17-40L & 350d query

I have noticed that generally the images I'm obtaining don't quite hit the spot with regards to contrast and am looking for people's view on this. I'm fairly new to photography but an experienced retoucher so I'm used to working with extremely high quality images and I'm wondering if I've been a little spoilt. I have to remind myself that the 350d is an entry level digi slr but I find I'm having to increase the contrast quite a bit, especially on monotones.
I keep thinking that I might have a 'duff' lens but I don't know if there are any general symtoms of bad manufacturing or if indeed this may be one of them.
Any help appreciated.
Soon I'll have my 70-200 2.8 which is in the post so I suppose that will be the real test if it's the cameras limitations or not.
thanks in advance
Andy Peat

first off don't underestimate the 350D...its a very capable package. and the lens you have on the way will only complement it nicely
if you could perhaps provide a little further information about the settings you're using, jpeg or raw capture?
it is possible that if shooting jpeg you could turn up the in-camera sharpening and contrast, if shooting raw be aware it does tend to be a little soft at first but can be sharpened a great deal (through Unsharp mask in photoshop) as well as contrast increase. jpeg gives you an immediate result, raw needs a little bit of work but produces excellent results.

thanf for the reply,
I always shoot RAW and either use the Canon SW or RAW plugin in PS CS2.
I process the files with low sharpening and do the rest in Photoshop.
Firstly I sharpen the images using USM filter, but I find I have to to increase the contrast as well. (I use a low value and large radius in the USM filter for this, say 20 and 50 radius) this gives a really nice contrast without damaging detail in the shadow too much)
Don't get me wrong, I have produced some really balanced shots straight from RAW and I don't mess with all my images in this way but indoor shots seem a bit flat in the 3/4 tones, they just need a bit of 'punch'