Amazing travel lens

This lens is perfect for all cropped sensor CANON DSLRs. I’ve been using this lens on my 7d for nearly 3 years and can not fault it. Full frame equivalent to a 27-88 it is very versatile whether on pit lane at Watkins Glenn or walking around Rome & Pompeii recently it is a stellar performer.  Great AF and low light performance.

There is a lot of criticism regarding dust intrusion with this lens but that has not been my experience. I always use clear or UV filters on my lenses for protection and combined with the weather sealing on the 7d I may have avoided this issue.

If you are shopping for an upgrade to your 18-55 on your cropped sensor Canon DSLR I highly recommend this lens. I purchased mine after using a Tamron 28-75 for several years with mixed results on both a Canon XS then the 7d and never regretted it.

1Dx4me wrote:

i borrowed a friends for a few hours and was very disappointed with structure and build quality, it really sucked--i would not depend on this lens! in the mean time, the optic quality was semi-decent, not bad for a ef-s lens

I bought a used one of these and was really dissapointed, especially after reading all the hype about it here. I could live with the poor build quality but the IQ on mine was soft wide wide open. Sold it and got 2 used primes....am $ and IQ ahead. I wouldn't try another one.

I have one and used it for several years as a travel lens.  Here is what I found:

• excellent image qualty
• good range for travel lens
• pretty fast at f2.8
• IMHO one of the best choices for travel with a cropped body

Here is what I didn't like:

• Heavy, but no heavier than other zooms, but heavier than some primes and weight and size does matter with travel
• lens creep drove me nuts so using it at events for example was very hard as I was always adjusting the zoom, the build quality seems sloppy, although the IQ is fine.  It's a really expensive lens for such poor build quality.
• dust in the lens - but it didn't really seem to affect images.  If you don't have it now, you will.  It is just a "feature" of this lens and has been mentioned numerous times in these forums by almost everyone who owns one.

I have since move from 7d MKII to a 5d MKIV that I travel with and so have moved to a 35 f2, which is great lens with great optics, lighter and smaller and works really well in most circumstances.