bilal_khan

If youre starting out, I suggest the 17-85mm, I started about a year ago and tired a lot of lenses before discovering the 17-85 mm. The IS will DEFINATELY make up for the longer exposure, it makes a HELL of a difference.

Also, when shooting wide angle landscape shots, you'd want higher f numbers, so the IS REALLY comes in handy there (particulary if you dont have a tripod around). It OK as a people lens, as long as you use flash. Its crisp, and the colours are better than the 18-55mm stocks on the lower end cameras. With travel shooting, and thats exactly what I use it for, theres NO problem. Sometimes I feel like I want a little range and carry a cheapo 75-300mm along. Thats a very light lens and cheap so you can just purchase that if you're on a budget and really want the range.

The 17-85mm is, however, heavy, and a little big as opposed to some tamron models you can get which also have a longer range, eg 18-200. I used one of those (in fact I still have it lying around), but it was really annoying for some reason; lots of distortion, and by lots I mean LOTS. It was light, but not well balanced on my canon 400D, 20D or 450D.

If you dont mind the weight, get the 17-85. You won't go wrong.

EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro AND

EF-S 17-85 mm f/crap IS for all round shooting