Undecided . . .

[neuroanatomist]

When are you getting a FF camera? If your answer is anything other than "very soon," I'd really recommend considering the EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS. Optically, it's as good or better than the 24-70mm and 24-105mm (on a crop body), it combines two excellent but mutually exclusive features of the two L lenses - f/2.8 and IS, and the 17-55mm gives you a wide angle portion of the zoom range (24mm on 1.6x is normal, not wide, which is <35mm FF-equivalent). IMO, the 17-55mm is the best general purpose zoom for a crop body, and would pair wonderfully with the excellent 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II, giving you f/2.8 IS coverage from 17-200mm (and you won't miss the 15mm gap).

[Kayaker72]

Hi Larry,


I have to agree with Neuro. If you aren

[andnowimbroke]

I agree with the above also. You can

[Daniel Browning]

Personally, I

[Raid]

Nuero


Please forgive me but I

[Dr Croubie]

The 70-200 on a cropped body is 112-320 meaning the gap is 57mm.

Nope, you're both wrong (although neuro is more right).


17-55 and 70-200 leaves a 15mm gap in focal length.


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17-55 in '35mm equivalent framing' is 27-88.


70-200 in '35mm equivalent framing' is 112-320.


so there's a '35mm equivalent framing' gap of 24mm.


.


only if it were a 55mm on FF body and 70mm on APS-C body, there'd be a '35mm equivalent framing' gap of 57mm.


(using the 17-55 on an APS-C body and 70-200 on FF, you'd have a '35mm equivalent framing' overlap of 18mm.


.


but point is, you won't miss the gap between them, using them on the same body, whether you call it 15 or 24mm.


.


Now there's a test, has anyone tried doing it? take an 85mm shot with a 15-85 lens, and a 55mm shot with the 17-55mm lens, crop it and scale it to same framing as the 85mm, which one is better?

[Raid]

Dr Croubie


The 17-55 is an EF-S lens and won

[HDNitehawk]

Now there's a test, has anyone tried doing it? take an 85mm shot with a 15-85 lens, and a 55mm shot with the 17-55mm lens, crop it and scale it to same framing as the 85mm, which one is better?

Yesthere hasDr, onlyI haven't seen one specificalyusing 55mm and 85mm it was other focal lengths,andtests with diffrentbodies.There was a test of the7d and 5d with different focal lengths to take the same area. There are allot of variables in this. Are you going to compare the 85mm L or the 70-200m L at 85mm compared to a cropped 17-55mm? Of course you realize that there are amultiple different ways to test this. Body vs Body, Lens vs Lens and an what seems like a long list of different combinations.


From all the other tests I have seen performed on other lenses, I would bet on the 85mm lens rather than the crop.

[Fast Glass]

I'd vote for the 17-55mm f/2.8 also if you don't have intentions of upgrading to FF soon as well (1 year at the most or less). But if I am sure I will upgrade in the future and don't want to lose anything when I do upgrade then it comes down to personal preferance of wider aperture VS IS and focal length. Personaly I use aperture more than IS in that focal length range (since past 70mm is IS anyway) so Iwould choose the 24-70mm. On a FFit'ssharper in the corners at wider apertures (f/4-5.6) than the 24-105mm. But at typical landscape apertures there's not much differance at 24mm and is more or less the same for the rest of the focal length range. 1.6 crops away the corners so it would be a tighter race which would be sharper.


But like Daniel saidI use primes mostlyin that focal length range anyway[]


Hope this helps,


John.