[atrain34]

$300-400 is going to buy you plastic crumby lenses. I do a lot of various photography... weddings, family, portraits, kids, landscapes, etc. If you bought your DSLR to take more photos than quick shots at family gatherings, invest in prime lenses.

That being said, the best (cheap) lens I have ever used/bought was 50mm 1.8/f lens. It was for the Nikon, but Cannon has one similar. The price is about $100 depending where you go.

I don't know the cannon world very well, but those guys talking about Nikons 18-200 is truly one of the best lenses there is. In terms of what it can do and cost. I bring it when I travel alot because it's small, great zoom, great wide angle (all considering), great in low light, great for outdoors and decent indoors.

Another thought is to visit your local camera shop and rent some lenses. Try them out for a weekend. Borrow from fellow Cannon owners. Go out on Flickr meetups and see what they are using.

Quite honestly hackernews crowd is the not the best place to find other photographers for advice :)

[frossie]

I don't know the cannon world very well, but those guys talking about Nikons 18-200 is truly one of the best lenses there is

What's the best camera? The one you have on you when you need to get a picture. There's a lot of sneering about "vacation lenses" like the 18-200, but the tiny drop in image quality is well worth just having the right lens on the body when you see something neat.

Sometimes the best hack is the simplest.