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.

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.

There are so many websites and forums with amateur photographers asking each other which is the best walk-around lens for a Canon. Aside from the usual (and somewhat patronising) answer 'it depends what you take photos of' the lens most often touted as the best all-rounder is the EF 17-40mm L. Whilst the 17-40 lens is good (it is an L after all), personally the price difference between the EF 17-40L and this EF-S 17-85 IS is far more than the difference in image quality. For the amateur photographer, or even a semi-pro, you are going to notice very little difference in your pictures. In fact, for many situations the 17-85 is far better than the 17-40L: aside from the obvious length advantage (allowing you more framing options) the 17-85 has IS. Although the 17-40L has a constant f4 aperture, the image stabilisation on the 17-85 is so good, you effectively have a f2 lens anyway, making it, in my opinion a better 'low light' lens. (Although of course if you want a really fast lens, you should look for a prime, or a super-expensive L - but then you would be far from the all-round lens category).

The only downside to this lens that I have come across is barrel distortion at 17mm - this is easily fixable in post-processing however. There are plenty of free packages on the internet (even the software that came with your camera body) that will fix it. Just don't take wide-angle building shots and expect straight lines out of the box. Oh, and if you have a full-frame body, then this lens will not fit - but then you already know that and are not searching for EF-S lenses right?

If you want a lens that significantly cuts down on the weight you lug around, or the sheer amount of kit you take with you on a day out, then this lens is for you. Pair it with the EF 70-300mm IS USM for a complete package of mid-level lenses. There is no 'perfect all-purpose lens' that's why those clever chaps at Canon made them detachable... but this one is the closest you will get.

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

Product review or not, I can't help mentioning that the whole purchasing experience was brilliant - the product presentation, the bid, the PayPal process, the seller communication, the product packaging and shipping AND the quality of the product itself which has proved to be completely on specification. I need no prompting to say that I am a well satisfied customer.

This lens is big for the zoom range & max aperture - but then it does have to accommodate the US AF motor and the Image Stabilization mechanism.

It basically does what it says on the box. Auto focussing is fast and accurate, and with my 50D, you know exactly what it has focussed on. The IS works like a charm - hand-holding 1/15s without any special effort gives essentially perfect results.

The lens is adequately sharp right into the corners. If there's vignetting, I haven't noticed it :)

Manual focussing is easy, despite the restricted degree of rotation (about 100 deg) of the focussing ring. The zoom ring is large & easy to use with a very smooth movement.

The front of the lens does not rotate when zooming or focussing so you can use rotation sensitive filters without problems.

By itself it's pricey but if you buy it as part of a kit with a camera, it's a bit more reasonable (I think you generally save at least £100 in the UK).

On the negative side, using the IS to enable you to work in lower light levels without flash is good - but it really is *not* the same as having a large maximum aperture. The issue is depth-of-field. When shooting at night, I often want to use the lens wide open to isolate the subject against a blurred background and that's not so easy with this lens so a bit of post-processing is sometimes called for.

Of course, what I really want is something like 11 - 85mm f2.8L IS USM but (a) they don't make it and (b) I guess it'd be around £2000 :{

In the meantime, I'm happy with this lens.

I was unable to justify the cost of purchasing a Canon L series lens so I chose the 17-85 IS USM lens and so far I have been very pleased with the results especially when using in low light conditions. The lens seems to be robust in construction and I am using it as an everyday lens as a replacement to the 18-55 lens supplied with my Canon camera. It is a lot heavier and better build quality than the 18-55 lens supplied and it gives me a better range from a wide angle 28mm to 135mm coverage.

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 like the versatility of the lens because it gives me that extra wide angle for indoor shots, A mid-range for general purpose shots and A short telephoto for doing portrait shots, The thing I love about it is the fact that it is a vey good lens with brilliant optics, I decided to buy this particular lens after doing a lot of research that was within my budget and also it is compatible with my camera, And I can honestly say that since I have had the lens I am absolutly delighted, And I am certainly pleased with the results that it gives me, It is my ideal lens which also incorperates an Optical Image Stabiliser that is great in awkward situations out in the open when it's very windy, Overall Brilliant!!!

Lens gives great results, clear and sharp. Image stabilisation means you can take photos in low light conditions without a tripod. I have taken some waterfall shots at 1/8 of a second - absolutely sharp, no camera shake. I also was playing with it and took some OK photos at 2 seconds - absolutely amazing.

Likes - sharpness, image stabilisation feature
Dislikes - you can hear it focussing which is a bit disconcerting.

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 wanted a good all round lens for traveling this gives a good compromise in most situations seems well made and durable pictures are clear and sharp

That was the most versatile lens for Canon 40d and the most useful option.
This is the right lens for every day use.

I bought the Canon 17-85mm after reading numerous reviews about it. Many reviews complain about how bad the distortion is, how bad the chromatic aberrations are, etc. I've found those issues only when shooting test charts. If you shoot test charts, this is not the lens for you.

In practice, I've found this lens to be superb. The 17-85mm range is very useful when walking about. I'm personally a wide angle shooter, preferring extra wide angle lenses and I feel that the new (and more expensive) Canon 15-85mm would serve me better. Having said that, 17mm is fairly usable and if I stop down to f/6.3 or smaller I get very sharp results across the frame.

Focusing is a little difficult under low light. In situations where my Canon 50mm f1.8 works flawlessly this lens has a tendency to hunt. That's likely due to the max aperture of f/5.6 which is a little too slow for low ambient lighting shots. If you slap on a flash gun, the AF assist beam fires and focusing becomes a non-issue. You'll lock focus each and every time. Most of the time though, you'll find the focusing adequately fast and fairly silent.

The IS is fantastic. It works and I'm able to handhold shots at 1/8 seconds which I'm thoroughly pleased about. That doesn't help when shooting moving subjects, but it's great for shooting indoor architecture (think churches and museums). This was something that I felt was lacking in my current lens lineup.

Pros: Relatively cheap, light, good image quality.
Cons: Slow max aperture, build quality could be better.

Can I recommend this lens? Yes!

Good: Excellent definition at all focal lengths. An extremely useful all-round lens. Image stabiliser (IS) is incredible - I shot a tree silhouette at 1/8 second handheld with no camera shake on magnification, then turned off the IS and it was very shaky in comparison. I bought a 2nd hand one from eBay (a bargain!) and it looks and feels fantastic. I also have a second hand fixed f 1.4 50 mm for when I need big apertures (indoor, portraits, close-ups) which is a very good combination.

The downside: a bit bulky compared to my previous 28-105 f3.5. The max aperture f4 is not amazing for indoor/ party photos and you can't rely on the IS for this as people move, but the alternative lenses to do this are ridiculously expensive (for amateurs) or too heavy/bulky or have a poor zoom range.

Conclusion: get it if a keen amateur who wants a grab and run general purpose lens with excellent quality pics. Consider a fixed 50 mm f 1.8 or 1.4 too.

This is a cracking lens i bought for my canon 450D, it has given me some outstanding results so far and i'm only just starting out in DSLR.

The Canon EF-S 17-85mm USM Lens is a great general purpose lens.
If you have bought a 1000D/450D/500D that comes with the 18-55mm lens and are looking for a step up then this is definitly the lens to go for.

But.. if you are looking for something a bit different to play with then I suggest the Canon EF 75-300mm USM Lens, it's a great second lens.

This is a perfect wide angle to short telephoto lens for the amateur who has just learned how to use his/her digital SLR. It is of significantly higher quality both in build and performance, compared with the ubiquitous 18 to 55mm lens that comes so frequently packaged with lower end digital Eos cameras. The main reason I gave it only 4 stars is because the maximum aperture is that little bit smaller than I would have liked at f4-5.6, but, hey, you're getting a high quality general purpose lens for a fraction of the cost of a heavy, ultra fast piece of high end Canon kit. One would have to pay 3 times the price for a near equivalent zoom with a maximum aperture of f2.8.
SUMMARY
This is an excellent lens for the serious amateur who wants a quality general purpose zoom without paying for, and having to lug around, its heavy glass stablemate. If you don't need to shoot in ultra low light without a flash, and you're happy to forgo a maximum f stop of 2.8, this is undoubtedly the lens for you. It is rugged, solid without being too heavy, and will provide excellent service for many years to come, wherever your hobby takes you.

I SHOULD LIKE TO ADD ONE CAVEAT FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE EMBRYONIC AMATEUR. THIS LENS, HAVING THE "S" SUFFIX WILL NOT FIT MANY HIGH END EOS CAMERAS, SUCH AS THE 1D MARQUES 1 TO 3. CHECK CAREFULLY FOR COMPATIBILITY BEFORE PURCHASE.

I bought this lens and I am very happy with it. It`s a very good quality and in perfect condition as saller wrote about.

Exactly what I needed as a standard lens after discarding the one that came with my camera. Good quality but otherwise nothing to report.

What a great little lens. Sharp and very accurate. For the modest price I cannot think of a better lens to add to a collection, it really does out perform many more expensive eaxamples...

At last my first e-Bay success! After attempting to obtain this lens in several auctions, I obtained this one at at good price. Arrived well packaged and in good condition. Lens is in good condition and is as advertised on the package. So far, so good. I would definitely buy from this seller again.