Sigma 12-24mm -v- Canon 17-40mm

Hi folks,

Has anyone either got both of the above lenses or performed a comparison of them?

I own the 17-40 at the moment but made the mistake of looking through my friends 12-24 on his D200. I'm now thinking of replacing the 17-40 with the 12-24. I'm worried though that I'll regret getting rid of the 17-40.

My thoughts are that the 17-40 overlaps with the 24-105 so if I get the 12-24 I'm gaining on the wide end and not really losing anything on the long end. One of my concerns is that Sigma QC aint great and there appear to be a lot of poor copies floating about.

I hope someone can offer some insight,

many thanks

Neil

This album was shot with the 17-40 on a mklln
http://picasaweb.googl​e.com/cicopo/TheCozume​lPalace
and the majority of this one was shot with the 12-24 on the same body.
http://picasaweb.googl​e.com …zumel?authkey=j​jummaTkEmE
You can notice a bit of fish eye effect at the wider end (no correction attempted) but in general I really find the lens great for the extra width. I haven't done anything comparable with it on my 5D so can't say how it works FF.

By a stroke of luck I have both.
Was there a question in that first post?

IMHO the 12mm on a 1.3x APS-H sensor is soooo much wider than the 17mm, that it is not really redundant to own both.

I stick with the 17-40mm for most shooting, as I do think it is a little sharper (especially if you can't stop down for whatever reasons) and it does not seem to introduce as much distortion..
Also for praticallity reasons, the 17-40mm is a lot smaller and lighter (the 12-24mm is so fat it won't easily fit inot the lens slots of my very full sized bag! ) I can put a protective or polarizer filter on the 17-40mm ( and I very often want that polarizer) etc.. the 17-40mm is just an easier to use and handier lens to work with.

...but when I'm looking for super wide, the 12-24mm has it.

I've not read a lot about bad copies of this lens?

Thanks guys. Yup you're right CDS there really wasn't a question was there! What I should have asked is how does the 12-24 compare IQ wise to the 17-40.

I have read through the reviews on FM and there seem to be quite a few people saying that it has taken them various attempts to get a copy they were happy with.

Thanks for the replies

Neil