Sharpness Definition color reproduction Built quality Price. (due to the strong Euro the price was a steal!)

Addiction to (expensive)L-glass!

The 17-40 f/4 L was purchased to replace the kit lens (ef-s 18-55) of my EOS 300D. Although the kit lens produced some great pictures, this L-lens is a class of it's own. Sharpness -even wide open- is outstanding and definition is truly amazing. Your pics look almost like 3-D! Now I know what my 300D is really capable of. Color reproduction is great and the purple fringings (sp?) are as good as gone. Pictures need only little post processing. Portraits look stunning and I definately have to go looking for a soft filter :-) I'ts my first L-lens but certainly not my last! Next in line will be the 70-200 L F/4. If you want to upgrade your 300D to a professional camera, (picture quality wise) get this lens!

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Similar Products Used:

Sony DSC75, Nikkormat, Nikon FE2, Nikon F70, various Nikon primes, Leica compact, Canon ef 90-300 usm.

Very Sharp -- all the way to edges! Contrast -- excellent!!! Vignetting -- insignificant even Wide Open! Build Quality -- very good!

I don't like using filters! This lens may suck in dust while zooming because of internal elements expansion/compression. This encourages folks to at least mount a UV-filter on the front of lens inorder to seal from dust. I wish that Canon had designed this lens with the front-element fixed into position, while only internal elements moved back/forth. Now I end up keeping a UV-filter on which reduces resolution.

I use this lens on a Canon film SLR. As far as 35mm film format goes this lens really shines. I also have the Sigma 17-35 (older model --in Pentax mount) and had very good luck with it but I found that I needed to stop down to f/8 to eliminate vignetting. When I tested the Canon 17-40 L, I immediately shot some test shots wide open to test for vignetting. This lens showed very little vignetting and also was also very sharp, all the way to edges, WIDE OPEN! Also I rarely used any filters and I usally use a tripod if possible. A great lens -- I have no regrets with this purchase!

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Similar Products Used:

EF 20mm f/2.8; EF 24mm-L TS; Sigma 17-35 EX (Pentax mount); Voigtlander 15mm; Pentax 24mm f/2; EF 28mm f/2.8

Wide angle coverage on my 10D. :-) Tack sharp images and fabulous color. Build quality, weight, and size.

Low light ability. Must use good technique or use a tripod for very low light conditions.

If you don't have this lense, run to your dealer now! Get this lense NOW. It is one of the best wide angle lenses that you will ever use. On my Canon 10D, this lense gets most of the work. Pictures are sharp and colors are bright and true. I really needed the wide angle on the 10D because my zooms and prime lenses were a bit too long. I sweated over purchasing the 17-40L for a little while because of the entrance price. But after going to a few local shops and doing some "research", I realized that the 17-40L was the one for me. On the 10D with the battery grip, it is perfectly balanced. The weight is just right. Not too heavy and easy to carry around your neck. (Be sure to buy a good neck strap though. The one that comes with the 10D is horrible.) I recently shot a local Auto Show with the 17-40L almost exclusively. I used my 50 f/1.8 for only a few low light shots. I shot over 200 pics with the 17-40L and found it to be superb. Some of my pics taken of the exotic cars are to die for. LOL! Seriously, the sharpness is outstanding. At F/4, you won't get that wonderful bokeh like some of Canon's faster lenses, but you will get some of the most beautiful images that you can get from a wide angle lense. Honestly, the 17-40L is my first "L" lense. I must say that I have been totally spoiled. My quest for a walk around lense started when I tried to get by with a 28-80mm Tamron consumer lense. Unfortunately, my new 10D was ruthless in letting me know just how bad that lense was. I set out to visit every local shop in my area testing better lenses. I really wanted to like the Canon 28-135mm IS and the Tamron 28-75mm XR DI, but their images on my camera just was not good enough for me. The Canon 28-135mm is good, but after comparing it to the wonderful 24-70L, I had seen the light, but couldn't justify the price. The Tamron was good once you stopped it down, but at F/2.8 it was literally useless. On a whim, I tried the 17-40L and was hooked. The quality of the pics rival the much more expensive 24-70L. Once I saw that, it was ON! The 17-40L rules! Next stop, the Canon 135mmL F/2!

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Similar Products Used:

Canon 24-70L Canon 70-200L F/4 Canon 70-200L F/2.8 IS (Awesome) Canon 28-135 IS Tamron 28-75 XR DI

Very Sharp, Fast Auto focus

no good for low light situation.

Just bought this lens for about a week. Took some outdoor picture and the image quality is great. I love this lens.

Similar Products Used:

18 - 55mm F3.5-4.5 17 - 40mm F4L 50mm/F1.8 70 - 200 F4L 75 - 300IS usm

Sharpness, Contrast, Color Saturation

None that I've found.

Wonderful companion to my Canon Digital Rebel. Contrast and saturation are outstanding. Now I know what Canon's L series lenses are all about.

Customer Service

Not needed it (yet)

Similar Products Used:

Canon EF-S kit lens (18-55mm)

-sharpness -affordable wide angle for DSLR -build quality -value never drops (like every other L glass)

-flare (with extreem wide angle doesn't)

First I had a canon EF 28-70mm f2.8L USM, but on my 10D I found it to long, so I sold the 28-70mm and purchased the 17-40mm f4, now I have a nice wide angle for my 10D. About the lens himself : Well, the lens is great value for the mony, it's realy sharp even in the edges (but do remember I use it on a 10D, so I do not use the full coverage), at F4 it's prety sharp but when you stop it down to f8 it gives you superb results. Some people say, it would be nice if the lens was f2.8, but first of all, if you want f2.8 you have to pay for it (you know the specs of the lens when you purchase it) and second, who needs f2.8 at this focal lenght???? Now about distortion, offcourse you have distortion at 17mm, perfectly normal, but the distortion isn't to bad, I have seen wurse (like the nikkor 12-30mm, gives lots more distortion at 17mm, offcourse you can not use this one on canon ;-)), and when you put the lens to 40mm no distortion anymore. Lens flare ? yes the lens has some probs with lensflare, but then again, every extreem wide angle lens has probs with lensflare, this one gives you no lensflare or almost none if you have a lightsource right in front of you, but when you have a lightsource in the corners you've got a problem. But,i have a trick, use a tripod, and if you see some lensflare in your viewfinder, well, search for the lightsource that is the cause of the flare and if this lightsource is not framed in the picture just put your hand in front of it (your hand becomes a small extension of the lenshood) and gone is the lensflare (very usefull for DSLR users because they do not use full coverage off the lens). Buildquality ? great, very good build, not to heavy, zoomring and focusring are very smooth. but when u zoom in and out the front element goes little inside the lens what could mean that dust can come into the lens, that's why canon (and me to) strongly recomend u screw a filter in front of the lens (I use a B+W skylight filter), also this filter protects your front glass element, this is also one of the good things about this lens, you can use a normal filter on it (@ DSLR users, remember, you do not have to spend extra mony on a extra slim filter because of the cropfactor). what about colors and contrast? well, the lens gives you very nice colors and contrast, some say the colors are a bit to warm, well yes, the colors that the lens produces are warm but I like that on this focal lenght, but when u put it all together you will see that the colors are still very realistic. want some examples shot with this lens, well i have some pictures of it on my site, links under here are directly to pictures shot with this lens. http://users.skynet.be/freewallpapers/ooidonk11_A.jpg http://users.skynet.be/freewallpapers/ooidonk22_A.jpg http://users.skynet.be/freewallpapers/stadhuis_A.jpg http://users.skynet.be/freewallpapers/koebd.jpg

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Similar Products Used:

-sigma 28-70mm f2.8 EX (sold) -canon EF 28-70mm L USM (sold) -canon EF50mm f1.8 II -canon EF 100mm f2.8 macro -canon EF 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 L IS USM -sigma 70-200mm f2.8 EX APO HSM

Sharpness, Contrast and Colour.

None as yet.

I bought this lens to replace my 20-35canon and haven't regretted it. Its a truly great lens, It has produced pin sharp shots on all settings. Its equally as good as my 28-70 2.8L, and we all know how good a lens that is.

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28-70 2.8L

good on close up product shots. Very good for panaramas.

I'v found none yet. Maybe if it had an f2.8 opening it would be a lot better. Proper lighting helps a lot.

I just got the lens and was taking some product shots of a very difficult nature. This lens worked out better than my other lenses by far. Not to say that I have the best selection of lenses, but this one took good pictures where the others were lacking. I've use the lens with my 10d and eos elan 7e. It works equaly well on both.

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Similar Products Used:

100-300 L series canon. 28-135 canon.

Price. Weather sealed. Tack sharp. Light weight when compared to other L lens. Utilizes 77mm filter size making it compatable with other L lens.

None.

An excellent overall wide angle zoom. Very sharp with excellent contrast and a close focusing ability that is hard to beat.I personally find it to be a great lens when walking about NYC either for fine art photography or photojournalism. Wish it was a f2.8 sometimes but no lens is totally perfect.While it seems designed more for the Canon digital line this lens produces beautiful images on color transparencies and black and white film.

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Similar Products Used:

CANON 28-70 2.8 L CANON 20-35 2.8 L CANON 70-200 4 L CANON 200 2.8 L CANON 24 2.8 CANON 50 1.4 CANON 85 1.8 CANON 100 2 CANON 28-135 IS CANON 70-300 IS

sharpness, contrast

I noticed it is a bit underexposed in low light situations

A great lens that will turn out to be a classic one. Very well built, an affordable L lens, very high quality. I traded the Sigma 15-30 in for this one as it has more reach and it is still wide enough and much smaller and more versatile. I absolutely don't regret it. It is in competition with the 28-135 for the default position on my 10D and it is about to win.

Similar Products Used:

Sigma 15-30 Canon 28-135 Canon 28-105 II Canon 50 1.8 II Sigma 70-200