Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM

Christopher: This lens from what I have seen gets a lot of hype from both photographers and vidoegraphers so I had to give it a try and see what I was missing. I had some pros and cons with this lens. My pro, great for filming in good light. The colors that came out of it between f/5.6 and f/8 were spot-on and it provided a solid picture with a lot of clarity. My major con was pretty simple, this is an L lens and with that should provide L lens quality. With its photo taking ability, wasn't to impressed. The AF was not very quick in a lot of situations and in low light I thought it really struggled getting the clarity and sharpness that I was looking for. In my opinion if you are looking for a wide angle zoom and you have a cropped sensor like myself, try out the 17-55 f/2.8. I thought it crushed the 17-40 f/4L in every aspect.

Nissa: I rented the Canon 17-40mm f4L last year to find out if it would be a good purchase for my wedding photography bag. I shoot full-frame 5Ds, and was looking for something that would cater to the ultra wide shots I needed while still staying under the $1k price range. I don't purchase third party lenses - only Canon - so this seemed to be the perfect solution. I can tell you that I now own the lens - so my review is overall quite favorable - but it doesn't come without a few caveats. I find the 17-40 to be a real pleasure to use. It is light; but feels sturdy in construction. I didn't have any problems with a slow focus, but I have to say that the restriction of this being only an f4 lens definitely keep you shooting in gratuitous light. I found myself using the lens for wide ceremony shots and for wide shots of the dance floor - the former being sunlight and the latter lit with flash. At f4, I am definitely stretching it on a dark dance floor with bounce flash. Color wise, it's definitely an L lens. I found the sharpness to be acceptable/good. One major issue you'll want to take in to consideration, if you are shooting full-frame, is vignetting, which is quite apparent at 17mm. I was able to correct any drop-off using Photoshop. I found myself really enjoying this lens at f8-f11. I do not have experience with wide angle lenses touting the larger f2.8 apertures, but I believe that the 17-40mm f4L is a great lens, if you can shoot at f4 or above. If you're going to have some light, this is the lens for you.