What is the best value L lens for nightime street photography....

The opinions (hopefully fact based) that I am looking for is a good low light performing lens that is fairly wide for capturing essence of a scene but will also give good results if shooting up close.

From the responses the 35 might be a good one to look into.

Not L, but the lens that spring to mind here (value, night, discretion and full frame being key words) is the 85 1.8.

Can somebody please explain to me how an 85 is going to be useful either up close or to give an overview of a scene? I must be missing something.

17-40 l only have heard good things

Simon Turkin wrote in post #7321130
17-40 l only have heard good things

Not a prime, and not faster than f/2.8.

28 1.8 . . . . not an L, but sharp and fast

blackzzz wrote in post #7319651
How about the 17-55IS f2.8...not an 'L' but might as well be.

17-55 F2.8 IS will not work well on a 1.3 or ff camera it is an EFS lens...
Though i agree with you on image quality

I have the 135mm f/2 and I love it. However, I bought it for indoor sports photography. As far as the 85 f/1.2 I see the point, but still think it is too much for your purpose. I would say the two choices are:
16-35 f/2.8 or the 50mm f/1.2

But, I am an extreme rookie and my opinion is probably not worth anything

4rgentum wrote in post #7321767
28 1.8 . . . . not an L, but sharp and fast

This is probably a very fine choice or even 35/2, great discreet lenses for environmental street work. If you are stuck on L then 35/1.4 or 50/1.2 (getting a bit long for the 1D to me). The 35 may seem like a bargain if they do a 24L style update.

xarqi wrote in post #7321138
Not a prime, and not faster than f/2.8.

2.8 isn't a whole a lot faster than F4. I suggest the OP to learn to use flash instead with a F4 lens. Use flash for close up portrait of people with the night time scene as background. For general night time cityscape, get the tripod out and get ready for some longer exposure shot, stopping down to F8 or more. Shallower depth of view ie F2.8 or less is useless for cityscape shots.

TooManyShots wrote in post #7356520
2.8 isn't a whole a lot faster than F4. I suggest the OP to learn to use flash instead with a F4 lens. Use flash for close up portrait of people with the night time scene as background. For general night time cityscape, get the tripod out and get ready for some longer exposure shot, stopping down to F8 or more. Shallower depth of view ie F2.8 or less is useless for cityscape shots.

2.8 actually doubles the amount of light passed to the sensor. But I get where you are going. If you are going to use flash, you have to learn to interact with the folks you meet. You get different, yet no less interesting results.

TooManyShots wrote in post #7356520
2.8 isn't a whole a lot faster than F4. I suggest the OP to learn to use flash instead with a F4 lens. Use flash for close up portrait of people with the night time scene as background. For general night time cityscape, get the tripod out and get ready for some longer exposure shot, stopping down to F8 or more. Shallower depth of view ie F2.8 or less is useless for cityscape shots.

I know how to use a flash however I am not sure I want to be walking around with the flash always attached. I don't want to draw too much attention to myself. For night time city scapes a tripod will for sure be used. I have a very small and light tripod that is quite sturdy.

Thanks for all the comments.

mattograph wrote in post #7356546
2.8 actually doubles the amount of light passed to the sensor. But I get where you are going. If you are going to use flash, you have to learn to interact with the folks you meet. You get different, yet no less interesting results.

If the OP wants to take candid street shots, I think he should try it out first in day light. With street photography, it gets interesting only if you can include people in their environment. A long focal lens is pointless here because you are isolating the subject with the rest of the environment. Doing candid street shots during night time environment???? Maybe a f2.8 lens with a 5d body would do. Personally, I don't even think a f2.8 would be fast enough at all to freeze motion during night time, unless he can crank up the ISO really high.

Try a Nifty Fifty. YOu're only out a few bucks if it doesn't work out.

col4bin wrote in post #7356571
I know how to use a flash however I am not sure I want to be walking around with the flash always attached. I don't want to draw too much attention to myself. For night time city scapes a tripod will for sure be used. I have a very small and light tripod that is quite sturdy.

Thanks for all the comments.

Since you have a 5dII already, you should get the 16-35L markII. Not cheap. Don't get the 24-70. Is too big with a bucket of a hood. Since you have the 17-40L already, try to use it at a higher iso setting 3200 or more to see if you achieve the desire shutter speed. Do some test shots.