Tamron to the 17-55 my photos definitely didn't upgrade with me. The IS was very nice to have, but most of my photos didn't need it. So basically you pay a premium price to get a small "upgrade". The 135L would give you an entire different lens, albeit the 85mm and 100mm are quite close in focal range. You haven't considered a fast wide-angle prime?

[HDNitehawk]

I think you have good advice so far.

Money wise though, doesn't the 17-55 look like the better value. I see 135mm all the time on craigslist in that $800 range. Never have seen a 17-55 that cheap.