Need help with lens purchase strategy

Syscrash wrote:

Not sure about the 35 as a portrait. Might be a bit short, but a 30/1.4 style lens is a nice all round lower light lens. It gives a decent view angle on a crop camera.

Should I go with the 50mm instead?

Have you considered a 15-85 as a general purpose lens? 24mm is not that wide on a crop.

I was considering the 15-85, but I could not track down an option that had IS and USM. Since I will likely be "shooting from the hip", I was concerned about camera shake without a tripod. thus, went with the next midzoom lens that had these options.

To be honest, I don't know where you are looking. This information is available on the Canon web sites, and also on the lens test web sites (www.photozone.de, slrgear.com, the digital picture, lenstip, etc.)

Seems like you are buying lenses with the though of moving to a FF camera. Any particular reason for FF? I actually prefer the crop cameras as an armature for the weight. Lenses also tend to be lighter and cheaper for crop cameras. But if FF is the way you want to go, then fair enough.

Admittedly, I am so new to this level of photography that I don't really know where to start. I have attempted to review all sorts of options/suggestions and this is what I came up with. I guess I am going the EF route in the event I get into this more (which I think I will a couple of years from now). Will still likely have a smaller camera like the 4ti for convenience, but switch it up for serious picture taking.

Don't completely dismiss third party lenses. There are some good ones out there. If you hang around here you will hear about them

Not trying to be a Canon only snob, just want to make sure to maintain top-level compatibility and quality. Im a computer need by trade, and I deal with compatibility issues all the time when trying to mix and match manufacturers.

And yeah. Choosing the next lens to buy can be hell Especially on a budget. I went for the Tamron 17-50 2.8 non-VC as an all round lens...

Thanks for the Tamron suggestion. I will check it out!

And thanks so much for your reply!