I borrowed a friend's 17-85IS and compared it against my 17-40/4L. I did a spot of pixel peeping to see how good this new lens is. I mounted the camera on a tripod and did a series of shots at different apertures at 17mm and 40mm. I am only posting the 17mm comparison, but I assure you that at 40mm the results are quite similar.
Rather than tell you what I think of them, I thought I would show you the 100% crops and let you decide for yourself - which one is the consumer zoom, and which one is the L lens?
(edit) this is the full frame. All the following comparisons are 100% centre crops, straight out of the RAW converter. No sharpening applied.
No MLU. And vibration on the bridge is not a factor, because of the high shutter speeds (1/125-1/1000s) and wide focal length. Also, IS was turned off when the lens was mounted on the tripod.
christo wrote:
The striking difference between the two sets of images is contrast.
A is so much more contrasty, even at f/4!
Therefore I am certain A is the 17-40.
right more contrast 17-40mm f4....the only same different to the 18-55mm and you can do that in PS.....
I'll let the poll run for a couple of days then i'll tell you the answer. 