Lenses

Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 - Canon's only Ultra-Wide-Angle lens choice for crop body cameras but an excellent performer

Canon EF-S 18-55 f/3.5-5.6 IS II - Canon's basic kit lens for lower price APS-C DSLR models

Canon EF 40mm STM f/2.8 pancake - the first of its kind in the EF range and a good performer

Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0L - a fantastic walkaround lens that is possibly the best L bargain in the Canon lens range

Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0L IS - one of the best lenses I have ever owned

Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 - a stunning performer for a modest price

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro - the budget macro lens with a reputation for superb image quality

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L IS Macro - Canon's updated 100mm macro lens incorporating IS and an L designation

Canon EF 300mm f/4.0L IS - the EF 300mm L lens for sports and wildlife if your budget doesn't stretch to the f/2.8 version

Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L - the longest Canon lens before the big, expensive ones

Canon EF 1.4x II Extender - a small, light and high quality teleconverter to give you some extra magnification when required

Canon Extension Tubes - a cheap way to increase magnification for macro work

Lighting

Canon ST-E2 Speedlite Transmitter - Canon's IR device for triggering flash units mounted off-camera

Canon 430EX II Speedlite Flash - Canon's mid-range flash unit

Canon 550EX Speedlite Flash - previously Canon's top-of-the-range flash unit

Electra Studio Lighting - a budget studio lighting kit that can deliver surprisingly good results

Support

Giottos MM 9550 Monopod - a budget monopod for those occasions when a tripod isn't suitable

Markins Q3 Ball head - small, light, high-quality ball head capable of supporting big loads

Gitzo GT2541EX Tripod - highly adaptable, high quality, carbon tripod ideal for travelling

Cameras

Canon PowerShot S90 - Canon's compact P&S for those times when you don't want to haul SLR gear around

Accessories

Electra Colour Balance Panel - a cheap version of the popular ExpoDisc for setting custom WB

Sekonic L-308S Flashmate - a convenient light meter that can be used for ambient light or strobe lighting

Lens Impressions

This is the lens I bought at the same time as my first digital SLR (10D) and it is the one that lived on my camera most of the time for many years as my 'walkaround' lens. At the time it was the widest lens I had ever owned, but on a 1.6x crop body it becomes basically a 28mm lens in 35mm (full frame) terms.

It is wide enough for my needs most of the time but a little extra zoom in each direction would be welcomed 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 useful to have, even if IS isn't that essential on a lens of this focal length.

The Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS also has Image Stabilisation and an even greater zoom range. When I bought my 17-40mm there weren't many other Canon options but now there is quite a choice.

Image Stabilisation is valuable on long lenses - it was the thing I missed most when I sold my EF 300mm f/4L IS and bought an EF 400mm f/5.6L - but is of lesser value on shorter lenses.

The 17-40mm never seems to excite people very much 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.

Focusing is fast and accurate, and consistency and reliability have been excellent. Being an 'L' lens the build quality is tough and it will ride out lots of knocks and bumps while travelling.

Since I first wrote this I upgraded to a 40D body, and I will probably upgrade to a 7D soon. 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 I believe it offers great value for the money.

Since obtaining an Ultra Wide Angle EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 I have been using my 17-40mm f/4L less. They are very different lenses but the extreme wide angle of the EF-S 10-22mm allows you to get some very interesting shots that are just impossible with longer focal lengths.

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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.

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Lens Details

Weight: 17oz; 475g
Filter Diameter: 77mm
Closest Focusing Distance: 0.92ft; 0.28m
Minimum Aperture: f/22
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)
Soft Case: LP1319 (included)

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