Lens Buying Advice (I've read the stickies!!!)

Hi, My recent Canon EOS 30D purchase is to hopefully enable me to photograph in three main areas.
Firstly small wildlife - I'm fairly covered here with the Sigma Macro 150mm f/2.8 on it's way.
Large wildlife, birds etc - I'll worry about this later on
Portraits/minor glamour work - Now I've read through all the available info and am really confused. I'm not after top notch high end of the scale reproduction but do need something that's more than passable. Should I go for a zoom or a prime, a really low apeture seems like a drawback to me as I'd be using flash anyway so would rather have a larger dof. Additionally I'm not really into landscapes/scenic shots but if the lens could also be used for such that would be a bonus. Hope all that made sense. It's 2 in the morning here and I've been drinking caffeine since 07.00am yesterday. Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Thanks in advance.

If you dont need a fast aperture than go with a highly rated consumer zoom like the canon 28-105 Mk II. When stoped down to f8 you would be hard pressed to tell the difference between it and an "L". The differences you do see can be mostly fixed with post processing like color saturation, contrast or sharpness.

Either a normal range zoom like a Tamron 28-75 f2.8 or if you want shallower DOF a 50mm or an 85mm prime

My vote goes to the 50mm or 85mm primes for portrait work.

For pure portraiture, and the odd landscape, I too would plumb for the 50mm on the 30D... If you have plenty of room though, or just want head and shoulder shots the 85mm is a cracking lens... I use the 85 on my 5D & 35mm cameras for general portraiture and for head shots with my 20D, I use the 50 on my 20D for general portraits...

Thanks for the info guys, very helpful and very much appreciated.

No doubt, for $300 and change, 50 1.4 or 85 1.8. Nice lenses and so much sharpness and bokeh. I cry sometimes when I see the captures on my computer. Worth the money.

The Canon 50 1.4, 50 1.8, 85 1.8 or the Sigma 30mm 1.4 are all great options and all can be had for under 400 clams. I'd like to have all three.

Heck, you could use your current lens as a Portrait lens. Many people including me use 70-200mm 2.8 lenses for portrait work... Ideally IMHO 85mm is PERFECT for portraits.

My current lens (18-55mm) is the kit lens that came with the camera. I've been hearing such bad things in the forum about these lenses that I just assumed it wouldn't be any good??