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Canon EF-S 17-85 mm f/4-5.6 IS USM

Canon EF-S 17-85 mm f/4-5.6 IS USM
24 September 2007
Arkadiusz Olech

1. Introduction

Originally posted 2006-03-10 on Optyczne.pl

After introducing the APS-C detector (1.6 times smaller than the full-frame) digital DSLR cameras, users of this kind of equipment had to face a lack of wide anlge lenses. Except for the Canon EF-S 18-55 mm kit lens they had nothing but expensive L-grade lenses in the 16-35 and17-40 mm range.


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In August 2004 Canon decided to introduce a lens that was much better than a kit lens, but not as expensive as an L-grade lens. This was the Canon EF-S 17-85 mm f/4-5.6 IS USM. Its aperture wasn’t very impressive but the lens was equipped with a USM motor and picture stabilization. The lens had a much better focal length range, which with its 77 to 18deg of view field was almost the same as the analogue range of 28-135 mm.

Is it worth spending more than 500$ to replace our good old kit lens with the Canon EF-S 17-85 mm? We will try to answer this question in the test below.



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