Another lens question

[OviV]

I have a 300D with 35-80 cannon lens that was on my film rebel. I know it is a crappy lens but budget would not allow for more. I also have a 75-300MM Canon zoom that I like quite a bit. I am getting the 50MM 1.8 for xmas. I am a fisherman and spend quite a bit of time on my boat. The 35-80 lens is too long for action fishing shots on the boat so I would like to get something a bit wider. Is there a lens that is at least 24MM on the wide end out there that I can get for

[RichardtheSane]

Did you not get the 300D kit with the 18-55 lens?
That one would be ideal, but I am not sure if you can get it as a seperate item.

[Tom W]

I don't know about the EU side of things, but in the US, one can buy the DReb without the lens.

((edit - I misread your message, Richard. You're right, I don't think one can buy the lens alone, though one can buy the camera alone)).

That said, as a budget lens, the 28-105 3.5-4.5 USM II lens is pretty decent, and can be bought for $220 US. Unfortunately, it doesn't go as wide as might be necessary with the DReb, but I can attest to its decent image quality and fast, quiet focusing, at least on my 35mm camera. BTW, I beleive that it scored fairly well on photodo.com's test.

The effective range in 35-equivalent would be about 45-168 mm, giving it a "normal" to medium telephoto range. You may want something more on the wide end.

[timnelsonic]

If you didn't buy the 18-55mm kit lens up-front, you can find them on eBay, although they usually go for a bit more than the original $99 US asking price.

[OviV]

I did not get the kit. I only bought the body because I had the other two lenses from my film camera and at the time I was not aware of the 1.6 issue. I thought maybe getting a different lens would be preferrable since I have not read many nice things about the 18-55 lens. Any input is appreciated.

Thank you,
Ovi