Tamron announces new Di lenses for Canon and Nikon
Tamron today have announced two new Di lenses designed for exclusive use on Canon and Nikon (with Built-in AF Motor) small sensor DSLR cameras The SP AF10-24mm Di II, the first-ever ultra wide-angle lens for digital SLRs, features a focal length range with the 16mm ultra wide-angle to 37mm…
Nikon Wins European Professional Lens with 2 lenses
Both the Nikon AF-S Nikkor 14-24mm and Nikon AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8 G ED lenses have won the EISA Professional lens for 2008-2009.
Description
This
pair of Nikkor zooms represents the ideal optical partnership to equip
Nikon’s professional full frame cameras. Covering a broad focal range
at f/2.8, and delivering very high optical…
Nikon release the AF-S DX 18-105mm F/3.5-5.6G ED VR
The AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-105mm F/3.5-5.6G ED VR is a new lens designed to partner Nikons
D90 DSLR. The Nikkor 18-105mm lens offers a focal length equivalent to
27 to 157.5mm in 35mm format, built-in Vibration Reduction and Silent
Wave Motor, and…
Canon announces EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS lens
Canon today has also introduced
the EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Zoom lens. With an equivalent focal
length of 29-320mm, the lens offers 11x zoom range. It also features a
16 element, 12 group construction including UD and aspherical lens
elements and a 4-stop optical Image Stabilizer. This lens has answered…
Phase One introduces 3.5/45 mm Tilt / Shift lens
Phase One today have launched the 3.5/45 mm Tilt/Shift lens. Specially designed for the professional
photographer, this small, lightweight lens is ideal for location or
studio applications. It offers up to 12 mm shift and 8 degrees tilt for
maximum flexibility. When used with the Phase One 645 camera…
Tamron announces three Di Full-Size Format lenses
Tamron today have announced the availability dates of three new Di lens series in
Full-Size Format. The Tamron SP AF90mm F/2.8 Di MACRO for Nikon is a
high-performance macro lens but also as a medium telephoto lens
suitable for all photographic applications including landscape and
portraiture. (The lens is already available…
Real freedom of framing in a lightweight, compact and fast-focusing lens. The EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM is an excellent all-purpose lens for EF-S mount EOS cameras.
The EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM provides an effective Focal length range of approximately 27-136mm in 35mm format. This provides plenty of framing options, making it the perfect all-purpose lens that allows you to express your creativity in a vast range of shooting situations.
Light and fast
The small size and low weight of the EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM make it ideal for fast moving photography and travel, where it is not practical to carry around a heavy bag of kit. Its ring-type USM works in concert with EF-S mount EOS cameras to provide super-fast, precision auto focusing and predictive tracking - with full manual override available at any time.
Go steady
Image Stabilizer technology compensates for a full three stops, giving the lens an effective maximum aperture of f1.4-2.0; excellent for hand-held and low light photography.
Designed for digital
Designed specifically for digital photography, the lens has specially shaped lens elements and Super Spectra coatings to suppress ghosting and flare, which can be caused by reflections off digital camera sensors. An exclusive optional lens hood can further reduce the incidence of flare.
Background Blur
A circular aperture provides a pleasing background blur when shooting with a wide aperture; ideal for creating a sense of depth and getting your subject or model to stand out from the background.
The 17-85mm IS USM is a fine workhouse, fulfilling almost all applications except those needing very wide-angle lenses and long telephotos. In 35mm camera terms, the 27-136 span equivalent would be judged as adequate. The maximum aperture range may be low, but it has enabled costs to be kept low even with the inclusion of the IS. The IS can counter the problems of slower shutter speeds with the smaller maximum aperture. The bulk makes a compact EF-S camera looks like an accessory to this lens, but this does not mean difficult handling. It looks more natural on the "fuller" 400D, but handling is much the same. In ultimate terms, its high resolving power may not be delivered with the crispness of more expensive designs, but the detail is there for post-sharpening if wished. Drawing is satisfactory, though not perhaps sited to specialist uses. But it is a practical lens witch can truly be described as a good, general purpose standard zoom for all Canon DSLR's. With a mid range price it is well recommended.
Why should you care what I think?
My relationship with this item: Editor review
Conclusions at a glance
Would you recommend this Item: Yes Pros: Versitile focal range, Excellent image stabilisation Cons: Noticeable curvilinear distortion, Vignetting when wide open.
User Lens Reviews
Average user rating from: 121 user(s)
Overall rating (weighted)
4.0
Sharpness
4.0
Build Quality
4.0
AF Speed
3.9
Value for Money
4.1
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0 of 0 people found the following review helpful
Gran lente. , Wednesday, 27 August 2008
Overall rating (weighted)
4.3
Sharpness
5.0
Build Quality
4.0
AF Speed
4.0
Value for Money
4.0
Lamentablemente no pude comprar la versión que es más luminoso. La foto del lente no corresponde a la escala real. Se ve más pequeño de lo que realmente es.
Estoy satisfecho por la calidad, pero como les dije con la versión de mayor apertura este lente hubiese sido ideal.
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0 of 0 people found the following review helpful
Canon 17-85 EF-S; Nice lens...canon quality?, Saturday, 05 July 2008
Overall rating (weighted)
4.3
Sharpness
4.0
Build Quality
4.0
AF Speed
5.0
Value for Money
4.0
Well I was excited about this lens because of it's range so I purchased it from Amazon. I had it shipped overnight because I was going on a trip and need it right away. When I received the lens right out of the box the mount ring was not seated in place all the way. I pushed the one side back in place because I did not have time to return the lens. The lens worked well for a while and seemed to have good images but then my zoom ring started to "stick" around 70mm and at one point it completely froze and would not move at all. I took it off and it started to work but now there is something that rattles inside the lens. I have contacted Canon and was told to send it in for "possible" warranty repair. We will see what happens. I would suggest that you save your money and buy the 24-105L lens and that is what I am also going to do.
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0 of 0 people found the following review helpful
Only virtue is zoom range., Wednesday, 18 June 2008
Overall rating (weighted)
2.5
Sharpness
3.0
Build Quality
3.0
AF Speed
2.0
Value for Money
2.0
The only virtue of this lens is the zoom range.
Chromatic abberation, highly abnormal distortion, and slow aperture above 17mm make this a bad value.
The new Canon 18-55 IS is much better optically. Even better, go for the Tamron 17-50 f/2.8 or the Canon 17-40L for a Bit more. This is the worst lens I have ever used without a doubt.
Check photozone.de for detailed comparisons of the lenses and save yourself some money and get quality instead!
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0 of 0 people found the following review helpful
Great upgrade for your kit lens, Sunday, 15 June 2008
Overall rating (weighted)
4.8
Sharpness
5.0
Build Quality
4.0
AF Speed
5.0
Value for Money
5.0
Read the reviews of all the professionals and see for yourself. I'm an amateur and cannot operate all those photography terms, but I can see the huge difference in the quality of the pictures from my kit lens. It is a little bit heavy and big, but the quality worth it.
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0 of 0 people found the following review helpful
Great but heavy, Wednesday, 11 June 2008
Overall rating (weighted)
4.3
Sharpness
5.0
Build Quality
4.0
AF Speed
3.0
Value for Money
5.0
This is an amazing lens. I did notice that when its fully zoomed out the corners tend to get a little dark. But have taken amazing pictures with this lens. I have this on my Canon Rebel XTI. The image stabilizer has worked awesome for me and the zoom range is perfect. Very easy to use. WARNING though it is heavy at first. It takes some getting use to for the weight of this but i still really like it. Careful though because it requires a 67mm filter and they can run expensive so make sure you shop around for them. I recommend this lens for people that do not like the standard crappy lens and wants some more zoom. I was able to get mine for $400 because it was an out of box lens but it has worked great for me.
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0 of 0 people found the following review helpful
Very nice lens but as others stated, price-value-p, Wednesday, 21 May 2008
Overall rating (weighted)
4.0
Sharpness
5.0
Build Quality
4.0
AF Speed
3.0
Value for Money
4.0
Excellent IS based lens, but I have to question the value of the lens based on the other products available today. With a very slow F4 aperture, one can easily find a better solution to line up a great lens set including fast primes. Still, this lens is quite compact, has an exceptional focal range, and can easily serve its purpose on the APS-C sized sensor cameras.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Good medium grade lens, Tuesday, 13 May 2008
Overall rating (weighted)
4.3
Sharpness
3.0
Build Quality
4.0
AF Speed
5.0
Value for Money
5.0
Bought the Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 lens to use as a general purpose lens on my Canon 40D. Overall I am pleased with the quality of the optics. It's not a "L" lens so don't expect it to perform like one. One complaint I have is that the zoom ring feels a little loose and wobbly. However the focus ring is tight and precise.
I have owned a Sigma 17-70mm lens in the past which is the direct competitor of the Canon 17-85mm. The Sigma has a bigger aperture of f2.8 but a lower range than the Canon. The Canon provides fulltime manual focus and IS, which is not available on the Sigma. Personally I liked the pictures the Canon lens produced over that of the Sigma.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Canon EF-S 17-85 lens, Thursday, 08 May 2008
Overall rating (weighted)
5.0
Sharpness
5.0
Build Quality
5.0
AF Speed
5.0
Value for Money
5.0
This lens let me take three other lens from my camera bag. All around great lens for studio work and outdoor or weddings too.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
The lens that should have been included, Friday, 02 May 2008
Overall rating (weighted)
5.0
Sharpness
5.0
Build Quality
5.0
AF Speed
5.0
Value for Money
5.0
This lens was originally part of the 40D kit. I don't know why, but now the cheaply made, overall useless 28-135 mm lens is the only lens you can find in the kit. You are better off buying the body only then purchasing this lens. Remember that the 40D has a crop factor of 1.6 - meaning that you have to multiply your lens by 1.6 - so a 28-135 is actually a 45-216 mm lens. Nice on the zoom part - awful on the other!
This lens is equivalent to a 28-136 mm lens - a perfect overall size. Picture being in a 12x12 foot room. With this lens you can shoot a small group. With the other lens (46mm equiv.) you have to climb a chair and stretch - and miss most of the group anyway. Seriously. I've been there.
This lens is well made, focuses fast, and is pretty silent. It's now my primary.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Good lens but vignetting is significant..., Friday, 11 April 2008
Overall rating (weighted)
3.3
Sharpness
3.0
Build Quality
3.0
AF Speed
4.0
Value for Money
3.0
Bought this lens to get a bit more zoom than the kit lens and am happy with it. However, the feedback you read about vignetting is real -- you see it through the view finder! I get vignetting almost always at the lowest focal length. As I said, I'm happy and can recommend the lens but realize you're likely to see significant vignetting (dark edges in your pictures at the low range {17mm "non-zoom "}).
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Recommended - with reservations, Sunday, 06 April 2008
Overall rating (weighted)
4.3
Sharpness
5.0
Build Quality
4.0
AF Speed
3.0
Value for Money
5.0
The Canon 17-85mm f4-5.6 IS lens is a good, versatile lens. I love it for many reasons, but I want to get rid of it almost every day. It's Image Quality (IQ) is indeed a bit soft, especially at the wide end of the zoom, and especially in the corners of the frame, and I am hesitant to pay for large 20"x30" prints taken with this lens. Bokeh is nice and soft, but it is slow at f4-5.6 wide open, and I find myself using higher ISO speeds on my 20D (which isn't much of a problem, Canon's CMOS sensors are very clean at higher ISOs). I drool over Canon's 17-40mm L glass, but when comparing images side by side it's hard to justify the price increase. The only difference in IQ is the L is sharper in the corners of the frame, but not so much sharper that most people will notice. The L is better, but I don't think it is $250 better. If you're doing an art show with huge prints it may make a difference. If you're not, it probably won't.
I bought the 17-85mm because I often have to pack light and don't have the luxury of carrying several lenses with me when I go shooting. When I do get an amazing shot at either extreme of the zoom range, I have to remind myself that those shots would not have been possible with other lenses. As it's been said before, this is a jack of all trades, master of none.
If you can only afford one lens for your camera and need something versatile, this lens at $420 is a good choice. If you're a pro who regularly makes poster-sized prints larger than 10"x15", it might not be for you. If you pair this lens with Canon's amazing 50mm 1.8 prime lens, you will have almost every situation covered for under $500.
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0 of 0 people found the following review helpful
Versatile lens for a great body, Wednesday, 02 April 2008
Overall rating (weighted)
4.5
Sharpness
4.0
Build Quality
5.0
AF Speed
4.0
Value for Money
5.0
Bought the lens to go with my 40D - the combination is versatile and flexible. Don't pay UK retail prices!
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Soft and ugly at wide angles, otherwise ok., Wednesday, 26 March 2008
Overall rating (weighted)
3.8
Sharpness
4.0
Build Quality
4.0
AF Speed
3.0
Value for Money
4.0
I'm overall a bit disappointed with this lens. None of the reviews I read before I bought it (Jul 2007) indicated the poor performance at wide angles. www.dpreview.com has started doing lens reviews, and zeroed right in on this weakness. Good for them. Even on a small screen size or print, you'll see softness and strong color fringing around high-Contrast edges in your wide-angle shots. It doesn't matter if you use a smaller aperture. Landscape lens this is NOT. I found the artifacts so distracting to otherwise wonderful shots that I sent the lens in to Canon under warranty, thinking there was something wrong with it. They made some note of adjusting something, but the optical performance is the same. Bummer.
On the good side, it handles pretty well, the IS seems to work for longer exposures than I would normally handhold, focus is fast and quiet as you would expect. It turns out quite decent performance as soon as you get above about 25-30mm. If I were to do it again, I would probably buy the 17-40L for a walkaround lens, and I have purchased the Canon 10-22 for landscapes. It is sharper at 10mm than this lens is at 17mm. Of course, you're blowing a lot more dough with that combination.
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0 of 0 people found the following review helpful
The IS function allows a 2 to 3 stop , Monday, 24 March 2008
Overall rating (weighted)
4.8
Sharpness
5.0
Build Quality
5.0
AF Speed
4.0
Value for Money
5.0
I recently purchased this lens as a complement to the other two IS lenses I have. The Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM Standard Zoom Lens for Canon SLR Cameras and the Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM Lens for Canon EOS SLR Cameras.
The IS function allows a 2 to 3 stop slower shutter speed. Fantastic when shooting where flash is not allowed or where you want the extra Depth of field a smaller aperature will give you.
As a bonus it has Macro capabilities.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Canon EF-S 17-85mm Lens, Sunday, 23 March 2008
Overall rating (weighted)
4.5
Sharpness
5.0
Build Quality
4.0
AF Speed
4.0
Value for Money
5.0
I bought this lens as an upgrade to the 18-55mm lens that came with my Canon EOS Rebel XTi camera. It is quite a nice improvement, noticeably wider lens and heavier, denoting higher quality materials throughout. I think it will be a real good "all around lens" with more zoom capability. I have only taken a couple hundred outdoor pictures and am pleased, I havne't gotten to test out the image stabilization in low light/indoors. Overall, I'm impressed so far and feel that I now need to upgrade my camera to the Canon 40D to get more out of the lens that I've upgraded to.
