Help me fill empty lens slot...

[subtle_spectre]

Thinking about final lens to round out collection (see signature). For a time I have thought about the 17-40 L, but feel I have this all but covered with the 24-70L. The 16-35 L is appealing, save for the price tag. The shorter focal length L primes seem a good choice, but many reviews are mixed at FM. I always end up back at the 17-40 just to have a smaler L lens to wear on the camera.

My primary focus for the lens (pun intended!) would be people and group shots, such as you might find at weddings, parties and events. In the end, I really just want to fill the final slot in my bag. Any suggestions...I am not locked into Canon products necessarily. Thanks.

[cactusclay]

Looks like you got it covered now, maybe an 85 for a longer fast portrait lens.

[tim]

Buying toys for the sake of having toys isn't a great idea, but it's fun - that's how I got my 70-200 F2.8 IS, though I use it often now, it's a great great tool/lens.

I'd say all you're missing a good wide lens. Look at the Sigma 10-20, Tokina 12-24, and probably others. The Canon 10-22's very expensive, so I got the tokina, i'm happy with it, it makes lovely colors and it's quite sharp.

[Dante King]

2 words. 14mm Tamron rectilinear, ok, so that was 3

[SolPics]

The 24-70 L is a great group shot lens. If you want wider I would look at the two wide zooms mentioned by Tim, or the Canon 15 MM Fisheye, Tokina 17 mm or Sigma 15 mm primes.

[condyk]

Tokina 12-24 f4 Pro DX would fit perfectly.

[Wilt]

You don't mention what sensor size (camera)! I will assume 20D-sized sensor for this answer...
For weddings and other people photography, anything wider than 35mm lens (on 35mm format) will get you in danger of perspective distortion making people look fat or have big noses. I would use 50mm (35mm-like on 35mmFF) as my widest on my ETRSi 645 camera for weddings, but never the 40mm (24mm-like on 35mmFF). For non-weddings, I find 28mm (35mm format) not wide enough for me. I like to shoot church and museum and castle interiors, for example, when I am travelling. So I quickly sold my 28mm lens after the first trip, and bought myself a 24mm lens for use when travelling with my 35mm SLR.
Since you have a 24mm, that gives you the 35mm widest that I think is safe to use on individuals and groups with a FF camera, and it gives you a good 24mm interior shot lens for travel. If you use 20D sized sensor, that means you need 15mm for the 24mm coverage, but the 24-70 would be a good wedding lens.