After some 10,000 pictures, the autofocus motor of my Canon 18-55 mm IS mounted on my 450D gave up. Of course in the middle of our holidays on Azores. I had to learn manual focusing the hard way. I own a Canon 28-80 AF bought 15 years ago together with a Canon 300 still perfectly working.
I find unacceptable Canon produces such low quality material for its cameras. If I did not have additional Canon equipment (like the excellent 70-300 mm IS), I would go for Nikon.
Discuss Biology
EF-S lens are not the best you can buy.
Unfortunately quality lens are very expensive.
This is not just a Canon issue.
Anyway I don’t think Canon products are bad.
Take a look at this funny video:
http://www.youtube.com/user/DigitalRevCom#p/u/0/FWzsXeXCwuc
Which Canon lens around 18-70 would you buy?
Not including the most expensive lens,
I would consider the following (the first is the most expensive):
Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM
Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM
Canon EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM
I like EF lens more than EF-S because you can use them on every Canon DSLR.
Thanks. I read not exciting reviews on the Canon EF-S 15-85mm, expecially for barrel distortion and vignetting. The EF 24-105mm could be good, but I loose the wide angle. I think I will go for the 17-55mm … it is only 1000 CHF!
Lens reviews available here:
http://www.cameralabs.com/lenses/Latest_DSLR_Lens_reviews.shtml