Sigma 17-70 ??

[wideopen]

I have a new rebel xti I received from a friend. It has what he called a KIT lens and said I should upgrade the lens. He then suggested I buy a sigma 17-70 because its a good length and it has full macro capabilities. I did not have enough time to beat his ear with all my questions before he left for his flight. Although I thought I was learning pretty good about photography MOST of these statements confuse me. I have a couple questions if someone could help me.

What is a good length? I assume he was talking about the mm of the lens?

What is full macro capabilities?

And lastly has anyone ever used this lens or can anyone give me any input on how good it is?

[JohnQ]

I have an acquaintance who purchased this lens and loves it. We talked about it a few weeks ago and the only drawback that he mentioned was the largest aperture at zoom is 4.5, which he said he would like to be a little faster.

You can use flickr to do a search for images taken with this lens to get an idea of what it does. Keep in mind this doesn't mean these folks know what their doing with the camera.

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=sigma%2017-70&w=all

Also from what I hear the macro capabilities of the lens is really good.

[Richard A Busch]

yes the Length is focal langth of mm going wide to a slight tele.

Macro is close up photos and full is 1to1 if you were to print a photo out of a quarter it would be the size of a quarter

Richard