Never noticed any significant CA with my Sigma 10-20 although I have done with my Pentax 10-17 although it's still not a massive problem. The 10-17 makes up for it by being amazingly sharp as well as offering a unique perspective.

I've used my 10-20 more than any other lens since I went digital. The 18-55 doesn't really go wide enough for my purposes however the 16-45 I find a more useful range and it gets a fair bit of use. I've also got a 10-17 and while it doesn't get used much it's not usual for the best shot on any given day to be taken with it.

Regards
Steve

Pictures from the 5D aren't noticeably better than from other cameras with similar pixel counts however it is "better" in that it gives you the same focal length equivalents as with 35mm i.e. my lovely Tokina ATX-Pro 20-35 F2.8 was a lot more useful as a 20-35mm ultra-wide than it is as a 30-52 mm equivalent with my DS or K10D (as it virtually never gets used).

I don't own either lens but I do have a FA 50mm F1.7 and an FA* 85mm F1.4 and of the two I much prefer the 85mm for portrait use - that might suggest that (for me at least) of the two you mention the 77mm would be better however given it's relatively slow for a prime the faster 1.4 max aperture of the 50mm would even things up a bit I think.

With film cameras my most used portrait lenses (including in the studio) were the FA* 85mm F1.4 and an 80-200 F2.8 zoom and still do when using a DSLR.

Congrats to Chris and many thanks to John for bailing me out as I hadn't realised the obligations that a winner had before entering and heading out on my holidays!

That was also my first thought!

My DS was always set to RAW and and my K10D will always be too (although I have switched to DNG instead of Pentax on that).

I must admit that was the first thought I had when reading this thread. I'm a reasonably experienced amatuer but would still hesitate to do another wedding. I've done one in the past and while the results were reasonable it was somewhat stressful and not something I particularily enjoyed. I used a medium format system (Bronica ETRS) with various primes (plus a flash unit for fill, a decent tripod & head and two film backs - one for B&W and one for colour) for the group and posed shots, then my Z1p & MZ5 (colour in one, B&W in the other) with a couple of FA* primes (85mm and 24mm) for all the other stuff. All in all a very big and heavy pile of kit.

No doubt a more talented/experienced photographer than me (and there are lots and lots of them out there) could get good results using consumer spec lenses however even with plenty of talent there are a lot of restrictions involved in not using fast lenses - not just if the light conditions are poor but also for restricting DOF when backgrounds are cluttered (digital post processing can help with that by my preference is still to try and get the shot as near right as possible).

I've seen the results when other amateurs have done weddings and in most cases they've been really quite poor - in some cases completely useless. I was asked to cover my sisters wedding but told them I'd rather not - one of their friends then volunteered however him and his Canon 350D and kit lenses were no-where close to being up the job and not one shot was useable (having seen him in action it came as no surprise as he didn't seem to have a clue about how to set-up group shots e.g. how to pose people to minimise double chins etc.). I did some set shots later using studio lights etc. however once the day was past there is only so much that can be done to fill in the gaps.

I've been using a DS for quite a while now and been more than happy with the results however the current low K10D prices were too good to pass by. Having used it a bit now I'd have to say that it's handling is quite reminiscent of my beloved Z1p, which is very high praise indeed IMHO.

The shake reduction seems quite effective in test shots - I'm quite looking forward to seeing how it works with my 500mm mirror lens as it could make that considerably more useful hand-held.

What you think of the 18-55 is perhaps dependent on what else you've used and also how you use it. I've had two now (both my DS and K10D came as kits) and what I've found with both is that while the centre sharpness is acceptable (I've had decent portrait results using studio flash) the lens is quite soft near the corners. One technique I use a fair amount with wide angles is to have a near subject in a corner and I've not been happy with the performance of the 18-55 with that sort of shot.

I sold the Ebay'd the 18-55 that came with my DS and I suspect I'll be doing the same with the one that came with the K10D, especially as my wife has just brought me back one of the 16-45's from a trip to Singapore.

I've had one of the 408's for a good many years however I haven't tended to use it much (except in the studio) with the DSLR as one big a advantage of the instant review capabilities (especially with the histogram) is that you can meter manually and quickly see if you're right.