Considering a 17-40L....questions!

TreInJapan wrote:

Hello!
Recently picked up a 6D, and i'm loving it. I love the 24-105 and I'm really impressed by the low-light performance of the 6D. I still have my t3i which I love, and one of my favorite lenses is the Tokina 11-16 F/2.8, which is made for APS-C, so it's really only useful on FF at 16mm. I could keep it and very rarely use it on the t3i, or I could sell it and add a bit more to upgrade to a 17-40 for the 6D, but I have a couple of questions.

-My hopes for my next lens:

• Wide enough to shoot interiors well. I do occasional interior photography and want something sharp and reliable. The Tokina was great for this.
• Sharp enough for portraits at 40mm. (Had another thread recently where I got a bum Sigma 50/1.4 that I was hoping might fit this bill, but instead just got a full refund.)
• Solid wide-angle performance for video and glidecam work.
• Occasional low-to-mid-light group shots at parties and events.

-Questions

1. Is it decent for portrait work?
2. Any experience with video work? I know wide angle lenses are generally pretty solid, but perhaps I can hear first-hand from someone who has worked with this lens.
3. Does the 6D's low-light performance compensate for the 3 stops in aperture over the Tokina? On my t3i, if I was shooting anything over 1000 ISO, the shots were pretty noisy. But with the 24-105 I can pretty much shoot into a dark corridor and shots still come out okay at 12,000 ISO. So I would assume it would be fine...
4. If you don't recommend this lens for the above-stated goals, do you have another lens or pair of lenses that you would recommend for a similar price? Another option would be to just keep the Tokina and always use it at 16mm, then get a nifty fifty or pancake 40 or something. Though the last nifty fifty I had didn't focus right all the time, so that worries me a bit. Also, I need fast-focus!

Any first-hand experience or input would be great! Thanks!

I use the 17-40 extensively for commissioned architectural work.  It is quite good for this with three caveats:  stop down to f11, proper manual focusing, distortion correction in software.  With these met it performs admirably.  17mm is the weakest setting but still very good.  The majority of the shots on my website below were taken with this lens.  Replacing it with something better is a low priority item.

As for portraits, sure it will work.  The center is sharp at any aperture and focal length (on a good copy).  f4 will not give you much background blur at wide angles unless you are right in the subject's face.  But then, even f1.4 is tough to truly blur a background at UWA unless you are very close to the subject.

For event type portraits (group shots, full body) it's a good lens.  You'll often need f4 just to get everybody in focus.  I find it great at wedding reception.

If you have kids, UWA zooms are fun for portraits.  Set it wide and stick the lens right in their face and you can get some great perspectives.