Thinking of moving from 17-55 to 15-85... advise needed...

I have been contemplating on replacing my 17-55 to 15-85.*

I have never been satisfied with the 17-55 because I could never dial in my MA properly. Either im happy with the zoom end or wide end, or FL in between. Im gonna send it in for calibration and im gonna re-evaluate after that.*

I wanna hear from people who have done the same move. Why did you swap and how are you finding it now? Did you regret it? Anything else that you could throw in the mix so I can decide properly.*

Thanks guys.

I would rent the 15-85 and see how you like it before i would do anything

Yes, rent is a good idea and then you can sit back and be glad you kept your 17-55.

Im with you guys on renting. I was gonna send it in for calibration next week after my sons bday party. When it comes back and im still not happy, i was gonna rent the 15-85 before i do anything else. Either that or try out the lens in a local shop.

Anybody else wants to chime in? I really wanna hear from people who have done this move, if someone out there did it...

Im beginning to think that im the only one who considered this move. Lol.

musashi wrote in post #11744373
Anybody else wants to chime in? I really wanna hear from people who have done this move, if someone out there did it...

Im beginning to think that im the only one who considered this move. Lol.

Nah, you're not alone...

Honestly it comes down to WHY do you want the 15-85, Having owned both, the 15-85 suited my needs better than the 17-55, the extra 2mm on the wide and 30mm on the long suited me more than the extra 2 stops of speed did in most of my shooting situations..

In terms of optics, they're equal, in terms of AF speed its close but I'd say the 15-85 is one of the fastest focusing lenses I've used compared to just about anything...the 17-55 is obviously no slouch but I for some reason feel the 15-85 is faster (Sadly i didnt have the two at the same time) IS performance the 15-85 has a newer IS system so its a hair better, Again, not that the 17-55 is a slouch, the 15-85 handles flare a ton better than my 17-55 as well (My 17-55 was particularly horrid about flare, even with the hood, the slightest bit of light and all contrast was gone from my pictures)

Build-wise, the 15-85 wins by a pretty big margin, its much tighter, it does have a small problem with zoom creep at intermediate settings but overall it feels better built to me...

However at the end of the day both are very good lenses and I've summed it up like this, if you shoot outside a lot, the 15-85 is your lens because of the greater range and flare performance, indoors the 17-55 is a better choice to me due to the faster aperture...

From what it sounds like you wanna switch because you have a defective 17-55, I'd try getting one that works "right" first unless you also dislike the range and never use the f/2.8 setting

-edit- and have a video, poorly narrated by me

http://www.youtube.com​/watch?v=iUGpTTOOYhA

Is the 15-85 really on par with the 17-55 IQ wise? I have a hard time pulling the trigger for the 17-55 due to its sub-par build (for the price)...

KenjiS, thank you for that nice summary. I do use this lens almost 75% indoor. When outdoors I usually pull my 70-200 out unless im short on space or when I want some nice landscapes. I really want to keep it. Your 100% right that im only considering swapping coz its defective. I guess i'll find out after canon returns it back to me.

Diffuser, unless you bring your gear to the extremes, the build quality should be the last thing you worry about. Eveything in this lens is L quality except the build. With the prices of these lens, I tend to take care of it more than what is really needed, it wont hurt being more on the safety and prevention side of your gear. I guess if they put the L build in this thing it would weight heavier than the brick and would cost more.

No one doubts the quality of glass, but the fact that you're paying L glass price for non-L glass build is what gets to me, guess it's a psychological thing.

Might be. But if it had L build, i dont know if I would be able to afford it coz im thinking it will be over $1500 range.

musashi wrote in post #11744314
I have never been satisfied with the 17-55 because I could never dial in my MA properly. Either im happy with the zoom end or wide end, or FL in between.

This isn't a fault of the 17-55, it's a fault of the micro adjust feature. Zooms will be "correct" at the end where you perform the adjustment and they will be "wrong" at the other end. Primes will be "correct" at MFD or infinity (depending on where you perform the adjustment) and they will be "wrong" on the other one. The best solution? Don't use MA.

Mark-B wrote in post #11745734
... Zooms will be "correct" at the end where you perform the adjustment and they will be "wrong" at the other end. ...

I'm not sure this is 100% true. I have had lenses that showed a difference from one end to the other but not all. My 17-55 was pretty decent needing a small adjustment but both ends the same. It's very linear. The 100-400 was horrible with both ends being quite different. That one got sent back to Canon and they fixed it.

Hi

I've owned both and much prefer the 15-85.It all depends if you need the F2.8 or not.I found the "feel" of the 17-55 terrible.It feels cheap and horrible in use.So much so that I only kept it 3-4 weeks and then got rid of it and went back to a 24-105L.
I'm now using the 15-85 and it feels a whole lot better in use than the 17-55.It's a really solid piece of kit.It's very sharp with the only downsides being that it could use a zoom lock button and it can vignette horribly with the hood attatched.It is however one of the nicest hoods that Canon produce.

Gary

The 15-85 is a superb lens, it's only downside is it's not f2.8, however if you want fast you have to sacrifice versatilty. For me the 15-85 wins hands down

gasrocks wrote in post #11744333
Yes, rent is a good idea and then you can sit back and be glad you kept your 17-55.

Not necessarily, depends on his needs, my 15-85mm has been an awesome lens!

Do it