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Lens Advice: 2 Mid-Level Primes or 1 L-Series Wide Angle Zoom

Started Jun 10, 2013 | Discussions thread
bhollis
bhollis Veteran Member • Posts: 3,931
Re: Lens Advice: 2 Mid-Level Primes or 1 L-Series Wide Angle Zoom

YardYeti wrote:

This is my first time posting. You guys are amaizing. That link is great. Took me a fe minutes to figure it out, but it is night and day. The Canon EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM Lens seems charper then the Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM Lens Image Quality. Both blow my lens away, but to me it would be better to get the larger range with better quality shot. it is slower, but I do not plan on shooting in low light that often. Does this make sense?

Well, I think it would be a mistake to assume that the 15-85 is sharper than the 17-55.  Many folks believe that just the opposite is true--i.e., that the 17-55 is slightly sharper than the 15-85.  As between these two lenses, I don't think that IQ is really a distinguishing factor.  Choose based on the factors I mentioned before--the 17-55's faster 2.8 aperture vs. the 15-85's wider zoom range.  Only you can decide which is more important to you.

Personally, when I had my 7D, I went with the 15-85.  Here are some samples taken with my 7D and 15-85:

 bhollis's gear list:bhollis's gear list
Sony RX1R Canon EOS 5D Mark IV Nikon Z7 Canon EF 70-200mm F4L IS USM Canon EF 24-70mm F2.8L II USM +5 more
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