The Teaching & Learning Centre picked up a new Canon Digital Rebel XTi and 28-135mm USM IS lens, primarily to better photograph events and workshops. I took a quick walk around this side of campus to try it out. Man, do I love the new lens. The XTi is a pretty nice upgrade, too. I'm still really happy with my (now obsolete) XT, but the XTi is nice. The LCD feels HUGE. The 9-point focus is good (although I have my XT set to center focus only, so the extra 8 points would be wasted).
I posted a bunch of my test photos - sets of two, taken at each end of the lenses' range.
I'll try to make some time to test out the new rig over the next week or so. And of course, now I need to save up to buy my own 28-135mm USM IS lens. Dayum, that's nice.
Update: I added a sample of the same shot taken with a 75-300mm EF USM MkII at 300mm for comparison. It's a bit blurry because that lens is not IS, and I didn't have a tri- or monopod handy. Hand-holding at 300mm in lowish light is not recommended...