Lens for 50D ???? HELP!

[AgreaterJoe]

Hi
I am new to DSLR (in my late teens I had a Eos 100) and rediscovering my passion.
After much reading have finally decided to buy the 50D.
But!
Lenses lenses lenses !
The Canon 18-200mm as far as I can tell from many reviews is really not a good glass.
This and Sigma 10-20mm f4-5.6 was my 1st choice, but now I have decided to drop the 18-200mm, due to the bad rap.
I see the 70-300mm IS USM has gotten good review and I am leaning towards it, and everyone seem to think the 50mm/f1.8II is a must.
The question is now if I need to close the gap between 20mm and 70mm covered only by the 50mm.
I shoot mostly Travel, Landscape and Portraits.
Also an important point is my budget, i can afford the 70-300mm, the 10-20mm, and the 50mm. But i can't afford another expensive mid-range lens, and don't know what I should do.
Am I looking at it all wrong?
Help!
Thanks....

[KeithB]

What do you shoot?  Is wide angle that important?

I would suggest the EF-S 15-85 and the 70-300 to start out.  This will give you good coverage over a wide range of focal lengths.

(The 50/1.8 is nice if you want to shoot in low light, and it is relatively inexpensive.)

[jodaco]

On my 50D (and 20D before that) I've been using the 10-22mm Canon, 28-75mm Tamron and the 70-300 IS Canon. For what I shoot (landscape mostly) the Tamron is used 70% of the time. I would sorely miss the gap between 20 and 70. I agree to consider the 15-85 (neither this nor the 17-85 were available when I bought my lenses). I rarely go wider than 15mm although it's nice to be able to when I want. As said, it all depends on you.

[AgreaterJoe]

Thanks for taking the time to answer me.
KeithB, my interests are Landscape, Travel and Portrait, and Jodaco, in Flickr, all the landscape shots I like best always seem to have been captured using super wide angle lenses like the Sigma 10-20mm, thats why I thought of getting it.
The 70-300mm i thought was important for:
Portraits (70mm is like 110mm on the 50D, which i understand is a classic in portrait photography-at least according to Scott Kelby!) and then for Travel/People shots where I can't get too close to people, the 300 limit seem to be important.
Above all, the 70-300mm from canon got very good reviews, far better then the 18-200mm.
Now, I could afford the 17-85mm f4-5.6 IS USM, but i will only buy it if its a good lens, not interested if its bad like the 18-200, the reviews are mixed.
Any thoughts? I would appriciate it very much!

[jodaco]

I like my 70-300 very much. If you like the ultra wide then definitely get something that can go to 10mm. 15mm is like 24 on the 50D. It's wide but not ultra wide. The question then is if and how to fill the gap. I love the Tamron 28-75 and like I said it's my most used lens. Even if you like ultra-wide (and I do) you don't want to limit yourself to ONLY ultra wide.

I have the 50mm 1.8 and it almost never makes it onto the camera. Yes it's cheap and light, but it needs to be stopped down to be really sharp so it just can't supplant the Tamron.

[AgreaterJoe]

Thanks! I will look into Tamron 28-75.
Do you know anything about Sigma 17-70mm f2.8-4.5 DC Macro? I read very good reviews for it!