"value" lenses?

my favorite lens is the 50mmf1.8, one of the best values available to photographers, amatures and professionals alike.

my question is, are there other lenses as sharp and "cheap" as the 50mmf1.8 for nikon?

The 50 f1.8 for Canon.

There's not much else that cheap that's any good at all. There's a lot of 3rd party lenses in the $300 to $400 range that are very good.

used lenses

I am happy with my Tokina 12-24mm. I bought if for pocket change literally, thanks to coinstar and amazon. Still 4 times more than my 50mm f1.8, but half the price of a Nikkor equivalent.

I am thinking of getting a Tamron 18-250. This lens is highly rated as a good value for the money. It will be used as a walkaround lens and sort of overall utility lens. Any thoughts?

That Tamron is a very good all around lens on a 1.6X crop body. The wide end is very good, if it suffers at all it's on the long end where, besides being a bit slow at max f6.3 aperture, it starts to lose some sharpness. (which is somewhat expected given it's zoom range) It's really good in the mid range (50-180mm) especially at one stop down from whatever the max aperture is. A good outdoor lens for sure.

My favorite "value" lense in my bag is my Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM. I use this for my daughter's basketball and volleyball games, as well as a great indoor low light lens. Very fast autofocus as well.

(Message edited by lgndracer on May 14, 2008)

I love the same lens as Mike but I have to say that I've had some very good luck with image stabilization zooms from Canon for sports. Even the non professional ones have done a good job considering their cost.
But you're right Joe, it's hard to beat the 50 1.8