Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 Image Stabilized USM SLR Lens for EOS Digital SLR's - White Box (Bulk Packaging)

The Canon EF-S 17-85 4.0-5.6 IS USM is a first generation EF-S design, released Fall 2004 with the EOS 20D. It's designed for APS-C (EF-s mount) cameras, e.g., 60D, 70D, 80D and Digital Rebels. Full-frame DSLRs such as the 5D MKIII and 6D are not compatible. The 5X zoom range of wide to short telephoto--equivalent to 28-135mm on a full-frame camera--makes it ideal for general use and travel. I’ve used this lens for ten years and it's still going strong! Construction: It feels solid, sporting excellent fit and finish, sturdy plastics, metal mount and smooth moving parts. While not a small lens, it’s reasonably light and compact considering the 5X zoom range. It balances well on a 60D, 70D or 80D, feeling nimble and agile in hand. On a small DSLR such as the SL1 it's a little front heavy but should balance well on larger Rebels, e.g., T5i and T6i. Focus & Zoom: A USM Motor drives an internal lens group and the front element doesn't rotate or extend during focusing. Ring USM offers up blazing fast AF for AI Servo and single shot. Unfortunately, Ring USM is not well suited for Movie Servo enabled cameras such as the SL1 and 70D: video AF is jerky and picked up by built-in camera mics. For video, prefocus or use manual focus. Manual focus (MF) is possible without switching out of AF mode: simply grip and turn. The focus ring is narrow and not ideal for pulls. Unlike many newer lens designs, a distance scale is included. The zoom ring is large, covered with ribbed rubber, well damped and does not creep. Two nested barrels extend when racked out to 85mm. Optical Quality: My copy is tack sharp center frame (AFMA calibrated) at all focal lengths and improves only slightly when stopped down. Corners are a little softer than the center but is not an issue for most shooting. The main weakness is strong chromatic aberration (CA) on the wide side: magenta fringing on high contrast edges, e.g., tree branches against bright sky. Fortunately, it's easy to remove CA during editing in DPP or Lightroom. Some newer EOS, e.g., 80D, can be setup to automatically remove lens aberrations. As with most zooms of the range, barrel distortion is also noticeable at 17mm. Sunsets typically show little flare, but a real eye burner may invoke ghosting. However, typical high contrast night scenes with street lights or interior lamps are normally immune from flare. Image Stabilization: For me, IS adds about two stops below my normal hand held shutter speed at the wide end. At the telephoto side I can squeeze out three stops if careful. Lens Hood: The Canon EW-73B is a bayonet lens hood designed to protect this lens from stray light. It's not included and is available for 20 to 25 shekels. Fit and finish are decent: quality plastic, matte black exterior and rayon flocking. The hood can be reverse mounted for compact storage. To install, align the Canon logo at 9:00, press into the groove and twist clockwise a quarter turn until it locks into place. Who Is This Lens For? So why buy the 17-85 IS USM when newer designs such as the EF-s 18-135 3.5-5.6 IS USM, EF-s 15-85 3.5-5.6 IS USM and EF-s 17-55 2.8 IS USM are available? Price. The EF-s 17-85 4.0-5.6 IS USM is near the end of its product life and heavily discounted--about half of its original MAP. Plus, it's still a darn good optic! To put the EF-s 17-85 4.0-5.6 IS USM in perspective, optical quality slightly trails the EF-s 15-85 3.5-5.6 IS USM and EF-s 17-55 2.8 IS USM and is similar to the latest EF-s 18-55 3.5-5.6 IS STM (very good). The former two lenses cost considerably more and are heavier. However, the 17-85 offers more zoom range and better build quality than the EF-s 18-55 3.5-5.6 IS STM but only costs a little more. Final Blurb: My EF-S 17-85 4.0-5.6 IS USM has been extremely dependable these past ten years, yielding sharp images in nearly any situation thrown at it. I love the petite size, zoom range, AF speed/smoothness and sharpness of this lens. Coupled with a Rebel or XXD series DSLR, it makes a versatile, nimble and lightweight travel combo.

I bought this lens with my Canon Rebel XTi, and I use it 98% of the time. It's the 35mm equivalent of, if memory serves, 27-mm wide-angle to about 240-mm moderate telephoto, which means that it's fine for the vast majority of general photography. The image stabilizer is effective and handy, especially since it's not a very fast lens and jacking up the ISO sensitivity can create digital "noise" in some images, so I'd rather accept a slow shutter speed if the subject allows it and use the stabilizer. This lens reportedly has higher resolution than the "kit lens" that is often sold with the camera body, and I would recommend it over the kit, not only for what better resolution it may have but for the wider zoom range and IS feature. I would love it if this lens was a stop or more faster, but as it is, with its wide range and the IS feature, I enjoy using it for most of my general photography. Changing lenses means lugging more lenses with you to use, taking time to change which is a minor pain and may cause a shot to be lost, and opens up the camera to dust on the sensor, which over time can become an issue. This lens helps to avoid all that, is easy and very fast to use, and very reasonably priced.

I just got this lens today and it is already my favorite lens to use. I was looking for a wide angle zoom to replace my 18-55mm kit lens that I feel I have outgrown. Take my word for it... don't let the f/4 fool you. You can still take great photos in low light with this lens. Image Stabilization works amazingly well... I thought it would only help a little bit... I was wrong.... it helps a LOT! Today was a very cloudy day here and I was in my brothers room where my cat was sleeping. The room lights were off and there wasn't much light coming into the room. I zoomed in on my cat and took a picture with IS turned off and then I took a picture again with IS turned on. I couldn't believe how sharp the image was after using IS. Check out a sample of this here: [...] Anyways... I'm really happy I purchased this lens and I'm sure I'll take awesome photos with it. PROS: 17-85mm is a nice range, USM, Image Stabilized, Quiet, Fast Focus, Sharp Images, and all around great lens CONS: Slightly heavier than what I'm used to, slow aperture, chromatic aberration on high contrast elements and zoom ring seems a little wobbly (nothing that I'm too worried about) Conclusion: I'm really happy about this purchase. If you want a faster lens for better bokeh, then don't buy this lens... f/4-5.6 really limits your depth of field possibilities but, if you're only worried about taking sharp photos at night, the image stabilizing is a very very very cool thing! It's a definite big upgrade from the 18-55mm kit lens.

As a professional photographer and decades-long Canon camera and Canon lens consumer/enthusiast, this over-priced boondoggle fails on many counts. My specialties include producing the Driving & Discovering Hawaii photo guidebooks that contain lots of landscapes and seascapes. There is lens barreling at the wider angles that is so bad I thought something was wrong with my particular lens, but come to find out, they're all like this. At wide angle settings you can forget about having a straight/level horizon, and the wider the setting the more preposterous this aberration becomes. Worst of all, this is a CANON lens, and a high-priced one at that, so it amazes me that this company would actually produce a lens of such abysmal quality. In the old 35mm SLR days, photo magazines would scream blue-bloody murder if they uncovered problems like these in lenses of that period. Cheap, off-brand lenses of the day were vilified for problems not as bad as what we now have here in this present day Canon "premium-class" lens. Also a big problem at wide angle is STRONG green/magenta fringing along the edges of objects, even at 24mm, which worsens as you go wider. There is a software "fix" for this fringing, but it should not even be present to begin with. To have to use software to fix an aberration in an expensive piece of equipment from a top-rated company is insulting the consumer, and should be a major embarrassment for Canon...but the folks at Canon seem unfazed. I purchased this lens to give me an all-around tool for shooting many different kinds of travel-related photos, but it fails miserably for me and my particular needs, as I use wide angle for 75% of my shots. ADDITIONAL PROBLEMS since this review was written: While in the middle of shooting a wedding with this nightmare lens, my Canon xti froze up and flashed me an Error 99 message. Via forums, I found that an error 99 usually signals a problem with the gold contacts in the lens, and I cleaned them diligently, but the problem persists. I also use a Canon EFS 70-300 mm and a Canon macro EFS 60mm, and the xti works fine with both of them. Do as much research online as you can before considering purchasing this lens. Update: Canon fixed the lens for $100, and it has worked as it did before ever since. I was very satisfied with the turn around time for the repair.

I'm the guy who likes the new shiny item. The guy who will pay more for the new one, over the used one, just for the shiny new aspect. Even if it works the same. This review is to dispel the worries that it being used makes it show signs of wear and tear. That being said, it works the same as the lens that my daughter dropped and broke that I'm replacing with this lens. Functionality is what it should be. Great lens, great function, great pictures. That one I paid 500.00 for. This lens I got for 99.00 and I worried that I'd be picking up someones scratches and wear. AND that maybe it wouldn't work properly. I figured that, for the price, I'd get an obviously used lens that would hopefully do the job. Look closely at the pics of this lens that I received. It's in better shape than the one I'm replacing, and I take really good care of my equipment. Had I pulled this from a box, brand new and for the full price of around 500.00, as picky as I am, I would not have questioned it. The description says you can see small dust inside the edges (or something like that) and you can BUT you really have to look hard to see it. Again, I'm the guy who spends extra for shit so that I know it's perfect. This is as close as it gets. Do not let that stop you from saving a little money here. This thing looks brand new even closely. I suspect I'll be disappointed if I buy used in the future. This will be hard to beat.

I recently upgraded from my 2003 Rebel (original digital) to the Rebel Xti. I agonized for 4 weeks trying to decide which lens to buy. I was struggling between the EF 24-105mm L, the EFS 17-55mm IS, and the EFS 17-85mm IS. After reading the plethora of reviews, I bought all three to make my own comparison and my own decision based on my needs. I am not a professional, not even a hobbyist. I'm a small woman (5'2") who travels often and I simply want a great lens that would take great photos in program mode and in auto mode. This is was my simple and non-professional review of the three lens. The 24-105mm L took THE BEST pictures but it was much too heavy for me. The 17-55mm also took GREAT pictures but the range was too short for me. So, I returned both of these and kept the EF-S 17-85mm. I've had it now for 2 weeks and it has yet to take a bad, soft, overexposed, underexposed picture. It is slower than the other two. I do not take action shots. If you're wanting a great travel lens and don't want to carry too much weight but want the ability to shoot in program and auto mode with your Rebel Xti, get the EF-S 17-85mm. I'm been very happy with it.

OK so lets put aside the fact that this lens will cause aberration and barrel distortion at 17mm-24mm. With that said this lens is a great replacement for the 18-55 kit lens. Pretty much don't shoot under 50mm and if you do...shoot at f/8 or higher. I had not noticed till recently that edge sharpness on this lens is horrible at 17mm, there is maybe 5% coverage from center that is in perfect focus and then the rest of the image is out of focus. Since the barrel doesn't rotate CPL filters are great on this lens. The image stabilization is handy since this lens is slow, but it focuses fast. If you plan to use this lens indoors i would advise getting an external flash. Two reasons 1) if you get the hood for this lens the flash is blocked a bit at 17mm, 2) this lens is very slow f/5.6 indoors for a birthday party or other social even and you wont be getting the shots you want. for those of you reading this wondering if its a good pro lens...no, its not professional quality, but its cheap and works. if you want a pro lens got for the 15-85mm or 17-40mm. Although they are not much faster they will give you better results.

While I've only had the lens a short time now, so far I love it as my walk-around, every day lens! The images are much crisper than the 18-55mm kit lens, and I feel the zoom is really great for an every day lens (I have a 55-250mm telephoto and 100mm macro lens). I use my telephoto lens when I'm doing wildlife photography, and I love my macro for great garden close-ups, but the 17-85mm is a great every-day use lens. This is the lens I leave on my camera unless I specifically need my telephoto or macro. It does awesome portraits when zoomed in some, and you can fit a lot in the frame for landscapes or large group shots. I was wary about purchasing this lens after reading some reviews (mainly because of the "defect" or issues people have had with it), but so far its been great. I will update after I've used the lens a bit more (I have a week-long vacation coming up and I plan to take a lot of photos with this lens so I don't have to keep changing and lugging around lens).

Je n'en attendais pas moins de la part de Canon, mais mon attente a été plus que comblée. Cet objectif ne quitte pratiquement plus mon boîtier. Une qualité optique irréprochable. Même dans des hautes sensibiltés (2500 iso) dans la grotte de Clamouse où les flash sont interdit j'ai pu faire de très beaux clichés. La stabilisation participe également pour beaucoup dans ces conditions de faible luminosité sans être très gourmande pour les batteries. L'EF-S 17-85 mm f/4-5,6 IS USM couvre une plage de focales d'environ 27-136 mm en équivalent 24x36. Cela multplie les possibilités de cadrage et en fait un objectif polyvalent qui permet une exploitation dans un large éventail de situations de prise de vues. Idéal pour le photo reportage.

Ich habe das Objektiv inzwischen für Städtereise, Bergtouren Strandurlaub und Familienfeiern benutzt und bin damit rundum zufrieden und kann es nur weiterempfehlen

A very nice lens and easy to use.

Have been missing my 17/85 since it locked up and died. Really happy to find this one used and I’m very good condition upon arrival. I sold my 60D and this looks pretty beefy on my SL1

Sehr gute Qualität, das Objektiv ist super mann merkt nicht das es gebraucht ist. BEI DER ARBEIT MIT DEM OBJEKTIV IST ES ECHT GUT.