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 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 lensCONS: 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.

The lens does not work due to a ribbon cable Issue. This is a known problem with the EF-S 17-85mm lens that develops over time due to wear and tear. A truly new lens should not have this problem.

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.