Build quality. I LOVE the fact that this lens is very well sealed when used with a front UV or skylight filter. The 28-135 has a dust problem due to lack of sealing. "L" optical quality Price. Enough left over for the Sigma 10-20 Standard EF mount. Can use it on my Elan 7 and other FF Canon cameras.

Light fall off on full frame images. This is minimal and gone by f/5.6

This is the primary lens on my 20D. I have really enjoyed having it so far. I had always wanted an L lens and this one, notwithstanding its relatively economical price tag, has lived up to my expectations. It is very sharp. Flare is well controlled, and fall-off on the 20D is nil. I have used it also on my Elan 7. Fall off on that camera is noticable at f/4, but beyond that, I don't see it. There is also some corner softness wide open similar to my 28-135, but I expected this and it isn't noticicable at f/8-f/16. This lens is sharper overall than the 28-135, but not dramatically so. Overall, I would recommend this lens over the 17-85 (similar in optical quality to the 28-135) for anyone who does not absolutely need the extra 40mm of reach. Also, being a standard EF lens, one can use it on any Canon EOS camera which is a plus in my book.

Customer Service

I have never needed their service *knocks on wood*

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Canon 28-135. Great lens. Nearly on a par optically, but sucks dust into its innards. Vivitar 19-35. Excellent for the money, but optical quality is only good compared to the 17-40. Sigma 10-20. Vignetting on FF up to 14mm or so, but can be mounted on standard EF mount. Excellent on APS-C

Light weight. Good build quality. Includes the lens hood and a carry bag. USM is super smooth & quiet. Sharp at all distances except those approching infinity. lens doesn't "grow" as it's zoomed.

Light fall off in the corners wide open.

There has been much said about this lens both plus & minus so I figure I should put my 2 cents worth in as well. I won't get up on a box singing the praises of this lens nor will I deride it as garbage. It is an excellent lens provided you know it's shortcomings and are either ready to accept them or learn how to work around them. First off don't compare it to the F2.8 lenses, it's not in the same league price wise or image quality wise. I guess you get what you pay for. Not to say that the lens isn't worth what you pay for it but if you want better then you have to pay more. First off the good stuff. This lens is tack sharp unless you are focusing at near infinity. This is typical of wide angle lenses though so I won't fault the lens for this and lets face it when are you going to do a 100% crop of a wide angle photograph. Get a longer lens. Having said that if blow the photograph up to 16X20 then you're going to see softness. Built quality is excellent for a modern lens. Others have compared it to the build quality of the old FD lenses which was excellent, but if we were to have that today you could double the price of the lens and really what counts anyway? The glass, which is miles away better than what went in the past. Next, distortion. I have seen a lot on distortion about this lens and all can say is, get over it! It's an ultra wide angle some distortion is to be expected. In fact one of the things I don't like about this lens is it's lack of distortion (I like wide angles that are somewhat Dali-esque). Where this lens does have a serious problem is light fall off in the corners. FYI: on a Canon 5D. At f4 fall off is significant, it improves considerably at f5.6 and is gone by f8. If you are using this lens on an 10D, 20D, Digital Rebel etc. this is not a problem as the FOV crops out the normal edges of this lens. Where you run into problems is if you're using a 5D, 1DS & MkII or film. This is the biggest obstical I can see to this lens being used in day to day work environment unless you are capable of stopping down on a regular basis.

Customer Service

None as yet

Similar Products Used:

EF16-35L f2.8, Nikon 17-35 AF-S ED f2.8, Nikon 18-35 ED, Tokina 19-35 (horrible lens), EF-S 18-55 (no comparison). Nikon 12-24 DX AF-S ED

smooth 2 ring operation with USM & Sharp !

none

This is my standard lens on my 300d. I love it --its sharp and well made with seals to block out dust and moisture. L glass quality for under a grand! wonderful! F4 is fine for me -f2.8 lenses can be a rip off in my view.

Looks fairly week build, but take a look at the lenses they were producing twenty years ago, and you'll see they are not making them like they used to. To me, all these lenses feel "cheap". But hey, the 50mm f1.8 is very cheap feeling and it produces excellent images (for the money). Apparently, if you get a good copy of this you'll be happy, I didn't, I'm not. Make sure you buy from a dealer with an excellent return policy. I

Chiefly, customer support and quality control. Not all that well built, at least, compared with lenses of years past.

Before purchasing this lens, I read reviews on the various photography websites. The reviews are very mixed, some love this lens, some have serious trouble with misfocusing (so called front and back focusing). I decided to take the risk and bought one last winter. Right from the start, it was soft. Being new to digital photography, I was told my 20D just doesn't produce sharp images right out of the camera. Fine. So, my 50mm f1.8 is giving me shaper images, I'm told it just happens to be a great value for an extremely sharp lens. Sure. Months down the road, I buy a very cheap Sigma 55-200 f4 lens as a walk around lens. This sub-$200 lens was giving me sharper images than my "L" lens! I contact my dealer, send them some photos and they advise that I send it to Canon to calibrate it. See my comments in Customer Service for deals of the joy's I've had dealing with them over this. Until this week, I was a very loyal Canon customer.

Customer Service

I finally get around to sending my lens off to have Canon look it over. I call to confirm its safe delivery, and without giving my name, the person at the other end says "yeah, we have it", "Do don't need my name?" "Oh okay". So I give him my name and he says "oh, not in the system yet, I'll call you back". About an hour later, he calls and says "yeah, we have it" and basically tells me how overworked they are doing overtime, etc, etc, then says I should hear back within the week. After three weeks, I call them. No one to take my my call so I leave a message. I wait a few days, no return call, and try again. Same thing. I do this over a peiod of a week, then call the head office. No answers from them either. Also emailed my dealer yesterday, no reply, but its only been a day. Running a google, I've found many others who've experienced the same with this particular repair facility. Why would they treat their life-long loyal customers which such total disrespect?

Similar Products Used:

Mostly Canon products I bought in the late 70s and early 80s when I was a reporter/photographer. All extremely well built, though I couldn't tell you what each model was. Still have a 50mm 1.4, 70-210 f4, and 28mm f2.8. Beautiful lenses all.

Great Colors, Razor Sharp, and Contrasty

Focus can be more diffacult in lower because of f4.0 value. My 20D has no trouble with any of my f2.8 lenses. So when shooting portraits be careful. I prefer to use my 24-70mm F2.8 L

Great lens for the price. Build quality is fine with me, I am smart enough to keep the rain off regardless of built in gaskets. No prop with ghosting or flare a common problem with wide angles. Color rendition is typical of L lenses. Saturated and contrasty, but realistic. Particularly the reds. Actuallly this is the biggest difference between the off brand and Canon L lenses. I have seen alot of people raving about the Sigma and Tamron lenses. My experience has been that some of them are sharp enough but the colors they produce are to orange or magenta.

Similar Products Used:

Too many to list, but as for L lenses. 70-200, 24-70, and dozens of Contax, and Nikon Lenses.

sharp crisp images. very good colour saturation.

f4, slow on indoor low light situations

Great lens for digital camera. It was my 'on camera' lens for most situations.

Customer Service

not used

Similar Products Used:

16-35/2.8L

Very sharp even wide open, lightweight, low price, fast AF

none for this price and quality

I was disappointed with Canon about some lenses like 28-135 IS, 20-35 (I sold both), because I could not see any sharp images with them. But with this 17-40 4.0L , the thing is different: very sharp images, even wide open, now I can´t say "Canon disappointed me"... Very nice lens!!!!

Customer Service

no needed

Similar Products Used:

18-50 Sigma 70-200 2.8L Canon 55-200 Sigma

* sharp * good color reproduction * fixed length while zooming

none

The best value for money on its class. Very versatile lens (on 1.6x FOV camera will be like 28-70 mm range), sharp & nice color

Customer Service

none

Similar Products Used:

EF 24-70 mm f/2.8L

Price, build quality, good for indoor shots because of wider angle

not the best in low light but then again I have a 550EX flash so I can get lots of light if needed

This is the lens that is on my 300D the most. I have had a couple of pictures with the lens enlarged to 11 x 17 and the sharpness is amazing. I highly recommend this lens especially for the bargain price.

Customer Service

not needed

Similar Products Used:

Canon 200mm f2.8

sharpness, contrast, colour that can be achieved, speed, it's very quiet and fast

size; flare if you aren't careful; F4 is not that big deal for 10d/20d users: just raise ISO for a stop - voila!

great value for the money. the next best thing is 16-35 L, at twice the price. for 10d/20d users the best choice for normal zoom lens.

Customer Service

for this lens? you must be kidding! who needs that?!

Similar Products Used:

- canon 16-35 L, - sigma 17-35 (the last edition in spring 2004) - canon 18-55 EFS