I really enjoyed reading this. I have to admit, it is so boring to me to talk about photo equipment, generally speaking. Where I live, there is a small community of pro photographer but after meeting with them a couple of times I decided to stop wasting my time, as 95% of the conversations are full of "I am planning to buy this... it costs that much... this lens goes well with that camera... etc." Gear, gear, gear, it gets so boring in under five minutes :D

By the way, the 50mm becomes a very nice portrait lens when attached to a crop-sensor camera (as far as I see that's the case with yours?) ;)

!DHEDGE
!PGM