new lens
 

Just bought myself a canon 40d and am now looking for an "all porpose lens".I've been advised that for the money a Sigma 18-200mm would be hard to beat. I've read a number of reviews on this lens and all seems to be good. But Sigma has just brought out another lens "18-250" but I cant find any reviews on the lens good or bad. I'd be very grateful for any advice on this or if there's another lens I should be considering

It all depends on what type of photography you are into. What do you need the lens to do???

For general day to day I use a Sigma 17-70mm f2.8-f4. This is a very good lens but also has some disadvantages. When I go on holiday I tend to use my nikon 18-200mmVR as it enables me to travel lighter. If I am doing indoor work I tend to use a nikon 50mm f1.8.

There are hundresd of lens available and everyone will tell you their preferences, at the end of the day it is down to you to decide what it is that you are interested in, portrait, landscape, macro, etc.

Happy snapping

[QUOTE=foxtrot;3569]Just bought myself a canon 40d and am now looking for an "all porpose lens".I've been advised that for the money a Sigma 18-200mm would be hard to beat. I've read a number of reviews on this lens and all seems to be good. But Sigma has just brought out another lens "18-250" but I cant find any reviews on the lens good or bad. I'd be very grateful for any advice on this or if there's another lens I should be considering[/QUOTE]

Is this for photographing Dolphins? :D Seriously no superzoom is 'hard to beat' as all of them are full of compromises. If you really do want a lens like this I suggest you save yourself the money and buy a superzoom bridge camera, which is most situations will be just as good. Problems such as vignetting, distortion, lack of sharpness, poor contrast, poor colour saturations, the list goes on and on.

The Sigma 17 - 70mm has been mentioned and that's quite a nice lens, or you might consider the Canon 17 - 85mm IS which is the lens the 40D is kitted with, or you might like to hold back just a little while until the new EF-s lenses Canon announced recently begin shipping. These are: EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM

If you want good quality avoid the superzooms!

Personally I would recommend spliting into two lenses or maybe three if you want really wide angle.
I feel the 17-85 is a good all rounder
then a tele zoom of your choice say the 55-250 or something upto the 300mm mark to get right in.
then a 10-20mm for the ultra wide work.
I have never found all in ones to be that great.
or the new canon lenses flake has mentioned, I myself eagerly await the new 15-85mm.

for decent image quality at a cheap price you wont do much better than a canon 55-250is they look and feel plasticky but the image quality is superb ,it focuses fast enough for birds in flight .and as they can be picked up for between £150-200 its the lens bargain of the 21st century

I use my 24-105 f4 L IS as an all-rounder. Hardly take it off my 40D! Pricey, I know, but hard to beat. Not a superzoom but a real quality lens. I also have a EF 75-300 f4/5,6, which was much cheaper and gives pretty good results, but I rarely use it as the 24-105 seems to cover almost all the situations I need.