Do I Need Another Lens?

I finally have the time and money to fall back in love with photography, a passion I enjoyed during my mid-teens - borrowing equipment off friends, purchasing old Pentax bodies from car boot sales, even developing in cold dark rooms - those were the days!

Having just bought my first DSLR (a Canon EOS 450D), I'm now putting together a modest collection of essential lenses. So far I have the following:

Standard Kit - EF-S 18-55mm IS lens
Tamron 70-300mm f4.5-5.6 lens (this came in the camera bundle - and I plan to sell)
EF 50mm f/1.4 USM (came yesterday, and I already adore it!)
EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM (for motorsport)
2x Extender

I'm off to NYC in the coming months and plan to dedicate several days solely to photography - I know I can probably cope adequately with the lenses above, but if it were you, would you be missing something?

If I was you, I would add a UWA. I have the 10-22 by Canon and am extremely happy with it.

But that's just me. Otherwise, I wouldn't change much at this stage.

The only lens I'd suggest is the 10-22 EF-S to add wide angle to your crop camera. You probaly won't want to lug all that gear around, so I doubt you'll need your longer lenses for NYC. You can do an awful lot or walking, so plan well.

I'd get the 17-40L. It's not an UWA lens on a crop body, but it's still pretty wide and the image quality and contrast is just awesome for such a low price (supposedly better than that of the 10-22, but not based on first-hand comparison).

17-40 / 50 1.4 / 70-200 2.8 IS is a fantastic line up. Hey, wait a mlinute, that's what I have!

I felt I was missing something with this line up, so I added a 24-70L. Since then, I've used it max 5% of the time... Not a bad lens (quite the contrary), but a bit too "walkaround"compared to my other ones.

Key take away is: avoid compromises. They're boring!

Ultra Wide-angle lens (10-22mm from Canon / Sigma etc) plus a flash like the 580EXII / 430EXII to 'complete' the setup-- just means you can shoot anything that comes your way.

If you don't take many landscape photos, I'd think about upgrading the kitlens with an EF-S 17-55 f/2.8IS or 24-70f/2.8L.

Like the others suggest, an Ultra Wide Angle lens will be a great addition. I have the Sigma 10-20mm lens and I'm more than happy with it.

You need to go wide! 10-22 should be next

Another vote for the 10-22.

I agree with Headshotzx. If you don't shoot landscape, architecture, or really anything in a tight space, I'd consider upgrading your lens in the kit lens range (18-55 give or take a few mm).

Personally, I'd pick up a 10-22 (or some other UWA) to help compliment/complete the focal range of your other lenses

Another vote here for the UWA. I have a Tokina 12-24. I don't use it often. But when I do use it I am very glad that I have it.

Thanks for all the advice, very tempted with a 10-22 - buildings and bridges are my thing at the minute! Will definitely look at getting a decent flash too - the 450D one has given me some very poor results.

... and yet another vote for a UWA, 10-2X of your choosing. There are a number of good ones out there for varying prices, and given your current selection of lenses, it's the only real "gap" that I see that's not well covered.

Another vote for a UWA. The Wigma or Canon 10-22 are good bets depending on your budget, or the Tokina 11-16 if you can find one.

Canon 10-22mm would be my next lens. Especially for NYC, I wouldn't wanna go without it.

I've used this lens a lot, and absolutely love it.

A side benefit of having a UWA is being able to handhold in low light at the wider focal lengths.