Got my new Canon 17-55mm

SpikeK6

SpikeK6

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Spike
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I am so happy, went out today and got back to a nice suprise, the wife handed me a lovely brown Amazon box.

Been looking for a while at the prices of these on ebay and on here and have noticed they go anywhere from £580 to £680 2nd hand I got this from amazon with the VAT off for £627 new, so 2nd hand was just not an option for me.

I have done some test shots with it against the 18-55mm kit lens I had, and whilst I thought the kits lens was reasonably sharp this thing just blows it away.

The anount of light it lets in aswell is unbelievable too, Ok I know its another 19mm bigger at the front but even testing it at the same appeture as the kit lens its amazing the difference.

Ok I know these are all relevent to the price of each lens but what I am getting at is, if you are looking for an upgrade the kit lens in the same ish focal length then look no further than the Canon 17-55.
It does cost alot more than say the Tamron or the sigma, and I did consider these as an option but I think I would have always been wondering "what If"

Ah well just thought I would share the good news

Spike
 
Its a brilliant lens, ive had mine for about 4 months on a 60d and love it. Practical zoom range, fast constant aperture, IS and great IQ, what more could you want.
 
I cannot praise this lens enough, with my 7D it's a great combination, and for a walk around lens it hard to beat.

Steve
 
Well I went out today to try it out and practice some shots ofr when me and the wife do the "trash the wedding dress" shoot but the tide was too far in so went and saw the power boat racing instead, ah well strole on tomorrow as we will be out earlier.

spike
 
Can you name the store, and the website address??
my friend said i can get this from t-dimension, their price is relatively lower.
 
I also have this lens on a 7D, it produces the best pictures with beautiful colours. A crops equivalent of a 24-70mm
 
Shining said:
Can you name the store, and the website address??
my friend said i can get this from t-dimension, their price is relatively lower.
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Hi

I got this direct from Amazon, T-dimension are selling it for £654 but then you will have delivery on top of that. Then if it gets stuck in customs you will have to pay the import duty, so it might not be as cheap as you first thought.

with me living in Guernsey I do not pay VAT so thats why it was so cheap for me.

spike
 
SpikeK6 said:
The anount of light it lets in aswell is unbelievable too, Ok I know its another 19mm bigger at the front but even testing it at the same appeture as the kit lens its amazing the difference.
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If you're using the same settings with the same light and getting different exposures, then I think something is broken or you're imagining it. One lens should let in the same amount of light at a given aperture as any other lens.
 
SamHH said:
If you're using the same settings with the same light and getting different exposures, then I think something is broken or you're imagining it. One lens should let in the same amount of light at a given aperture as any other lens.
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See now that is what I do not understand. Why should a lens that is 58mm let in the same light as a lens that is 77mm.

If they let the same light in then why are all lens not the same size, ok the appature is the same but you are surley forcing more light into it with the bigger end of the lens??

Spike
 
I think that you are probably right, but actually the lens diameter is bigger because it needs to to be bigger because of the way the elements are grouped or designed.

So a 2.8 lens whether the diameter is 72mm or 77mm won't make a difference to shutter speeds... you'll still need the same shutter speed at the given aperture.
 
SpikeK6 said:
See now that is what I do not understand. Why should a lens that is 58mm let in the same light as a lens that is 77mm.

If they let the same light in then why are all lens not the same size, ok the appature is the same but you are surley forcing more light into it with the bigger end of the lens??

Spike
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If you notice that the longer lenses all have large filter threads - take the 200mm 1.8 for instance - its HUGE!

The 1.8 has a huge filter thread because the design needs it to have that certain size in order to let enough light in to be useable at 1.8 - if it was smaller it wouldn't be 1.8.
 
I agree with what you are saying and thinking about it it is probably right.

Just seems strange when I did the comparason at the same apperture the new lens was lighter, to be fair I never checked the shutter speed on the images.
Ill be back.

spike
 
The shutter speed was different, to get the same exposure The new bigger lens used a shutter speed faster than the smaller lens but still gave a brighter more pleasing photo.

So in that theory even at the same apperture taking the same picture in the same setting same lighting etc the bigger lens lets in more light giving a brighter pic???

or am I still missing something???

spike
 
SpikeK6 said:
See now that is what I do not understand. Why should a lens that is 58mm let in the same light as a lens that is 77mm.
Click to expand...
Because you are not comparing apples with apples. The 18-55 kit lens at 55mm is f5.6. The 17-55 is capable of f2.8. This means at 55mm, the hole that lets light through is 2x the diameter in the 17-55 than the 18-55. In order to "fill" that hole with enough light, the lens has to have a wider front element.

When you stop the 17-55 down (i.er. close the hole that light enters through) to f5.6 so that it matches the 18-55 at maximum aperture, the front element doesn't need to be as big to fill the aperture hole with light but you have it there because it is needed when the lens is at f2.8.

The exact same exposure settings will, if there is nothing wrong with the lens, produce the same image brightness from the sensor. What you will find though is that the better lens is probably sharper, and will suffer less distortion/chromatic abberation (blue fringing) at equivalent f stops.
 
Hi andy thanks for the detailed explanation here is a quick test I did with the two lens.

So what you are saying is my new lens gives a better pic because of what you said not because of more light.

1canon 17-55 55mm f8 1/3 sec

DPP_100.jpg


2. 18-55 55mm f8 1/4 sec

DPP_96.jpg


If this is the case then I am one happy bunny, for all the kit lens takes a good pic the new lens is something else.

Spike
 
The reason that is brighter is the different shutter speed. The lens does affect the metering slightly and the camera has to make a choice about what speed to set. Given the 2 images have different compositions, and assuming you're on one of the area evaluative metering, you will get the camera making different choices about the speed. The way to see if they are doing exactly the same thing is to put the camera into full manual and have the settings exactly the same in both images.

You'll also see more of a difference at f5.6 as lenses tend to sharpen up a stop or so smaller than their maximum aperture (55mm at f5.6 is max for the kit lens, but two stops down for the 17-55). The new lens should be significantly sharper there.
 
the camera was on full manual but I had to change the shuter speed to get the exposure needle to the centre line.

I think what your saying is very informative and for that I thank you, I have grasped what your saying and it is all taken on bored now.

It is a fantastic lens and way way better than the kit lens thats for sure.

I thnk I was just looking for justification that I had spent my money wisely, the kits lens does a great job but the new one is in a different league.

Thanks again Andy

spike
 
Reasons have already been posted, but another will be that colours will be better represented with the new lens, simply because it will be made of better quality glass.
 
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