canon travel lens 28-135 IS USM

About two years ago I bought a Canon EOS 30 SLR as my second 35mm SLR camera. When I bought it I thought really hard about what lens to get with it. After much thought and some advice from my friend Chris I settled on the Canon EF 28-135 IS lens. It is a superb travel lens and a great compromise in terms of price and weight. All of the photos on the chilean section of gavinbell.com were taken with it.
Its strengths are a good optical range, 28 is the start of properly wide angle and 135 is a reasonable short telephoto. It is fast and quiet to focus, especially when combined with the EOS30.
The lens does have some weaknesses such as being a bit soft at 135 and a little barrel distorted at 28, plus the minimum f-stop is 5.6 from about 70mm onwards. These do not really distract that much from what is an excellent lens for taking pictures.
The key feature that makes this lens shine is the image stabalizing, which is a superb boon for travelling holiday. Essentially from 1/45, maybe 1/60 and up you will get sharp pictures. I'm often surprised at what quality of picture I get with this lens in low light conditions.
I'd highly recommend it as a first, and for many people only, lens perhaps adding a longer telephoto zoom later.
Buy this lens at Jessops in the UK, or get the EOS 30.