Time to move forward: the Canon kit lens is now officially retired, and I got a EF 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM as my main, general-purpose lens. It is by no means perfect, there has been much critique pointed at the softness/unsharpness and barrel distortion at wide angle, but there is no point for me investing into L series lenses at this point. The image stabilizer improves conditions when shooting in natural light, as I always do, and the zoom range is also right. It would be great to get into summery meadow to test it, but indoors and winter landscapes must do for now.