My Dilemma when People ask about Lenses...

Ok, it all starts with a thread like this:

Subject- Which one to Use?
Post- Hey, which one is best? I gotta use it tomorrow morning, and I am not sure what will be better for me.

Then come the Options:

- Canon 70-200L IS 2.8
- Tamron 70-300 4-6.5
- Sigma EX 70-200 HSM 2.8
- Olympus CF-SB

And they leave you to guess all by yourself.

The Dilemma starts:

Which lens is best? Well, hands down the Canon 70-200L IS 2.8 is -by popular choice- the most renowned lens out there. Specially compared to Tamron, Sigma and Olympus optics.

And the thread takes off. The Sigma guy feels that his Lens is doing great for the money (less than two thirds of the Canon), and the Tammy/Olympus guys will miss and hit with comments like "My Copy of this lens could outdo a Canon 600mm 2.8 IS anytime, anywhere !".

However, what is NOT BEING SAID, is that the OP's intent the following morning, is to use one of these lenses for his own Colonoscopy. In such case, the obvious answer to the Thread (and unanimous, I would hope) would be the Olympus CF-SB optics, sporting great technology at the right size.

I hope I can get the point across, I love contributing on Lens threads, but the proverbial "What to buy, A or B?" without any other context information, or previous results (Such as look at this pic with my sigma 10-20mm, what is a better lens that will take away that diffraction and increase sharpness?) simply goes by largely noticed, but I am afraid, not very accurately addressed.

Does this suggestion make sense? Or am I the only one helping others choose their gear -specially glass- half blind?

Sound off !

I, too, am plagued with lens questions, often by PM, mostly because I post the lens tables in the Equipment / EF and EF Lenses forums. My responses:

I just collate and concatenate the table data. I am NOT an expert on lenses.

As for the "I need it tomorrow" crowd, good luck to you, because you waited too long.

And to the "I just got a Rebel and need to shoot my sister's wedding on Saturday" crowd, DON'T! She'll never forgive you.

Learn first! Shoot later. Part of learning is learning what equipment and skills you need to do a given job.

And a warning.... It seems that 70% of those who buy a DSLR (and 50% of those who buy an advanced P&S) think they can be wedding photographers. Well, they can't. What they can do is screw up some poor saps wedding.

Weddings are one of the most difficult things to shoot properly. They require consummate technical skill AND creativity, neither of which comes packaged with the camera.

Happens to me quite often @ work.. But the What lens question and Wedding/family photographer.
What lens I can answer intelligently by asking the questions Mario mentioned..
Will I photograph a wedding? Uh, No.