rkg

Leroy, The sigma 17-70 doesn't seem to be too bad a lens, as long as you aren't shooting it at or near 17mm, which shouldn't be that much of a problem, as you probably should be shooting with it at ~35mm to minimize the barrel distortion. As far as a recommendation goes, it kind of depends on what you are trying to capture. for closeups, I use either a 100mm macro or my Tamron 180mm macro (sharpest EF mount lens I've ever used), and actually for overalls I usually try and use a prime and shoot diagonally (50mm macro), though I've also had good luck doing this with a 17-40 f/4L as well. I'll also sometimes use a 24mm shift lens to get out of the picture and have no distortion, though most people can get away with just shooting off axis a little to accomplish this. Was your comment about tripod size because you are shooting down on the piece? if so, you may want to think about improving that setup as well so you don't have to use your lens at its shortest focal length - the simplest solution is to get a bigger tripod and a Bogen right angle tripod arm so you can hang the camera out over the piece more easily. I usually end up using a sandbag on the ground to tie the other end to as a counterbalance. If I recall correctly, the XTi doesn't have shutter lockup, which is a bummer as it helps a LOT when you're trying to get high resolution photos (the mirror slapping up makes stuff jump all over the place - which is bad because you are going to be shooting stopped down (which usually means slow shutter speed unless you're using studio flash or incredibly bright lights) to get enough depth of field). About the best you can do is get a matthews baby boa bag (or some sheet lead) and wrap it around the head or arm on the tripod to damp vibrations and use the timer or remote control to trigger the camera. Or you can go to a studio flash setup for illumination to get the shutter speed back up, but this is usually quite a pain (seems like the modeling lights don't quite show what you're going to see + its a pain to get the exposure right - even with a flash meter it takes some testing...). As an alternative, you can just use your existing tripod by using it closed as the boom and attach it to something that isn't going anywhere (ladders, sandbags, clamps, and rope can be your friend here). Good Luck on your endeavor... Best, rkg (Richard George) http://www.rkgphotos.com