Lens Impressions

This is the lens I bought at the same time as my first digital SLR (10D) and it is the one that lives on my camera. It is the widest lens I have ever owned but on the 1.6x crop body it becomes basically a 28mm lens in 35mm (full frame) terms.

It is wide enough 99.9% of the time for my needs but a little extra length on the telephoto end would be welcome occasionally. The Canon 17-55mm EF-S IS sounds like a very interesting lens and it gets great reviews. Of course, it will only fit on crop bodies from the 20D onwards but the extra focal length and image stabilisation would be nice to have, even if the lens isn't built to L series standards.

The lack of IS on the 17-40mm isn't generally a problem but occasionally in poor light it would mean being able to select a lower ISO setting to reduce noise. However, improved high ISO performance is yet something else that continues to get better with every new generation of sensor.

The 17-40mm never seems to excite people and generally reviews are luke warm but it has served me very well as a general walkaround lens and I've taken some pleasing (to me) shots with it. It has been good for landscapes, indoor shots and portraits. Perspective distortion with wide-angle lenses doesn't always make for very flattering portraits but that hasn't been the case with this lens.

Will I trade it for the 17-55mm EF-S IS once I upgrade my camera body to one that can accept EF-S lenses? I can't answer that question until I have tried the 17-55mm lens. The increased zoom range, Image Stabilisation, and - by all accounts - excellent image quality all sound good but I will need to see for myself first.

Since writing the comments above I have, in fact, upgraded to a 40D body. The 17-40mm lens continues to give great results and it is certainly a lens I have no thoughts about selling. It has served me very well up to now and offers great value for the money.

Post-Processing

Most original images were shot in the RAW format and converted with Adobe Camera Raw. Noise was reduced using Imagenomic Noiseware Professional. Small amounts of image enhancement were applied using Adobe Photoshop CS2 (curves, levels, saturation) before sharpening using the Smart Sharpen filter (Amount: 30% - 120%, Radius: 0.2px - 0.3px, Remove: Lens Blur).

The large JPG images that open if you click on a thumbnail were saved with a 'High' quality setting of '8' on a scale of 0-12.

Lens Details

Serial Number: 184361
Lens Code: US0400
Date Manufactured: April 2004
Date Purchased: July 2004
Supplier: Fotofile, Bangkok, Thailand
Price: 31,000 Thai baht
Lens Hood: EW-83E (included)
Lens Case: LP1319 (included)

Caveat

This isn't a review. If you want MTF charts and comparisons with other lenses, I'm afraid you've come to the wrong place. However, there are plenty of excellent sites around that offer this kind of information.

Just as with audio equipment, a list of specifications doesn't mean very much. My old original Quad Electrostatics never looked very good on paper but once fired up they had the ability to make hairs stand up all over your body.

With photography I prefer to look at photos of real things and real people that evoke emotion, rather than look at MTF charts or other meaningless images.