which new lens

Hi! Thanks for the welcome and sorry for the novel!!

So my kit is the EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM version. It gives me soft, low detail, non-contrasty images and the color rendition is just flat. I will take a shot and swap over to the 50 and the colors pop and they just look so crisp! The entire kit lens image is soft, not just in the corners. The images that come off look just like that, images, nothing really pops with them.

My 50mm is the EF f/1.8 STM. Not the best glass but its really pushing me for composition and positioning. Also gives me some pretty good images for sure.

I have felt the zooms and they do have some heft; especially compared to the 50!! I was initially looking at getting a 100mm f/2.8 macro (Sigma or Canon) and after playing with some friends zoom gear I figured it would make more sense to get something with some versatility as my shooting stances are super variable. With the 50mm I can only crop out so much and have so much detail, then I worry about pixelation or I have too much background on either side of my subject. When I was shooting the kit 18-55 I found when I was on top of the boulders shooting down on my subjects I was at the 18mm end of it to play with the perspective of the outstretched reaching hand and high up perspective, which is (one reason) why I got the 11-16 f/2.8, its also just a fun lens.

I took my friends 18-135mm kit zoom out yesterday and I found something out. I can *usually* find another boulder near-ish by to climb onto for a shooting position. This takes me out of the field of spotters so I won't get fallen on, and gets me up so I am not taking butt shots all day. I decided to go with the Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 VC against some other posters recommendations, but with my gut from what I learned from my friends 135mm length. I sometimes wanted to get all those expressions of peoples "try hard" face, they usually look pretty silly though. It is a heavy lens and a lot to shlep through the woods with the rest of my climbing gear (my summertime was spent parking the car at about 13000ft and hiking into a boulder field at 12000ft, climbing and shooting all day, then hiking back out...brutal), but its the lightest of the 70-200mm and I think it is fast enough (I would love to go to a f/2 but unless I wanted to go prime I don't think thats in the cards).

Thank you for your input, I hope you aren't going to tell me that I done messed up and wasted my Lyft check!

PS rad DPR handle