Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM Lens

This is one of the optional kit lenses for the 20D/30D & 40D cameras.
As a non 'L' lens it is very good, and is excellent value (especially if bought as part of a kit with a body).
Until the end of June 2008, Canon have a £40 rebate on this lens (you must provide the bar-code, and receipt) so double check with your retailer.

Compared to the 18-55mm that many of the range come with, this is massive, but it's a reasonable size and weight for what it does.
The optical image stabilisation works well, and it covers a good range of focal lengths (27mm to 136mm equivalent field of view).
The front element doesn't rotate during focussing or zooming, and the recommended hood (the EW-73B) is a petal type that can be stored back to front on the lens.

Summary: While optically not quite as good as the 17-40mm F4L or 24-105mm F4 L lenses, it is a fraction of the price (and weight) of either.

I bought this lens to use with my 40D and so far have been very pleased.

Out of the box, it's build has a generally solid feel. There could be a little more friction to the zoom ring wich feels a bit too easy to work (indeed it does tend to slip to a full zoom if carried around for any length of time and there is no lock on thisd lens). Fitting the optional (lens hood is a slight clunky proceedure, but once in place it is very secure.

AF is very fast, ultra-quiet (thanks to Canons excellent USM)and impressively accurate, plus the full time manual feature lets you fine-tune when it doesn't hit the spot.

So-far so-good, but the great strength of this lens is its range. The 17mm end is terrific for lanscapes and indoor scenes; barrel distroirtion is tolerable even at the widest angle (you'll have to pay a lot more to improve here). The 85mm end gets you close enough to really pick out the detail in most object and scenes. Sharpness is good throughout the range, hand held. These attributes, combined with a very reasonable weight, has made this an ideal 'walkaround' lens for me.

I had read reviews about this lens in various phot magazines, and having purchased one on eBay (massive saving on retail!), have started to use it straight away. This is my first EF-S lens, and it really is quite versatile. The focal length range of approx 27-136mm equivalent, is useful for the standard 'out and about' shoot. It isn't that heavy, and feels reasonably well balanced with my 40D (I guess that's why Canon do the combo kit!). Image quality is great, zoom is reasonable and focusing (manual) is also quite smooth, all from a beginners perspective. On AF it is reasonably quick as well, and the Image Stabilising function works quietly and smoothly, although I don't really feel that I have needed it really on a short lens like this (as opposed to my 75-300 IS EF lens).

All in all, good build quality, and it feels 'solid'. And at the price its available at new, approx £235 inc postage, well worth acquiring by amateur/beginner photographers.

An excellent 'all round' lens. I'm really impressed with the focus, very sharp and fast.

The 'image stabiliser' is a great bonus too, works very well.

I recently used this lens to take a friend's wedding photos and we were really pleased with the results.

Yes, it's quite expensive but as the old saying goes; you get what you pay for!

This lens is an improvement over the 400d standard zoom.
Its quite heavy but the zoom range and quality are good.
A nice bit of kit!

good buying experience and a good lens for the money, better than the standard
lens.very quick delivery.

Did above and beyond the call of duty. help'd me with postage to a rather difficult location. 110% ace, brill, fab ebay'er.

Thank you very much for my new toy. Love it!!!

Fozz8

This is the obvious lens to go for on all Canon 300d, 350d, 400d, 450d and 40d - this significantly better as a walk about lens than the kit 18-55 lens.

Recommended

Image stabalisation excellent - useful in all sorts of situations.
Notably soft then wide open on wide angle but OK if stopped down to at least 7.1 - not nearly such an issue on the tele end.
Seems very bulky - must be all the extra electronics. The lens tends to block the built in flash on my 400D for shots under 5m.

I bought this lens as part of a kit with my Canon 30D, the image stabilisation is amazing I can shoot handheld at 1/30 second with no blur, great for low light when you don't want to use flash.

The most important thing for me is Image sharpness considering the price it's good but not amazing, some vignetting is visible at 17mm but this can easily be rectified in image editing software and sometimes adds to an image.

I'd recommend fitting the best quality skylight or UV filter you can afford to the lens to protect the front element from damage.

Was looking for a reasonably priced zoom for my EOS 300D and found these guys. Item came as described with fast delivery, well happy!

This lens is all you need,a good upgrade from the 18-55 kit lens,give it a good work out on my 400D all was perfect from the 17mm out to the 85mm,much better ballanced than the 28-135 lens when fitted to the body.

17-85mm is a brilliant standard lens and the Images Stabilizers makes sure every shot is knife sharp.