Canon EF 17-35mm f/2.8 L USM

Better than the 17-40 4, not as good as the 16-40 2.8 Rating: Good ++ or Excellent - This is a really nice lens, getting a bit old in its age, but its performance is still very reliable in all regards. It really performs its best hitting right around 20mm+. At 18-19mm is still a very, very good lens and falls into the overall good performer at 17mm. I bought this over the more current 17-40 f/4 for the extra stop and lower price. I bought this over the current 16-40 f/2.8 for the significant savings (purchased for $650 roughly 10/2009). I don't feel that I gave up much with this versus the 16-40 2.8 as I find that 18-20 is wide enough for me on a FF body. I like the range of reach with this lens, but realize the 40mm reach my be even better. If I felt that I would use this type of wide angle zoom more regularly, I would have probably popped for the 16-40, but unless this is going to be a primary lens for you, I would save the money and buy this lens. By the way, it is much better than the APC 10-20 crop zooms in terms of performance (50D vs. 5DII).Read full review

Excellent lens, great value based on used selling prices The 17-35mm f 2.8 Canon L lens was the first in this series of pro lens. The lens is very well constructed with a very fast and fairly quiet auto focus mechanism. I use it as a complement to my 24-105 L IS lens where a wider angle is needed. The lens takes great photos with excellent contrast and good sharpness. Wide open at the extreme focal lengths there is some loss of edge sharpness but the photos are still good. Back off a bit and the photo quality is superb. For me this lens works well for indoor videos as well as group photos.

Canon EF 17-35mm f/2.8 its great, if you can get a good deal on one... buy it it'll be worth it. its an L lens, LUXURY. it might be a discontinued model but it still has great image quality. wide open its sharp in the center but softens around the corners, there is also strong vignetting shot wide open. the sharpness increases as you stop it down. by f/8 its all around sharp but still a tad soft around the farthest corners. if your not printing huge prints or pixel peeping then softness around the edges is not a big deal. BUY IT