Calibrating the Canon EF-S 17-85

[george_andreou]

I've just got the EF-S 17-85 and done some tests with the 18-55 kit

lens. The kit lens hs proved to be sharper at focal lengths below

50mm between f4 and f8.

 

Is it worth having the lens calibrated or is it an inherent trait of

this lens?

 

There's also lots of purple fringing below 50mm.

 

Thanks,

George

[peter_rowe]

I have both. I got the 18-55mm kit lens with the Camera and the 17-85mm IS about six months later. I did lots of tests at the time and found that the 17-85mm IS was superior in every way over the kit lens, my copy is very sharp. Now the difference is not huge though. I have not used the kit lens since. In fact my 17-85 IS is sharper than a 17-40mm that I rented for a week (at least sharper at center and good at the edges). The CA is not bad on mine at all but I do see others mention this, I'd say it's worse on my Canon 10-22mm. I also have the 70-200 f4 (the "L") and I'd say my 17-85mm takes shots very close, or as good, to the same sharpness, so much so that I never worry about which I'm using. I hardly ever use the 70-200mm now, mostly the 17-85mm IS. I don't think my kit lens, 10-22mm, or 70-200 "L", are great copies so I'm not going to say I'm lucky but obviously the 17-85mm IS I have is a good one.

 

Could you post an unmodified 100% crop (from RAW is good)? Not that I condone viewing at 100% (which is like viewing a 4 feet wide print!) but it can work for apples-to-apples comparisons. So many examples you see have had sharpening applied it is difficult to tell anything.

[andy_van_eynde]

Same for me!

Also have the EF-s 17-85 and the EF 70-200f4L and do not see that much difference. So would not be able to guess which lens I used on a certain picture without seeing the exif data.

Same for the EF 50 f1.8

 

(Except for the backrground blur caused by f1.8 or so...)

[steve santikarn]

I just did a quick test of my 17-85 EF-S against the L 16-35 F2.8 lens at 18, 28 and 35 mm on my Canon 20D (all at ISO 200). In good daylight at f 9-11, and shutter speeds of 1/320 to 1/500 sec. The EF-S lens did very well against the L lens in the center of image, not so good at the edges if viewed at 100% (not too bad either). The EF-S suffers when taken against the light, the L lens showed much better contrast and less "fogging". Another area where the L lens did well was the out of focus areas behind the focal plane. The OOF areas in the photos from the L lens retain much better definition than the same areas in the photos from the EF-S lens. In low light situation the L lens wins hands-down, being able to open up to f2.8. But for the price and the focal range (and the IS also) I am still very happy with the 17-85 mm lEF-S lens.

[george_andreou]

Well I've sent my 17-85 off to Canon. I'm hoping they'll recallibrate it but I wouldn't be surprised if they say there's nothing wrong with it.<div></div>