[morlandroger]

Hi there does anyone use this lens or have experience of it? Looking for upgrade to stock 18-55 lens.

[_MB_]

Canon EF-S 17-85MM f/4-5.6 IS USM Reviews
Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 USM IS - Photozone Test Report / Review
http://www.fredmiranda.com/reviews/s...&cat=27&page=2

That should be enough to be getting on with

[GainfulShrimp]

I got one of these with my 20D a couple of years ago and I really quite liked it. That's in the past tense because I bought a 17-55/2.8 and found that my 17-85 was largely retired after that, so I have since lent my 17-85mm to my brother-in-law on indefinite loan.

The IS is very useful, but then again it needs to be because the (variable) maximum aperture settings aren't anything to write home about... it's a compromise of course. For instance my 17-55mm is a great lens for lowlight, but it's much bigger and heavier than the 17-85, and occasionally I miss the slightly longer reach of the latter.

One thing I enjoyed about the 17-85mm was the relatively good closeups I could get with it. Not true macro, of course, but for flowers and butterflies and stuff like that it's a decent performer.

As a general duty 'walkaround' lens, the 17-85mm is really quite good.

It's one of those lenses that tends to evoke strong opinions from people, I think because it's perhaps not as cheap as it could be (not as much of an issue for me as I bought it bundled).
I've read reviews where people moan about softness and CA with the 17-85mm, but I never noticed any softness with my copy and the CA wasn't too bad either - not usually apparent in my pics and easily correctable with Adobe Camera Raw otherwise.

Some of my favourite pics with it:



Finally, as a bit of a final caveat to what I've written above... when I was looking at my gallery just now to find some examples of my favourite pics taken with the 17-85mm, I found that many were in fact snapped using my 50mm f/1.4!
So... if you haven't already got one, I would consider a 50mm prime. The f/1.8 version is *extremely* good value - you can pick one up new for about £60. Obviously you don't have the flexibility of a zoom, but you get more flexibility around aperture and forcing yourself to use a prime for a day or two means you look at scenarios differently to using a zoom - it can be a very worthwhile purchase IMHO.

[morlandroger]

Thanks GainfulShrimp. Expands my range beyond standard lens as I hoped.
Roger

[stupot]

Cant really add much more to whats been said and its taken me some lovely shots, for a walk about lens its very good and has IS to boot. I do have a bit of a negative and have read the same problem from others, on occasion it can suffer from a dust problem, after i had mine for about 6 months i noticed a large-ish speck of dust inside the lens, me being a ding-bat i kept putting it off to return it under warranty and yes you guessed it the years warranty has well and truly gone so the speck is still there, nothing the clone tool cant rectify in PS, but might be worth googling to see if its a big problem or the odd isolated case.

[brian wright22]

Originally Posted by stupot

Cant really add much more to whats been said and its taken me some lovely shots, for a walk about lens its very good and has IS to boot. I do have a bit of a negative and have read the same problem from others, on occasion it can suffer from a dust problem, after i had mine for about 6 months i noticed a large-ish speck of dust inside the lens, me being a ding-bat i kept putting it off to return it under warranty and yes you guessed it the years warranty has well and truly gone so the speck is still there, nothing the clone tool cant rectify in PS, but might be worth googling to see if its a big problem or the odd isolated case.

Hi Stupot, see my review in Pixalo for this lens. The dust/dirt problem I think I had was probably due to it being there inside the lens at the manufacturing stage. It manifested itself when it perculated its way to the front element.
Unlike yourself, I did have it sorted under warranty and have not had any problems since.
Regards Brian

[Angela]

Here's a link to Brian's Pixalo review

[morlandroger]

Many thanks all. Advice noted and taken. This fits in my budget (the 1DS MKIII will just have to wait)
Roger

[stupot]

Originally Posted by brian wright22

Hi Stupot, see my review in Pixalo for this lens. The dust/dirt problem I think I had was probably due to it being there inside the lens at the manufacturing stage. It manifested itself when it perculated its way to the front element.
Unlike yourself, I did have it sorted under warranty and have not had any problems since.
Regards Brian

Ah very interesting it could very well be a quality control issue during manufacturing, never really considered it as the dust speck only manifested after about 6 months. I might one day bite the bullet and get it serviced, but i'm far to lazy and its PS for now.

Apart from that its a great lens.

[Sonsey]

There's a new 17-85 IS USM available for sale in the Classifieds Section

http://www.pixalo.com/community/clas...ies-18996.html