RED, Green, Gold order of quality

In the process of lens shopping, just a quick question , is their an order of quality in the lens ring color?
thanks
Shakeyhand

Sort-of:

Silver
Gold
Green
Red

Do you mean the red ring on Canon L lenses, the gold ring on Sigma EX lenses, and the green ring on Canon DO lenses? I don't know if you can just make a blanket statement about the quality of each kind. The quality varies by lens model.

He may have been refering to Canon Lenses only.

You are right about the coloured rings not being a good indication of quality, they are more an indication of technology:
Silver - Standard consumer non-USM lenses
Gold - Lenses with USM motors (either micro or ring type)
Green - DO (Diffractive Optics), which could be either a consumer lens (EF70-300 DO) or professional (EF400 DO)
Red - Lenses with fluorite and/or UD elements (all considered as professional lenses)

Sorry, I was refering to canon lenses only. Are there sigma lenses that are of equal quality to the "just below the L's". I have a canon EOS A2 and I have been using a tamron 28-300 lens and have never really been happy... It was purely convenience...
Shakey

The Sigma EX range has some crackers - the 18-50 EX f/2.8, 24-70 EX f/2.8, and 70-200 EX f/2.8 are but three that compare favourably with their Canon counterparts.

I thought Silver was the color used to denote Canon EF-S mount lenses, like the 10-22; 17-85; and 60mm macro.

Yes that also does, but that is usually the focal length scale, the rings we are refering to are the ones on the end of the lens, which are present on the EF-S lenses as well (except I am only aware of the standard silver ring and the gold USM ring).

Well I don't think the others (non-L's) matter. As far as I know only the DO's and L's actually change the color of the font on the box accordingly. My USM's don't state USM in gold. And none of my old non-USM had fonts in anything but white either. And since we have all of 2 DO's we may as well think of them as a subset of L's. I'd argue the two we have, have build on par anyway. (Surely the 400 does)

I'd say a better rule of thumb in Canon land: price = quality. Nothing is absolute but I will assure you, all of my lenses have been worth the money invested.

Box colour? Not sure about that, in fact I know my USM lenses box is white with red and black. My statements refered to a painted ring on the end of each lens jsut before the hood mount.

if you get L lenses and pro bodies.. all your pics will look pro!

Cool! I should buy my 1.5 year old nephew a 1DsII with an 85 f/1.2L and he'll create masterpieces!

No, Jordan - you want to get him a 50mm f1.0L to go with the 1DSII - that way he'll create masterpieces in really dark rooms!

I must need to send my lenses in for recalibration because it isn't working for me.... hmmm