Internet speed is a wonderful thing. For most internet browsing, almost any "high-speed" connection is going to be wonderful. However, I upload a lot of stuff out to the web, stuff you may have seen. Like photos & videos for instance. When it comes to uploading large files or pulling big downloads in, it's nice to have a faster connection.
I would say an average high speed connection would be about
3mb DOWN 1mb Up
Those numbers are in MegaBytes Per Second.
I think at the MBSF and at home, our speed is right at those numbers, sometimes a little up or down.
The average household, with a couple of devices connected sharing a single Internet Service Provider, you're good to go. However across the street on Henderson's campus, they have to be equipped for over 3500 students being online at the same time. Well, it just so happens that most people are NOT on at the same time. Most students use the internet exclusively in their dorm rooms, mainly after class, and mainly for light usage.
That means during the middle of the day, "Business Hours" for me, I have a bigger slice of the pie on WiFi speed. Look at this:
73mb DOWN 43mb UP
Never again in my life will I ever witness speed like this. I can't imagine what it would cost a month to have this kind of speed all to yourself. And who would that'd be ridiculous! But, for now, it's so nice to have the speed for thousands, basically to myself, as everyone in class still uses notebooks, (the spiral kind, not the ones with Apples on them) the WiFi is basically wide open, waiting for me to snap it up with all my uploads and downloads.
Like I said, most typical stuff wouldn't utilize the speed much. For daily browsing anything over 3 you're flying. But, for these big files trying to get up and out of the pipe, this is nuts.
Think of it like PVC pipe. How big of a pipe do you have coming to your home? How big of a pipe does the university have coming to it's campus? What would you need a humongous pipe for? You wouldn't, unless you were trying to fill a swimming pool. In which case, no big deal just let it go overnight. But, I'm saying, it was amazing to watch this swimming pool fill up in 60secs.
Outside of those three lenses the medium-range zoom lens is a tricky game to play. I would avoid lenses that promise a wide range, such as 18-200mm. They will definitely not be able to pull it off without noticeable flaws on both ends of that spectrum.
I absolutely love my 24-70 f/2.8L. But, that is not THE lens, there isn't ONE lens to buy, it is all about building and planning your camera bag and your lineup for the future. For instance, here's my lineup in the case right now:
Tokina 12-24mm f/4 Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS
Canon 2x Extender Canon 50mm f/1.4
See how with three lenses I can go right up the ladder? And with the 2x extender on the biggest lens, I can technically jump to a 400mm if I absolutely need to?
It's more about your personal setup than it is THE lens. Just plan ahead so that you don't have a 28-135mm and plan on adding wider and tighter lenses. At 28mm already, it would mean a fisheye like mine, but you wouldn't want to pull it out on a regular basis when you just need those extra 4mm. Or, on the telephoto end, you could have a 70-200mm, but your medium lens overlaps all the way to 135mm, halfway into your big lens.
