Canon 17-40mm f/4 vs Tamron 17-50 2.8 VC

[sshegde@aol.com]

Hi All,

I need a wide angle lens with a reach of about 15 - 17 mm for my 40D I am torn between the above choices.  Here is my situation. I owned a canon 10-22 for a couple of years. It's a very good lens, however, rediculously wide. I hardly used it below 15mm and almost every time when I was using the lens, I wished it had a few mm extra reach at the long end. FYI - Unless it is a special situation, generally you will include tons of sky and/or miles of ground barely outside the tripod in 10 -14mm shots. 
I have a Tamron 28-75mm that remains on the camera most of the time (If you get a good copy or if you get it calibrated from Tamron like I did,  it is a gem of a lens in terms of price/performance ratio). For the long end Canon 70-300mm IS (with 1.4X TC when needed) serves me fine and Canon 85mm 1.8 is my portrait lens. I sold Canon 10-22mm and now looking for a lens that covers the range between 15-30mm. The choice finally came down to above two lenses and now I am torn between the two. The lens will be used for landscapes and occasionally for indoor shots whenever Tamron 28-75 cannot accomodate the scene. As I read more about these two, more confused i have become and each has a set of advantage over the other. It would be a great help if you guys chip in to push me one way or the other. IQ is the first priority followed by versatility etc. etc.  My budjet is about $750.   

Thanks all in advance.

Subray

[Bob Atkins]

I reviewed the Tamron lens here - http://www.bobatkins.com/photography/reviews/tamron_17-50_VC_review.html.

It's pretty good optically, it's faster the Canon lens and it has image stabilization. Those are it's positive features. On the other hand the Canon lens covers full frame and is also optically good. It's also weathersealed, but that's only really effective if used with a weathersealed camera.

I think if I knew I was going to stick with crop sensor cameras like the 40D (or 7D), then I'd probably lean towards the Tamron 17-50/2.8 VC based on the wider focal length range and the image stabilization. It's also $100 cheaper.

On the other hand if I thought I might be adding a full frame body to my kit at some point, then I'd lean towards the Canon EF 17-40/4L based on it's ability to be used with both crop sensor and full frame cameras.

[sshegde@aol.com]

Thank you Bob

I probably will go for Tamron.


Subray