DSLR versatility advice

Soldato
Joined
19 Sep 2003
Posts
5,319
Location
Adelaide, Australia
I own a Canon 550D complete with 3 lenses - an 18-55 IS, a 55-250 IS, and a 50mm 1.8. I've just returned from a trip to New Zealand and the USA, and whilst I'm extremely happy with the photos I took, I did feel there were some missed opportunities due to the kit not being versatile enough in a couple of areas.

The first is the lens reach. The 18-55 was mostly fine as the walkabout lens, but there were a number of times where the reach wasn't enough. Fine, I swapped over to the 55-250 and away I went. Unfortunately, there were quite a few occasions where by the time I'd swapped the lens, I'd missed the photo op. This has made me start thinking about getting a lens with a longer reach.

Having read up on a few of the lenses online (Canon 18-200, Sigma 18-250, Tamron 18-270, etc) I understand that the quality of the photos won't be as good as the 18-55/55-250 combo, but just how much will I lose? Out of these types of lenses, which would you go for?

The second area was the strap. I'm using the standard Canon strap that came with the camera, and struggled to find a way to carry it comfortably all day without it banging into everything, whilst still having easy access to it. I've seen some straps online with clips for quickly unhooking the camera that look like they'd be just the ticket, however do these work well? Do any of you have any suggestions as to which would be good to try?
 
I accept that I'm not going to get every photo I want, but if I can maximise the number I do get by using a more versatile lens, then why not? I don't want to drop down to a superzoom; I've been extremely happy with the 550D. Given that I'm unlikely to print any images larger than A3, am I likely to notice much or any loss in image quality going from the 18-55/55-250 combo to say the 18-200?

The BlackRapid and Op-Tech straps look exactly what I'm after. Think I'll have to have a look in the local store to see if they have any in to have a play with.
 
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