Review
We got our Canon EOS 7D together with the Canon EF-S 18-135mm, f/3.5-5.6 IS Kit Lens. The lens didn’t satisfy us and we sold it quite successful about 2 months ago online. Now we are searching a new general purpose lens…
So far we didn’t buy a new all-round lens. For one part because of the lack of money and for the other part because we weren’t able to decide which lens exactly.
Following the criterias we set up for the next lens:
- Fixed aperture of 2.8
- Focal range should start at around 20mm
- ..and end at around 50mm
- Image Stabilizer is a “nice-to-have” but no deal breaker if there is none
- weather-sealing would be nice, too
- We would appreciate that lens is affordable, but well its photography..
Those are the lenses we had to choose from initially:
- Tamron SP AF 2.8/17-50 mm XR Di II (VC) LD Asph.
- Sigma EX 2.8/17-50 mm DC OS HSM
- Canon EF 2.8/16-35mm L II USM
- Canon EF 2.8/24-70 mm L USM
- Canon EF-S 2.8/17-55 mm IS USM
The Canon 16-35mm is to close to our 10-22mm lens and maybe a bit too wide for general purpose. One lens less to choose from.
The Tamron non VC 17-50mm lens gets quite good reviews and is almost half the price of the Canon 17-55mm (as already written, the Image Stabilizer is not a critical issue). In some tests I read that the autofocus is a bit on the slow side. Not that a dramatic issue if your taking pictures of flowers, tough quite a no-go concerning action shots – I guess. Problem is, that you never know how unbiassed the test is and how to treat a quote like “on the slow side”. Therefore the Tamron got into our shortlist. Maybe we find a non-VC Tamron lens to review it ourselves.
Then we got the EF 2.8/24-70mm L lens. More or less no negative aspects found in different reviews, of course besides the price tag and the maybe slightly to high focal range.
The sigma had to be crossed out from the list because I didn’t find any really good review, neither a really happy customer.
Last but not least the Canon EF-S 17-55mm. So far my favorite lens. Nothing bad about that one, besides the price tag and the missing L. If this lens was sealed it would have been a no brainer.
Anyway, I was able to borrow this lens from a coworker for the weekend. Will update the article after the weekend, hopefully with a conclusion.
I would be happy about any comments or product recommendations..
