Is Canon phasing out 17-85 IS ?

[mars c]

<p>I'm very intrigued by the newly announced 15-85 IS, For having 3 AL and 1 UD glass, I went to compare the MTF chart on the Canon website, Between the 17-85 and the 15-85, But when I got there , I cant find the 17-85 anymore. Any ideas?</p>

<p>http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ProductCatIndexAct&fcategoryid=149</p>

<p>And how much do you think can I sell my excellent condition 17-85 now a days?</p>

<p>Thanks</p>

[bobatkins]

<p>The 17-85 is still listed on most other Canon websites (UK, Australia etc.). Canon have not made any statements about whether the 17-85 is being phased out. If it is, then you'll lose the option of a $450 lens and have to buy an $800 lens if you want something from Canon in that range.</p>

<p>You can get data on the 17-85 from another Canon site or you can google "Canon Camera Museum" where Canon have specs on all their current and past lenses (except for the newest ones which haven't made it onto the sire yet!)</p>

<p>Look up used prices on eBay.</p>

[g dan mitchell]

<p>Bob is right. Still, I wonder...</p>

<ul>

<li>The 17-85 has not been generally regarded as a great performer even though it has its uses.</li>

<li>While the price will be higher for the newer lens, this could be in line with Canons' recent general price increases.</li>

<li>It seems unlikely that in the long rung (though the short term could be a different story) that Canon could manage to sell enough EFS (e.g. crop only) copies of both a 17-85 and a 15-85 that are otherwise similarly equipped.</li>

</ul>

<p>Dan</p>

[JDMvW]

<p>Bob's right, mostly. I suspect the "replacement" for the 17-85mm (of which I am a great fan) is really two (2) lenses, the $800 15-85 (which might be considered to be a non-L EF-S version of the 24-105mm) <em><strong>and</strong> </em> the 18-135 for $500. So there's still a lens in the kit for the people who don't want to spend a lot of money. These will cover the ranges of the 35mm 24-105 and the 28-135 (okay, Plus some in the latter case). </p>

<p>One conclusion I draw is that Canon does NOT consider the APS-C format to be transitory or temporary. They are steadily building up a full line of lenses especially designed for the format (to which I would add the TS-E 17mm, as a APS-C version of the 24mm that just happens to have enough coverage to work on 35mm too).</p>

<p> </p>

[anders_carlsson]

<p>Also: the 15-85 <em>will</em> get cheaper over time. Nikon's equivalent is a good 20% cheaper.</p>

[fmueller]

<p>I think it's highly likely that the 17-85 IS will be discontinued before too long. Between the 15-85 IS, 18-135 IS, and the excellent 18-55 IS kit lens, there doesn't seem to be much of a niche left for the 17-85 IS.</p>

<p>But like Mr von Weinberg, am rather fond of the 17-85 IS and am not planning to replace mine in a hurry. The only thing tempting me would be the extra wide angle reach in the 15-85 IS, but I don't mind swapping to the 10-22 so much that I'd spend a lot of money to avoid that. I also don't expect the second hand price of the 17-85 IS to drop dramatically just because it is discontinued.</p>

<p>I wish there was a huge supply of discontinued EOS glass out there ready for us to snap up, but alas, Canon lenses seem to keep their value pretty well ;-) Case in point, I an still using an ancient EF 70-210 USM. I really like the lens, but sometimes I think it would be nice having IS in a lens of that range. If I decided to replace the lens, I could sell it on eBay for the same money I bought it for 3 years ago, and buy a new 55-250 IS probably without loosing a cent.</p>

[bobatkins]

<p>Well, it will get cheaper unless Canon raise the list price again...</p>

<p>The price of many Canon lenses has just gone up (Oct 1st)</p>

[philip_wilson]

<p>Interesting how glass gets more expensive while electronics gets cheaper - a combination of the industrial learning curve, exchange rates and resource demand on the lens size (plus what Canon thinks the market will bear) while we have Moore's law, strong competition and a slow shift to consumer electronics margins on bodies. I suspect that we will soon get to a point where very poor lenses become the norm coupled with great software to compensate. We already have IS (to compensate for slow glass in many cases) and vignetting, CA and distortion corrections to offset cheap glass. Back in the Canon FD days all Canon lenses between 20mm and 135mm (except macros and zooms - which were just developing) were between F1.2 to F2.8. Nowadays the standard lens with a DSLR usually has F5.6 in it's range. Even in 1986 all of the Canon zooms until you got to the 100-300 were F4.5 or better and zoom technology has progressed a lot since then.</p>

[rsriram]

<p>About time, and hopefully the 15-85 performs a <em><strong>lot</strong></em> better at the wide end for the price.</p>

[mars c]

<p>The 15-85 have 3 AL and 1 UD glass vs the 2 AL glass on the 17-85, We really should expect improvements.</p>

<p>I think I'm gonna get the new lens, regardless of the price, Cause I need the improvements over the 17-85.</p>

<p>I think I can sell my 17-85 almost the same price as I bought it, I bought it during a sale. Considering the price increases, Should be reasonable.</p>

[robin_sibson1]

<p>There's a long (signed) article on one of the Canon websites about the 7D which is pretty close to being a 7D "white paper". Sorry I can't offhand give a link. At the end it has a bit about the three lenses introduced at the same time as the 7D. The 15~85 is described as replacing the 17~85. What I don't know is whether the author is passing on an official Canon position or simply makeing a guess – as Bob has pointed out, it makes no sense financially. And the new 18~135, whatever its optical quality, doesn't have the ring-USM of the 17~85.</p>