Neil, I agree that lenses are the wisest investment and will likely have more impact on the quality of the images you will produce, at least in terms of what you purchase. Obviously the person behind the camera is the most significant factor. I've seen some stunning shots taken with P&S. Anyway, I have to say from my perspective if you're shooting with a cropped sensor and shooting with natural light, I would lean towards a very fast average focal length zoom lens. I mentioned the 24-70 f2.8 L in my previous post and I have to say, that lens absolutely rocks. Of all of my lenses this one clearly gets the most use. When I was shooting cropped I always had it on but I still use it with the 5d FF. With a cropped sensor the 70-200 can be a bit long. Like I said, I have the 70-200 f2.8 L IS and it is an awesome lens but if I could only have one general use lens it would absolutely be the 24-70. You will need fill light outdoors. You may also want to consider a hot shoe flash or speedlight with a diffuser if you don't already have those. I would recommend a small softbox. I have a Gary Fong diffuser and it's good for larger fill or groups but the softbox gives real nice catchlights. Also for only a few bucks get yourself a 6 in 1 reflector, I use mine a lot! Anyway, if you need additional info on any of this please let me know. Others here are a great source also so hopefully they'll chime in. Good luck!