I currently use a Canon 28-70 2.8L, but could use a wider lens. I'm going to be looking to trade the 28-70 for a 17-40, but wanted to see first if anyone has owned both of them and what one do you prefer between the two.
Thanks in advance,
bruce
I've owned them both at the same time. At least for my copies, the 28-70L was sharper at any comparable f/stop than the 17-40L, but not by all that much. And to my eyes, the 28-70L also won, by a larger margin, in both color/contrast and bokeh over the 17-40L. Finally, for my uses, these lenses had two grossly different purposes, and yours may differ. I used the 28-70L more for close ups and still life shots, usually at wide apertures, where the subject was isolated from the background. The 17-40L was almost exclusively a landscape lens, though, and for that, it excelled when stopped down to at least f/8.
Why get rid of a great lens to go wider? what do you have above 40mm to make not haveing the 28-70 o.k.
I wanted wider than mine so got a Tokina 12-24 F4 to give me a set 12-24, 28,70L ,80-200L . All 3 great lenses and a joy to use.
Thanks for the responses everyone.
I currently use (in that range) a 24-105 4L IS lens and a 50 1.4 on the 1D and 1Ds series cameras. So that area is already covered, but there are times when your in the situation where the 24mm is a little tight on the edge of the frame.
Ian.Dobinson wrote:
Why get rid of a great lens to go wider? what do you have above 40mm to make not haveing the 28-70 o.k.
I wanted wider than mine so got a Tokina 12-24 F4 to give me a set 12-24, 28,70L ,80-200L . All 3 great lenses and a joy to use.
He said he is using 1dxx bodies. Tokina 12-24 F/4 will only work on cropped sensor.
How about just adding the Sigma 12-24 to your kit? It's a tad slower than the 17-40, about the same price and gets you wider and you wont' be duplicating lengths. If you are really looking at just not using the 28-70 due to the overlap with your 24-105, I'd be happy to trade you the Sigma 12-24 for it.
