Here's an educated guess at what you say others were recommending:.

1. Tamron 17-50mm constant f/2.8 zoom (for Canon mount).

2. Canon 18-85mm IS zoom (sometimes found in more expensive kits).

The Tamron would have about the same range as the kit lens, but it would let in more light (especially useful for indoors shots with natural light)..

The Canon 18-85 IS would let you magnify remote subjects more than the kit lens and would help compensate for hand shake (though it would not let in more light)...

Tom's summary is spot on..

You have to decide which is more important to you: (i) the ability to let in more light, which will be better for taking pictures indoors without flash; or (ii) a longer focal length ( = greater magnification) which will allow you to get, for example, candid shots of people from a little further away without them noticing..

If it were me I would go for the Tamron 17-50 f/2.8 which is known as a very sharp lens; I take a lot of pictures of family and children indoors, so the greater light-gathering capacity would be more important to me than the longer 'reach' of the 17-85 lens. if you shoot most of your pictures outdoors you night well come to the opposite conclusion..

The 'image stabilsation' in the Canon lens could be very useful for hand-held shots in poor light which would require a long shutter speed - when camera shake might otherwise spoil the shot. However it is only useful if the subject is motionless. people do not stand completely still (even when posing for a photo). If you use a very slow shutter speed the image stabilisation will (partly) compensate for YOUR movement - but the people will still wobble which will blur the picture..

Best wishesMike..

There are really good reasons Canon packages a 18-55mm lens with the camera bodies..

Buy that..

Learn to use it, and then you can spend money on another lens, later..

The 18-55 is a fine lens, really, really inexpensive, and useful forever, too..

The numbers like 17 and 55 and 50 and 85 relatet to the focal length of the lens, and focal length refers to how much you can get into the shot. Lower the number, more in the shot, with the lens being "wide angle" with numbers under around 20, and telephoto woith numbers over about 50..

BAK..

Thanks everyone for the very insightful responses. I have decided to go with the Tamron 17-50 - as letting more light in is more important to me..

Thanks again!..

There are really good reasons Canon packages a 18-55mm lens with thecamera bodies..

Buy that..

Learn to use it, and then you can spend money on another lens, later..

The 18-55 is a fine lens, really, really inexpensive, and usefulforever, too..

Ummmm... the 18-55 Canon kit lens is generally regarded as very poor. I have not used it myself but it has been often panned in magazine reviews (and on this forum)..

From the photozone review onhttp://www.photozone.de/8Reviews/lenses/canon_1855_3556/index.htm.

'The MTF performance was mixed in the lab. As to be expected the weakest spot are the borders at 18mm @ f/3.5 which are plain ugly. Things improve a little at f/5.6 but you should really stop down to at least f/8 for decent results. The center is much better with already very good resolution figures at wide-open aperture.'.

Compare this with the comments on the Tamron 17-50:http://www.photozone.de/8Reviews/lenses/tamron_1750_28/index.htm.

'At 17mm the lens was even able to reach some of the highest measured LW/PH values ever tested in the center of the image (@ f/4). Even wide open the quality is already very good. At 24mm the quality remains basically on the same high level. At 35mm and 50mm there's a really marginal decrease in center performance whereas the border quality remains exceptionally high.'.

The OP wants to be able to take pictures in low light. A constant-aperture f/2.8 lens has got to be a better bet than a lens that starts at f/5.6 (at the long end) and needs stopping down further if you don't want to get mush at the edges of the picture. The Canon kit lens is 'really, really inexpensive' for a reason....

Best wishesMike..

Jubee wrote:.

I will be taking pictures of most anything put particularily people (posedand unposed family/baby pics, etc.) and nature shots..

If you plan to take bird photos, you will probably want a telephoto lens that goes to 200mm or 300mm (or more), to go along with your "general-purpose/people" lens..

One that might turn out to be a decent budget lens is the recently announced Canon 55-250mm IS zoom. It's slow, but it has IS, and will probably only cost about $250 (if Canon is trying to be competitive with Nikon). (Canon's 70-300mm IS lens costs around $600, and many of their "pro" telephoto lenses in this range cost $1,000+.).

There are also inexpensive telephoto lenses from third party vendors, although those tend to lack IS...