Upgrading from stock 18-55mm to 28-135mm IS?

The question about filters is one that most of the photographers who post here feel quite passionate about, and they are about equally divided between the "you must have a filter on at all times for protection" group and the "use a lens hood, do not add another piece of potentially inferior glass to your lens" group. I'm in the second group, but I suggest you do a search and read what everyone has to say. By all means get a good quality polarizer and use it when appropriate, but do get a lens hood as well. I keep the lens cap on the camera when I am not actively shooting, rather than using a filter as protection.

 

If your experience matches mine, IS will give you a big boost in sharpness (yeah yeah, we know, it will NOT stop action). So will using a monopod, and a monopod can be most helpful used as a walking stick when you are clambering over rocks or stepping around puddles...

<p><i>So will using a monopod, and a monopod can be most helpful used as a walking stick when you are clambering over rocks or stepping around puddles...</i></p><p>Assuming it's not a telescoping monopod, or that you don't put more weight on it than it's rated for. Be careful, else you might find your face a bit closer to those rocks than you'd wish. ;-)</p><p>There are walking sticks that have a screw mount on top. I think those would be better suited for such a purpose.</p>

Wow. Thank you all so much for the tips and advice. As I mentioned earlier, I'm really glad I found this forum, as none of my friends are really experienced with dSLR equipment.

 

I've researched the 17-85mm IS lens and I think I might make a trip into B&H this Sunday (I live on Eastern Long Island) to try out both lenses. I've read each reponse to my original post and gathered a ton of useful information...

 

I WILL be bringing my small Pentax for going out at night and the beach. And now I'll also be investing in more memory. Someone made a good point earlier, with a GB of memory so cheap now, it would be foolish to forgo buying a few extra cards.

 

As for the filters: I believe it was Louise who had mentioned leaving her lens cap on, which I do right now. I will bring a circular polarizer and a decent UV filter as well. After reading your responses, I'd rather change a filter than a lens. :) When I go to B&H, I'll take a look at hoods also.

 

As for the monopod: I have a flimsy tripod which will stay at home. I was hoping to keep my camera kit fairly light (doesn't look like that's happening any more :)) so I probably will not invest in a monopod this time around, even though I know that it would certainly help.

 

So now I'm thinking the packing list will look like this:

 

Rebel XT body fitted with either an 17-85mm or 28-135mm lens w/ UV filter, cap keeper, and possibly a hood.

 

About 10GB of memory (five 2GB CF cards)

 

Two batteries & charger

 

Circular polarizing filter

 

lens cleaning kit

 

LowePro Mini Zoom Bag

 

Neoprene sleeve

 

Pentax Optio S5i with 2 GB of memory

 

...and, depending on which lens I get, I might be carrying the stock 18-55mm as well in a soft lens case.

 

I have a friend of a friend in the city who is a semi-pro, so I'm going to try to get a hold of her before I go to check how I shoot and what I can do better.

 

Again, thank you so much for all the help here.