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<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"]<span style="font-size: small;"]I've
owned the 17-55 IS lens and I could not really recommend it over any
L lens purchase. Picture quality from the 17-55mm IS lens is
similar but the build quality falls way short and the feel of the lens does not compare. The IS portion of this
lens is neat but don't let that suck in as it can only be used to
stop camera shake and not to stop motion. When I bought mine approx 2
years ago I paid 1150 dollars plus I paid the extra 45-50 for the
lens hood. This number ends up being pretty close to the higher end
lens purchase where I lost money selling it. After shooting with the 17-55 lens for a year and
ending up with large portions of dust sucked into it I sold it and
bought the 16-35mm II lens. My opinion is the 16-35mm lens is a way
better purchase in the long run as it should last forever and I like the image quality better. For my
type of work which is basically all areas of commercial photography I
predominately rely on two lenses, the 16-35mm and my 70-200mm. When
shooting in interior rooms with a crop sensor camera I think from my
experience that any crop camera shooter needs to have a 10-20/22mm
range lens. Even though they don't typically make one of these
crop lens in a f/2.8, shoot at f/3.5 - 4 and use bounce flash. As far
as the 24-70mm lens I feel that it is an in between lens where the
two essential lens like I mentioned before are the 16-35mm and
70-200mm. Anything in between the use of these two lenses you can
back up or move forward to re-frame your subject as desired.
Once you're in the situation where you don't have the room to back up
to get a wider perspective then you have to compromise your
shot. If I had endless money of course I would own the 24-70 lens as
there are certain times when you need more reach then 35mm and not
all the way to 70mm but they are rare for me.