How bad (or good) is the Canon 17-85 f4-5.6 IS Lens?

Brian G

Brian G

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For several years I've been using a Canon 30D, mostly with the 17-40 F4L lens.
Last year I updated to a 6D and I'm now using the 17-40 with that.
The 30D body is in perfect working order, and I was thinking of passing it on to my son.
However, I will need a "standard" lens for it, and rather than the 17-55 Kit type lens I was thinking of the 17-85 f4-5.6 IS.
This lens is not generally well reviewed, particularly for distortion and CA at the wide end, but I can get a second hand one for about £150, which is OK for the budget.
Does anyone have experience of the 17-85 f4-5.6 IS, and is it worth considering? or should I stick with a 17-55 "Kit" lens, which I can get new for less than £100?

In an ideal world, I'd be going for the EF-S 15-85mm f3.5-5.6 IS, but that's outside my budget.
 
I've not used the 17-85mm, although I know it's not highly regarded. Have you considered a 3rd party lens? I was very impressed with the Sigma 17-70mm (not the OS version) I used to own, and they should be pretty cheap.
 
I had a 17-85mm IS USM and I liked the zoom range and the USM and IS were lovely but the aperture range is rather ho-hum and lens itself was all in all a bit of a let down. I think that the build is average and that IQ wise it's rather... pedestrian at best with CA and distortion at the wide end. One review site I read at the time claimed that at the wide end this lens produced more distortion than any lens they'd tested. However, these things may be easily correctable with modern software though so if they matter or not is a personal decision.

It's not a great lens though, not IMVHO, and I wouldn't buy another or recommend it to anyone.

If you know the + and - points though, it's up to you :D

I gave mine away and replaced it was a Tamron 17-50mm f2.8.
 
It's decent enough in good light but usability/performance drops off (in my opinion) with the light levels. Even after I stopped using it as a walkabout lens (I preferred the Sigma 30/1.4 as walkabout) I still used it with off-camera flash for portraits - because if you threw enough light at it the results were good.

I've been meaning to get around to putting my 17-85 on the Classifieds, if you're interested I'll get a move on and try and get some condition photos this afternoon/evening and get a thread up. I will not trade outside the classifieds, but I can tell you that I wasn't expecting to get as much as £150.
 
gcogger said:
I've not used the 17-85mm, although I know it's not highly regarded. Have you considered a 3rd party lens? I was very impressed with the Sigma 17-70mm (not the OS version) I used to own, and they should be pretty cheap.
Click to expand...
I must admit I hadn't considered a third party product.
I'll take a look at the Sigma, thanks for the suggestion.

woof woof said:
I had a 17-85mm IS USM and I liked the zoom range and the USM and IS were lovely but the aperture range is rather ho-hum and lens itself was all in all a bit of a let down. I think that the build is average and that IQ wise it's rather... pedestrian at best with CA and distortion at the wide end. One review site I read at the time claimed that at the wide end this lens produced more distortion than any lens they'd tested. However, these things may be easily correctable with modern software though so if they matter or not is a personal decision.

It's not a great lens though, not IMVHO, and I wouldn't buy another or recommend it to anyone.

If you know the + and - points though, it's up to you :D

I gave mine away and replaced it was a Tamron 17-50mm f2.8.
Click to expand...
Yes, I've seen that review regarding the distortion, and it does tend to put me off.

I was also looking on that well known on-line auction site, and there seem to be a large number of 17-85 EF-S with faults (mostly unspecified) on there, which again tends to put me off.
I'm now thinking I might go for an EF-S 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 IS II, which I can buy new for less than £100, but I'll also take a look at some third party options.
 
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