EF S 17-85: Kit on steroids
The most wanted lens may be your next glass after the kit.

A little introduction: the kit lens

Let's talk about the the kit lens : is a very affordable piece of glass that may yield some nice results but, at the end of the day is... just your kit lens. Although the 28mm equivalent at the wide end is useful, 53.4mm at the other end is just a little bit more of a standard focal length. Also, the kit lens is not exciting at all: pretty basic built quality, no ultrasonic motor, no Image Stabilization and somewhat slow (f/3.5-5.6). Well, it is quite cheap as a kit lens, even if you buy it alone ($143 street). Many photographers graduate from this basic lens pretty soon: aAn upgrade sounds like the next step.

The next step

The ES-S 17-85 is the most wanted lens in the whole Canon lens line up. That's quite an achievement considering how extensive is the Canon assortment of glass is. The tele end is the more desirable with 136mm (35mm equiv.) although the wide end is a very useful and true wide angle 28mm (35mm equiv.), This 28-136mm is a good focal length for most of the situations you may find everyday. That's one good reason to consider this lens.

Regarding maximum aperture, this lens will not win a speed award. At f.4-5.6 is not the fastest lens on earth, but it has Image Stabilization, and that will provide you 3 extra stops for low-light situations. This IS version works really nice and it is a really welcomed characteristic that works both smoothly and effectively. The same goes for the ultra sonic motor: silent, fast and accurate providing fast and precise auto focus.

Until now everything sounds really good, but this is not our favorite lens. The lens quality doesn't feel as tough as an "L" lens (or the high price tag), but some other comparable lenses without the S letter feel better. It is actually some kind of mystery, because looking side by side the 17-85 versus the EF 28-135 USM, they are quite similar. Although the finish is better in the 17-85, it feels somehow unsatisfying.

Being a EF-S lens, it has both a blessing and a curse: the blessing is a compact size, the curse is that it won't fit other film Canon cameras or a full frame dSLR. If you buy it and want to upgrade to a full frame camera, the 17-85 won't be compatible

Optically results are good, although not very good nor excellent. Even with a 1.6x crop sensor you'll notice softness at the corners. Take a look at our galleries for this particular lens; photos are untouched so you can examine them.

At $485 (street) this is an affordable piece of glass that is quite useful. Don't misunderstand us: this lens doesn't feel cheap, optical quality is good and build quality is reasonable, but at the end of the day this may be an unispiring piece of glass. After all, you may feel that the 17-85 is pretty much the kit lens but on steroids.

Canon EF-S 17-85 IS USM Galleries

Mixcoac (Mexico City)
Unprocessed images
Lens: Canon EF-S 17-85 IS USM