Let me just start my first post here by saying that I absolutely love this website and all the reviews/information contained within it. I can't say enough about how valuable it has been in helping me with the purchases I've made thus far, as well as learning about Photography in general. I have not read much of the forums yet, but I have a lot of questions I've come up with as I've been shooting with my new gear over the last year +, so I hope to get involved in some good discussion.


That said, I am having trouble deciding which lens I should go with next: the 24-105 f/4 L IS or the 70 - 200 f/4 L IS. Here is the gear that I have so far:


Canon XSi w/ kit lens (18-55 IS)


Canon 50 mm f/1.4


Canon 100 mm f/2.8 Macro


Now I know that to answer this question you need to know what uses I have in mind, but to be honest, I just want to be best equipped to handle a variety of situations should they come up. I can say that indoor sports photography is NOT a likely scenario (thus I'm okay with the f/4 of both lenses). I like taking portraits of family/friends (when they let me), and pets, but I think I have two very good lenses for that already, though you may disagree.


Maybe I can phrase it this way... Let's say you were traveling to a new country and wanted to be ready to capture all the sights, which lens would you rather add to my existing bag? It's just so hard to decide because with the crop body and 50mm being my lowest *quality* focal length, I could miss out on a lot of building/landscape shots, but I do have that kit lens in a pinch. If I go with the 24-105 that adds 26 mm of flexibility on the wide end, but my kit is still maxed out at ~100mm, and will that 26 extra mm buy me that much?


Also, I do plan on upgrading to FF at *some* point in the future, but probably not until a camera like the 5d mkII would cost me ~1500 bucks (hey, it's possible!). I'm just so happy with the XSi so far, especially since I put some quality glass in front of it.


At this point I'm leaning towards the 70-200. And then hopefully they make the 17-40 in a IS variety by the time I'm ready to purchase my next lens .


Thanks in advance for any advice!


-Matt