I’ve held off asking this here because there’s tons of generic lens advice on the internet and it’s too hard to describe what I’m looking for to get specific advice (because frankly I don’t really know). Anyway, I currently have two lenses – one a Canon EF 18-55mm IS 3.5-5.6 lens, it’s what I use almost exclusively. The other is a Tamron 55-200 f4-5.6 which I use when I need the extra zoom but largely ignore because it takes noticeably inferior shots. I also find that 55mm is just a bit too much zoom for a lot of the holiday shots I want to fire off quickly so I miss a lot if I have the bigger zoom lens on my camera.

I don’t really do well with inside shots at the moment – a faster lens (or some off-camera lighting and associated expertise) would be handy for that.

So my choice seems to be between:

• get a better quality zoom of about the same range as the Tamron with image stabilizing so the zoom is a bit more useful, higher quality and particular a bit better in low light situations where the Tamron struggles.
• get a lens somewhere in the middle – I saw a Cannon lens that went from 28mm-135mm somewhere which would fit the range of zoom I use really nicely and would be a handy all purpose lens.
• get one of the “nifty fifty” type prime lenses, which tend to be nice and fast and work well for the general indoor with people doing stuff kind of shots.

Or possibly there’s something else I should be considering… There’s way too many options out there.