Another dusty 17-55 F/2.8

Just bought my 17-55 F/2.8 two weeks ago from Adorama and have already noticed all kinds of dust on the inner lens. span style="color:Black;"Argh!@! Guess (INVALID EMAIL) I'll just try to be happy and continue to shoot. I know it won't affect the pictures, but when you spend so much on a lens, you want it to be right! Blasted Canon !

Jon,

I bought my copy in May...have used it extensively both indoors and out. I have no dust issues whatsoever.

It is as sharp as my 24-70MM EF L. I wonder what is going on here? Bad batch of lenses?

I'm not sure. Maybe Adorama will exchange for another, or I could just be happy with the one I have.

Well if the dust keeps entering the lens from use, it eventually will be a problem one day. Like I've said before I'd be very displeased paying a $1000 for any lens where the more it gets used the dirty it gets internally.

yeah my mate just bought one and has had no problems so far with it. cant believe how sharp it is.
tempted to buy one myself now and sell my sigma 17-70.
john E, i'd get that exchanged for another one mate. like the other guy said, right now you may not have probs but you might eventually, and to pay that amount for a lens you'll want it to last forever.

I loved that lens when I had it, but I returned it after it started accumulating dust particles at an alarming rate. My second copy started accumulating dust after only a few days! I do agree that a few dust particles will have no effect on image quality, but I figured at the rate it was collecting dust, that it would eventually affect image quality.
I also checked out 2 other copies of 17-55mm belonging to friends, and they also have dust in them, so 4 out of 4 copies that I have seen have dust accumulation issues.

P.S. By the way, I expect pretty much all non-sealed lenses, even primes, to eventually gather some dust inside, but my 17-55mm copies were collecting dust at unacceptable rate...

Get a new one.

peanuthead wrote in post #2430983
I loved that lens when I had it, but I returned it after it started accumulating dust particles at an alarming rate. My second copy started accumulating dust after only a few days! I do agree that a few dust particles will have no effect on image quality, but I figured at the rate it was collecting dust, that it would eventually affect image quality.
I also checked out 2 other copies of 17-55mm belonging to friends, and they also have dust in them, so 4 out of 4 copies that I have seen have dust accumulation issues.

the copy i have that i bought back in Aug has dust in there. but from time to time.. its not visible on the glass. so as long as it's still sharp then it should ok. there's a thread that talked about this a while back. i can't seem to find it. but many have dusty copies. probably due to the poor sealing process when they are assembling the lense.

We had a thread going a while ago with the serial numbers and date of purchase. Can you search for that and post up? If not, I can try to search tomorrow for it.

Didn't have dust on mine, but I have a few specs right now. Still love the lens and I doubt it will affect IQ, but still sucks seeing the dust. I find if you clean the front element, it will create a static charge on it and light dust on the inside sticks to it.

I should add that mine is still dust free.

return it and get a 17-40L... then put the other 500 bucks that you saved towards something else cool- like a 580ex!!

sirsloop wrote in post #2433165
return it and get a 17-40L... then put the other 500 bucks that you saved towards something else cool- like a 580ex!!

This is the worst advice I have heard. I have both lenses and the 17-40 comes no where near being as useful a lens or providing the quality of images that the 17-55 does.

I have had no dust issues with my 17-55 and it has been on a very dusty nature photography trip in Africa. (The 17-40 stayed home.)

sirsloop wrote in post #2433165
return it and get a 17-40L... then put the other 500 bucks that you saved towards something else cool- like a 580ex!!

That's the worst advice I've heard.