Goood day everybody, I'm new here...


I'm writing to you gather some ideas on what would you do in my place.


I've bought my 7D bundled with the 18-135 and I have to say it's a whole new world compared to my old gear (won't tell you what it was because you'd laugh at me[] ). But I'm experiencing some issues which disappoint me - all are due to the lens, or so I suppose.


1. Sometimes I get front focused pictures, even in full daylight, portraying a standing still person wearing colorful clothes. Those should be the best conditions for the AF, right?


2. That lens lacks detail. My old gear gave me sharper results, at 10.1 MPx vs. the 7D's 18 MPx. I know the 7D is soft by itself, but I set sharpness to 3 as suggested in this site review. And if I shrink down the 7D's image to 10 MPX I get satisfying sharpness but insufficient image size. One of my main concerns is fine detail. A soft image is sometimes welcome, but it's a rare happening.


3. Shooting conditions. Which are various: I shoot mostly at people, often at landscapes, sometimes at flowers. Flowers and landscapes in daylight and (surprisingly) outdoors. People in every light condition: full daylight, rainy daylight, before dawn and after dusk, indoors and outdoors, tungsten light, neon tube light, halogen light, whatever you may think off except candlelight for now (but it's not uncommon for me to get a campfire as main light source). That's one thing: I need to be able to shoot in low light. The 7D's high ISO range is fantastic in this regard, but still, lower ISO is better (unless you need to stop motion) and it's no good to own that option alone. Another concern is distance from the subject. If I want natural behaviour I have to go unnoticed most of the times, so I can't get too close. That's why I chose the 18-135 over the 15-85: extended tele range. But I need a decent wide end too for indoors group photos. I need something portable (2 lens is ok, but no more. It's a matter of where to put things and being ready to shoot, not of weight, I'm strong[H] ).


That's why I'm going to buy something else to put on that camera and after some thoughts I narrowed my choice to the 17-55 or the 15-85. Both are very high quality lenses, but none of them satisfies all my needs. I was thinking of adding a 580ex II, which would be mandatory on the 15-85 in the evening and anyway useful as a fill for campfire even on the 17-55. About the flash, I'd ask you about a good small diffusor.


Bottom line: which lens would you pick in my place? And which diffusor?


Thank you all in advance for sharing your opinion!