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Never completely satisfied

Started Jul 2, 2014 | User reviews
ClickJohnClick New Member • Posts: 3
Never completely satisfied

I owned this lens for six years, now sold. This was bought to be my go-to, walk around lens on a EOS 40D.

On the plus side, low light performance was stellar.

Not so great? I'm no pixel-peeper but images always came out just that little bit soft for my taste (as compared with my EF 70-200 f/4L, which always delivered far sharper and brighter images). Maybe I was the unlucky one to buy That Lens? Always left me wondering where all that money went, especially when I had to buy a hood separately! Excuse me Canon?

Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM
Zoom lens • Canon EF-S • 1242B002
Announced: Feb 21, 2006
ClickJohnClick's score
3.5
Average community score
3.6
Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM Canon EOS 40D
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MPekala Regular Member • Posts: 230
Re: Never completely satisfied

I had the same experience.  Everyone raved about this lens, and I had it on my T1i 90% of the time.  But I agree that it was a tad soft, and I didn't like the color or the contrast too much.  I also thought it had unaccepable chromatic aberration.  I sent the lens (twice) to Canon and they assured me (twice) that it was within specs.

I now have a 6D and the 24-105mm F/4L (on which, I know, opinions differ) but the sharpness, color, and contrast of this lens (on the 6D) far out-performs the 17-55mm f/2.8 (on the T1i).

Obviously, performance varies, but I never loved the 17-55 the way most people do.

My $0.02.

 MPekala's gear list:MPekala's gear list
Canon EOS 6D Canon EF 85mm F1.8 USM Canon EF 135mm F2L USM Canon EF 17-40mm f/4.0L USM Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM +2 more
RedFox88 Forum Pro • Posts: 30,738
Re: Never completely satisfied

ClickJohnClick wrote:

I owned this lens for six years, now sold. This was bought to be my go-to, walk around lens on a EOS 40D.

I'm sorry but this is a poor time to write a "review" of this lens. And it I s a bit foolish to use something for 6 years and nor be happy with it. You should have had Canon check out the lens while it was under warranty.

On the plus side, low light performance was stellar.

Not so great? I'm no pixel-peeper but images always came out just that little bit soft for my taste (as compared with my EF 70-200 f/4L, which always delivered far sharper and brighter images). Maybe I was the unlucky one to buy That Lens? Always left me wondering where all that money went, especially when I had to buy a hood separately! Excuse me Canon?

Excuse you, actually no excuse for not having Canon take a look at it!

Ember42 Contributing Member • Posts: 697
Re: Never completely satisfied
1

RedFox88 wrote:

ClickJohnClick wrote:

I owned this lens for six years, now sold. This was bought to be my go-to, walk around lens on a EOS 40D.

I'm sorry but this is a poor time to write a "review" of this lens. And it I s a bit foolish to use something for 6 years and nor be happy with it. You should have had Canon check out the lens while it was under warranty.

On the plus side, low light performance was stellar.

Not so great? I'm no pixel-peeper but images always came out just that little bit soft for my taste (as compared with my EF 70-200 f/4L, which always delivered far sharper and brighter images). Maybe I was the unlucky one to buy That Lens? Always left me wondering where all that money went, especially when I had to buy a hood separately! Excuse me Canon?

Excuse you, actually no excuse for not having Canon take a look at it!

If you look at the detail resolution charts in many reviews using 18MP bodies, this lens does suffer a bit at 2.8, and sharpens up nicely by f4.0 or f5.6.  This would not be obvious on a lower resolution body typical of 6 years ago.  It is not the equivalent of a prime used at 2.8 in the same range.

That said it is still one of the best general range lenses for APS-C.

 Ember42's gear list:Ember42's gear list
Canon EOS M Canon EOS 7D Mark II Canon EF-M 22mm f/2 STM Canon EF-M 11-22mm f/4-5.6 IS STM Fujifilm X-T1 +13 more
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