I have been reading the articles on this site about these and they seem to be a very good investment, but heres a question. Would buying one of these be a good alternative too buying the 16x manual lens. Thats what it seems like to me, but i could be wrong. Thanks

No. These are very separate decisions. A Varizoom controller is an excellent investment, enabling you to keep your hands off of the camera and to smooth your zooms. Selecting a manual lens, on the other hand, is largely a matter of your comfort with manually controlling your iris, focus and zoom. A controller will not provide an auto lens with the same functional characteristics as a manual lens. It just helps to facilitate a variety of other control possibilities.