Comments on Canon EF-S 17-85 lens

[jkingston]

I am considering buying the Canon 17-85 lens as my "all around" standard lens for the 350d and would appreciate comments. Is the IS system worthwhile? Do you notice a substantial improvement over the kit lens? Are there others that I should consider as all around? So far the only lens I have besides the kit is a Tamron 90mm 2.8 macro lens (for watch photography).

Comments and experience with this lens would be appreciated.

Jeff

[timmciglobal]

I'm considering the 18-125 and 18-200 from sigma right now.

the 17-85 has very poor CA performance and I think it's too short to be usefull with IS. It's also slow (4-5.6) for such an expensive lens and EF-s.

Tim

[suemccartin]

I have the 28-135 IS and that is one helluva consumer lens--I would like to have the 70-300IS but that hasn't been in the stars yet. I've noticed the smaller zoom with IS and it seems to be selling like hotcakes from all the camera stores I've talked to (doesn't necessarily mean it's good just means lots of folks are grabbing em up). I shoot karate demos from the bleachers with flash with the 28-135 and even when the flash doesn't fire the IS does a heckuva job of keeping the image from camera shake with the low shutter speed. I love this lens, just wish it was a stop or so faster (or that I had a 20D so I could shoot in 3200iso with it).

[ReF]

the 28-135 IS is pretty darn good for a consumer lens. the 17-85 IS lags way behind the 28-135 in terms of sharpness and especially contrast. i owned both and returned the 17-85. the 17-85 has excellent flare resistance though, comparable to that of the 17-40L. you'd probably be better off with the sigma 18-125 at less than half the price, though i've never used it. if you are already used to the sharpness and contrast of a prime, i think you'll be really disappointed with the over priced 17-85.

[theplanr]

I'm also considering this lens when i purchase the 20d,
but the sigma 24-70mm ex 2.8 looks quite nice as well.

The sigma would have a little less range, but the constant 2.8
might make it worth it. I can't find any real compairisons of the
two lenses together though.