Need advice on good wide angle lens under $500 (used) to complement other lenses

[Kristen]

Thanks to Ken & Mike (and Bob, of course) for the great info.

I just ordered a:

TAMRON SP AF 17-50mm F/2.8 XR Di II LD A16

from eBay (new for ~$350). I found out that A16 is the "non-VC" version so I looked into that a bit. It seems like "non-VC" is good enough for me (I just need to try to have a steady hand or lots of light)... it should arrive within a week and I'll get to play! There are 4 more field trips this school year so I'll get to test them out quite a bit.

I'll need to wait on the Canon 85mm... don't want to spend all my money in one go Might be a good birthday gift for myself though!

Kristen

[Kristen]

I just took almost 400 photos with the Tamron a couple days ago and am pretty happy so far. My only complaint thus far is that it is *loud* when focusing. I had to take less photos than desired in a classroom situation in order to keep the noise to a minimum... I didn't realize it was going to be so noisy.

I attached an example photo.

Btw, I love that it goes from 17 to 50 so I can quickly go back and forth between "close ups" and wide angle. This worked perfectly in a school field trip setting. Changing lenses would have been a pain.