Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM Lens

For years I've been trying to get a lens that will be enough for almost everything when I travel, and deliver good quality at the same time. The thing is, the 18-55 kit lenses are perfectly usable and have a useful range, so it turns out it is not that easy to get something significantly better. Ideally you'd like a lens that is faster, a bit wider, with more telephoto range and perhaps a bit better image quality. It turns out, with the 15-85 you can have all those things... except the speed. Unfortunately it is limited to f/3.5-f/5.6 which is unremarkable, but delivers everywhere else.By far my the most used range when i travel is the wide-angle, with the 15mm being especially useful. It gives you an extra 20% in diagonal (see attached image), which proves very crucial when trying to get landscapes, buildings or even people into your frame. At the same time, when I need it, the 85mm side gives me enough zoom for almost every situation - with the usual modern DSLR sensor further cropping the frame is an option, so very rarely you will find you did not capture your distant target adequately.Overall it covers over 95% of travel usage scenarios and all that with a great optical quality, so it is the only one I carry with me. It is also quite fast at AF, while having a very smooth and convenient MF ring.Having said that, it is far from perfect. As I said, it is not very fast and despite that it is still quite heavy. Many units (like mine) in time lose their ability to "hold" their focal length position when not pointed roughly horizontal, unless you are at either 15 or 85mm. Also, don't expect a lens that is great for things like astrophotography - see example @ 85mm f/5.6 (crops from the corners and the center), while the CA is minimal even fully open, there is distortion far from the center. But I will still give it 5 stars, because it is by far the best as a single all around/travel lens at a very reasonable price.

I bought this lens from Amazon Warehouse deals a couple of years ago at £400- it was a return and came without a Canon box, which is fine, I knew that. I felt I was taking a bit of a risk, but I couldn't afford the original £900 this lens once commanded. I got it to go with my new Canon Rebel T4i, or the 650d in the UK. Well- I have never looked back. This lens is on my camera 95% of the time. The improvement in quality over the standard kit lens is AMAZING!- you can get results that are near professional if you know what you are doing. I have heard it contains L quality glass- without the price tag. The 15mm end is wide enough to satisfy most wide angle needs (not going into the crop factor here) while the 85mm end, although modest, is so sharp when stopped down you can crop easily with little loss of quality. Any cons? well it's quite heavy- but it feels like the business! A little bit of vignetting when fully zoomed. And I have found that using autofocus at the wide end often foccuses way too short -but this could be my camera. This is easily rectified by using manual focus, and for landscapes that's really easy, just set the focus mark to just short of infinity!Update as of Oct 15- 2 and a half years after my initial purchase- still going strong with this lens as my main tool. I have others which do other jobs well, but this would still be the only lens I would use if I had to have just one. As it is not an L and does not have dust sealing, it has got quite a bit of dust in it (shine a torch through it) but in no way degrades the quality and is not visible. Unlike my 650d which I had to manually clean recently.

Let's start at the top: why 4 stars?I bought this lens in 2009, and fourteen moths down the line it seized up: wouldn't zoom below around 35mm. after a lot of struggle, I returned it to Canon who fixed it, and charged me £120 for the privilege, as it was two months out of warranty. It has to be said they were very quick (return in four days)but even so. On the forums, I see this is a well-reported problem with this lens - it can suck in dust through the front element. (I don't shoot in the desert or on the beach, and always have a UV or polarising filter on the lens.)Now you might be asking - why not much lower than 4 stars?Quite frankly, this is a BRILLIANT lens in terms of image quality. I have some L glass, but this outperforms much of the L series. Yes, really.Don't just take my word for it. Bob Atkins ([...]) lists the best Canon EOS lens, and this is the only EF-S lens in the top 20 (at number 17 currently) with a score of 9.6/10. Neither of my Ls score more than 9 - and I'm very happy with them.This is my "go-to" lens. When walking (touring in GB, France, Spain, Germany, South Africa...) it's my most used lens by some distance. Often it's the only lens I take.The range is ideal for general photography (for me, mostly landscape, architecture and general.) It's equivalent to just wider than 28mm to 88mm for a full-frame/35mm camera. And as 2.8, it's fast.The IS works well too: I have no problem hand-holding down to 1/10th of a second - or slower with a good support to brace against.Remember, of course, it's EF-S so won't fit a full-frame camera (such as the 5D and 1D series.)And remember - it's a Canon, so no case, and no lens hood. Cheapskates. You'll need a lens hood, of course, as this is a wide lens.So, if you're shooting with a crop body and can afford the lens, buy it. But I'd also buy a SquareDeal type insurance to extend cover to three years. ANd when it arrives, check the zoom action. If it's not TOTALLY smooth, or seems to stick a little, send it back.Noting my "negative" points - build-quality, no lens hood, cost me an arm and a leg to repair - then you'll see my 4 stars mean that I still love this lens: you can't argue with image quality, clarity, brightness and VERY low distortion. But make sure you have a backup if you're off on a big trip.