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All purpose lens for 350D

Mullardman

Mullardman

Moderately extreme...
Hello chaps!

I have a 350 D.

A have the following lenses.

EF 50 1.8 II (Love it)

EF 38-76. (Hardly used)

EF 80-200 (Ditto)

Sigma 70-300 APO DG (used a fair bit, but it doesn't always focus well)

I am strongly considering getting the 17-85 IS lens for general use. It seems to get decent reviews and is available at anything from full Canon price of about £ 599, down to £289 from CameraBox.

Two questions:

Does anyone have experience of this lens, or any viable alternatives to recommend? Given the crop factor thingy, this will be a longer lens on the Canon, so I'd happily consider a shorter alternative, especially to get me a true 'shorter' end. IYSWIM.

What supplier, online or otherwise do people use for best price/reliability/honesty balance. Is Camerabox reliable?

Thanks

Mull
 
Mr Cat, I use a Tamron 28-75 on my canons and it has been a great lens. The build is a bit flippy floppy but as you say, it's a strong performer and for the weight it's great.

It's too long as a standard lens on a 1.6 crop camera to be honest (45 - 120), but works nicely on my 1D, a 1.3 crop (35 - 90). It's what I use as a standard lens on my 1Ds.

For a crop body, I think the suggested canon 17-85 is a pretty good bet. Sigma make a sensible looking alternative, the sigma 17-70 OS which is a good price by comparison:

http://www.cliftoncameras.co.uk/Sigma_17-70mm_f2.8-4_DC_Macro_OS_HSM

It's quite a bit faster which might be fun. It's bigger though. I'd track down some comparison reviews to see if there is anything much to tell them apart. The only thing i'd check was whether your built-in flash peaks over the lens or not. In general terms online reviews rubbish non-OEM lenses, whilst my experience has been that Tamron and Sigma make good quality lenses, as well as lots of cheap rubbish for the masses. Not that canon don't make cheap rubbish zooms as well mind...
 
And I should add that when I had a 1.6 crop DSLR, a D30, then a 10D, I used the Canon 17-40 F4L and the tamron 28-75 as my two zoom lenses. The 17-40 has lovely colours and has been a great lens for me. I get lovely ultra-wide shots out of it now full frame.
 
Cesare said:
... and Sigma make good quality lenses, as well as lots of cheap rubbish for the masses. Not that canon don't make cheap rubbish zooms as well mind...
Click to expand...

yes, some of the sigmas are very good - eg the 18-50 f/2.8 EX DC

Some of them are so so - eg the Sigma 150-500mm f5-6.3 DG HSM OS

one or two are brilliant - eg the 30mm/1.4
 
If you are considering the Canon 17-85 IS, look at the Sigma AF 17-70mm f/2.8-4.5 DC macro
The IS feature on the Canon is nice, but not exactly stretched or frequently needed at these focal lengths
The 350D is 1.6 cropped & the Sigma 17-70 is designed specifically for just that crop factor, & its significantly cheaper than the 17-85 IS & is = in tests

A good specialist review test --- http://www.photozone.de/canon-eos/312-sigma-af-17-70mm-f28-45-dc-macro-test-report--review
 
fatmarley said:
The Sigma has been getting very good reviews (Can we trust photography mags?):

http://www.sigma-imaging-uk.com/lenses/dclenses/18-250mmOS.htm

It's not cheap though...
Click to expand...
No, but to add another option.....look out for an ex demo 24-105 L lens, or one that comes in a white box. It's a superb standard zoom that works well on EFS cameras, as well as 1D/1DS. These were kit lenses for a while with the EOS 5D and when they were in short supply, some dealers split the kits. Very early ones had a minor problem but I seem to remember Canon sorting them out quickly.

Mine came from Park Cameras some time ago for around £700 but they are a lot more expensive nowadays, although I see them listed in used lists occasionally at reasonable prices.
 
I must admit i think the little cheap lens 18-55mm that comes with the camera kit was OK, plastic feeling and lightweight but amazingly quite rugged for the way it feels, might be able to pick one up for £40-50 :eek:
 
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