Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM Ultra Wide Angle Zoom Lens for SLR Cameras

If you're shooting an APS-C Canon and you've decided that you only want EF full-frame lenses for future use on a full frame camera, the 17-40 is a must-have. The focal range on the cropped sensor is 27 to 64mm which covers a large range for the majority of shots most people are likely to take. I've found this lens is perfect for social gatherings and essential for group shots. The size and weight is perfect on the 7D, making this my favorite lens for handling (compared to the 24-70 f2.8L and the 70-200 f4L). The build quality is superb. The focus and zoom rings couldn't be smoother and AF is fast. While this is a sealed lens, I hear that it's not fully sealed until a filter is fitted. With one in place, the zoom extension is completely internal, so there's no change in length when zooming from wide to the long end. This lens is a fixed f4. If you buy the lens with the understanding it is not an f2.8 and will not get you the lower ISO and/or faster shutter speed of an f2.8, the lens does very well in most shooting situations. On the 7D it's even better with the excellent high-ISO performance of that camera (I can shoot at ISO 3200 to 5000 without much concern). While it is reasonably sharp at f4 across the focal range, it is not as sharp as when stopped down to f5.6. Also, boarder sharpness falls-off a bit wide open and close to 40mm. However, these are not big issues. Contrast and color with this lens is excellent. My only caution from experience is to be careful when adjusting the point-of-focus to depth-of-field balance with the micro AF adjust on the camera (if you have that feature). What may appear to be a correct adjustment with a focus scale sheet that uses the center of the field, may end up causing excessive edge softness of your images due to the edge of the frame starting to fall out of the depth of field. I believe this may be due to the field curvature characteristic of a wide angle lens where the focal plane is not equidistant from the camera lens but slightly curved. I spent some time setting the correct AF micro adjustment by photographing a large bulletin board with very small lettering and symbols across both dimensions while making sure the camera was pointed square to the center so that all corners were equal distance from the camera. Once you have this dialed-in, you can test the center-to-corner sharpness of your lens at different focal lengths and apertures and determine whether you may have any sharpness issues with your copy. Initially I thought I had a bad lens copy that was soft and de-centered, but after getting this procedure right, the lens proved to be sharp. While there are other excellent options such as the Canon 17-55 EF-S f2.8 lens, this one is full-frame compatible, it's weather sealed, it has superior build quality, it's an L lens with that unmistakable red ring at the end, and it's the next greatest lens bargain second to the 70-200 f4L. While the hood may look odd, remember that it was intended for a full-frame camera where this lens would be a true 17-40mm - making a shallow hood necessary.

First of all, let me start to talk about the delivery/amazon.com service for this purchase of mine. About the delivery/service: (skip this part if you are only interest in the lens review :) ) Usually I am very content with amazon's service. They respond fast and if something goes wrong, they compensate one. Unfortunately this time, things weren't as great. And to be honest I was just disappointed of the service. I have an Amazon-Prime account and therefore 2days delivery was 'guaranteed' (cite) since I have purchased this item from amazon. If it was not amazon prime and if it was just delayed for a day, I wouldn't bother mentioning it. Yet this time, the delivery was all confusing. I received daily messages that the item was out for delivery and a couple hours later that the item has to be sent back because of a wrong location. The lens ended up coming late about one week. All wouldn't be as but if I didn't have work to do and a travel for the weekend, for which I both bought this lens for. It is not the fact that it came late which disappoints me so much, it was the fact that amazon guaranteed two day shipping and as they were usually reliable, I sold my other lens, expecting this one to come on time (It should have come on Wednesday, so I did calculate a possible two day delay...). It is moreover the opportunity costs I had to pay because I did not have a lens in this range neither for work, nor for my journey. Amazon did offer me some kind of compensation on the first day of delay, a $15 certificate for the next purchase from amazon.com. To be honest with you, this was not worth even a tiny bit of what I missed due to the delay. And until now, I haven't received any information about the further process yet. In this case they should have kept better contact with their delivery/supply chain. Now we come to the hot part :D As you can see I still gave the lens 5 stars, because the lens itself is a great piece of glass. I got the lens while it was still on a very good deal! I just got my copy of this lens today and tried it out right away and I am already happy with this lens! And as you can see I wasn't able to wait to share my excitement (which was quite dampened by the delay though) Just look at the pictures which were uploaded. This thing is just great! 1) Overall first impression and optical quality: I am currently using a Canon 7D. My other lenses are: Canon 70-200mm f/4 L, Canon 50mm f/1.8 and Rokinon 8mm f/3.5 fisheye. The Canon 17-40mm f/4 L just completes my kit. I haven't had the opportunity to fully tet the lens yet. What I can say is that in good to decent light conditioning this lens is performing at its best! The details, the saturation and the contrast are great with this lens. Moreover you can get really really close to the object. I have the feeling that you could use this one even as a macro lens. I might be one of the lucky person who got a very good copy of this lens, but I am very pleased with Canon so far and think, that their Quality control is really good. And yes - this thing is BOKEHLICOUS :) Nice, smooth Bokeh! 2) The build quality Those who had the pleasure to use L lenses before can tell that the build quality and ergonomic of these or second to none. And the 17-40mm f/4 L is no exception. In fact, this lens is one of the lightest Canon L lenses. But lighter does not mean cheaper. In opposite! The build quality is great. A very sturdy piece of glass, good weight to carry it around all day, attached to a big camera such as the 7D or 5D MarkII without getting tired. One also has to mention that this lens is weather sealed. IMPORTANT NOTICE: The weather sealing is only complete when you mount a 77mm UV Filter onto it (I decided to buy Hoya . very good quality, reasonable price. No flare at all.) 3) The price This is in fact of the most affordable lenses by Canon. And yes, call it: BANG FOR THE BUCK. Of course, everything has to be regarded in relative terms. Whoever can really call around $700 to be cheap probably doesn't have quite a tight wallet as most of us. But in terms of L lenses, yes, this one is one of the most inexpensive glasses you can get. And don't be fooled by the price, this has nothing to do with the quality! 4) What's great about it? a) It is an L lens b) Resale price does not drop significantly over time c) comes with leather lens-bag and hood (for ASP-C DSLRs one has to be another hood though, since this is actually a FF lens) 4) looks sexy because of the red ring ;) 5) Compatible with FF DLSRs (for the future)! And lastly, yes this lens does not have IS. But at this wide angle one usually does not need one. And yes, this lens only has an aperture of f4. But as always, ask yourself what you really need and if you really need the extra stop to f2.8 which costs you almost $1000 more. For me, this lens is all fine. Shooting in really poor light conditions might be a little tough, but that's when you should use a flash and/or a monopod/tripod. But even handheld I did not have a huge problem with this lens, most of all because of the ability of the newer cameras such as the Canon 7D to perform quite well in low light in terms of dealing with high ISO. An update will be coming soon, which will include more about the performance in normal and also in low light!

I purchased this lens to accompany my new 50D. The first thing I will note is the amazing improvement upon image quality when moving from the 18-55mm IS kit lens to this one. As there is quite a bit of difference in build quality as well as price range, that should come as no surprise. If you are shooting with a crop body camera, Rebel/XXXD or xxD body. The extra range on the short end of this lens becomes really important when shooting group pictures, landscapes, or your shooting space is really tight. The difference seen between having 17mm at the short end and 24/28mm is really REALLY noticable and allows you to get some landscape and close quarter pictures, you might not have been able to take. As far as build quality goes, the lens is VERY solid. Metal construction with LD glass elements and very smooth focus USM motor and like butter zoom ring, it all just feels wonderful to use. You will definitely notice a difference if you try to use a lower quality lens. Optical quality is amazing. As the sensor on the 50D is very dense, it becomes easy to see the flaws in lower quality glass. This is not the case with the 17-40L. Though I would have like to be able to get the extra f stop that comes with the 16-35mm 2.8L , the decrease in weight and the HUGE decrease in price makes the 17-40L a better deal for me. After all, the bokeh becomes the only reason that the fstop is so important(i wouldn't discredit this because smooth bokeh makes portaits great) , as the difference between f4 and f2.8 is going from about ISO 200 to ISO 400, and with the dramatic increases in high ISO perfomance, it is likely you will not greatly notice the difference. If lighting is THAT bad, you should really be using a fast prime, such as the 50mm 1.4 or an external flash. The EF mount makes it easy for one to make a switch to full frame camera in the future and will leave you with a very useful ULTRA-WIDE lens on FF cameras. Overall, I am very pleased with my purchase, and if given the opportunity to purchase again, I would happily do so. In the future I plan on paring this lens with a 70-200 f4 L which I understand is one of the best priced and best value canon lenses made.

No one lens accomplishes every photographic objective. Canon makes each lens at every price point well-suited to various tasks, but with limitations that can only be overcome by graduating to the next higher priced but similar item. A case in point: the wide-angle zooms. The 17-40mm f/4 is one of Canon's best deals in L-series glass. You have to spend twice as much to get a lens of similar quality, but just one stop faster. Does this make the more-expensive EF 16-35 f/2.8L a ripoff? Not for its own specific use: the extra stop gives you the speed to shoot in more indoor situations. Not all photographers need this. When indoors, we're often taking pictures of people, which are better suited to lengths around 50-100mm. To capture sweeping panoramas of parlors for Architectural Digest (or Coldwell Banker) the f/2.8 is the better lens and worth the step up in price, though in many cases you could use the f/4 lens with a tripod. All this means is that the f/2.8 is priced for professional specialists whereas the f/4 is for more general use. My bigger point is that Canon has its whole lineup positioned: the differences across lenses are specific and appropriately priced, which is good news for the consumer. It's hard to make a mistake buying homegrown Canon lenses, especially L-series lenses. You just have to figure out which set of two or three suits your range of uses. The 17-40mm is a steal for people who need a walkaround lens for travel and outdoor photography. The shorter focal lengths of the zoom are great on a digital body, with nice reach and minimal distortion; just an ability to grab up landscape and wide situations end-to-end, even when standing close. The focal lengths around 40mm are tight enough for portraits and other local detail. Colors are strong and convincing; contrast deep and impactful. The lens itself is small enough and light enough to grab-and-go, but nicely machined, with solid fit and finish. It has an instantly recognizable profile, with the added bonus of the red ring. This lens, plus a 70-200mm f/2.8 telescope and a nice fast fixed lens in the range betwixt are all you need. On vacation, and in most outdoor situations, the 17-40mm alone suffices. It makes a good first L-lens, and a staple in the arsenal.

I just got this lens yesterday and the first thing I did is calibrate it using a LensAlign Pro. I have a 7D and I have found the micro-adjustment feature invaluable. I have a 24-70mm 2.8L, a 50mm 1.2L, a 100mm 2.8 macro, and a 70-200 4L. All of them required slight micro-adjustments inside the camera to get perfect focus. The 17-40mm 4L required a -6 adjustment to bring it in line with the camera. That's the most I've had to adjust any of my lenses. Tonight I had the opportunity to test this lens by taking a few shots at a specified focal length against my 24-70. The 24-70 is a great lens and although it's not a wide angle like the 17-40 I could still use it as a base line against my new addition. Both lenses were mounted to my tripod and set at F4 @ 40mm and all other settings were the same also. I photographed a flower pot hanging off of my Gazebo. The results: Surprisingly, the 17-40 was very close in sharpness to the 24-70 - impressively so. The 24-70 was better but not by much. I wasn't expecting that since many reviews on here complained about that aspect of the lens. Color was warmer - much warmer. It's color reproduction was not believable and couldn't hold a candle against the 24-70. Background blur was not as good also as I could make out details on my neighbors asphalt roof top. On the 24-70 no details were visible. The blur was just smoother - more buttery as they say. Contrast was very good and I couldn't tell any difference between the two lenses. Now for the wide open tests. This is my only wide angle lens and I didn't have anything to compare it to so I scrutinized the things other people have complained about when reviewing this lens: sharpness at the edges and chromatic abberation. I didn't experience any issues of my lens being soft on the edges but that is likely due to the fact that I am on a 1.6x crop body and not a full frame. What I did experience was bad chromatic abberation away from the center. Straight on from my focal point was fine but from 17mm to about 25mm the chromatic abberation was evident. It was the worst at 17mm and got progressively better until it was gone above 25mm. Of course, I had to zoom way in to see it but when I did was it bad. Purple on one side of a vertical fence post and green on the other side. Bottom line for me is that while this lens will serve the purposes it was bought for, I don't think I'll keep it long term since I plan on moving to a full frame when Canon comes out with their next upgraded line (probably a 5DMkIII). At that point I'll sell it and pick up the 16-35mm 2.8L. Am I disappointed in the lens? Not really, I expected some issues regarding glass simply because it's a very inexpensive 'L' series. Build quality is certainly 'L' quality - but glass is not. That's why it's so economical. I gave it 4 stars because all things considered it's a good lens for the price. 5 star reviews are reserved for flawless products regardless of price and this lens is not flawless.

The 17-40 gets mixed reviews for the most part mainly due to poor corner and edge resolution wide open. I use this on the 5D Mark III, a full frame sensor that will show these soft edges much more than a crop sensor such as any rebel, 7D, 60D, etc... Even then, I find the edge performance really quite good once you stop the lens down. Central sharpness is very, very good at 17mm and 40mm wide open. Stopped down to f/8 or f/11 will greatly increase sharpness in the edges and corners of the frame. But the lens is plenty sharp, no worries here. I use some of Canon's sharpest offerings such as the 24-70 f/2.8 II, 70-200 II, 135L, 400L, etc... This lens is just as good... Sure, it has some flaws, but the pros greatly outweigh those soft edges wide open. To me, this really is a full-frame lens where you can really utilize that great 17mm perspective. I think there are better options for those shooting with the 1.6x APS-C sensors. But that really is really up to the users and the needs they have. My girlfriend often borrows this lens to use with her T2i and loves it (I think the images look fantastic, as well!). One thing I love most about this lens is the contrast and color rendition. Simply beautiful images straight out of camera. The build quality is top notch as well, the zoom and focus rings are very smooth and well damped. The lens is weather sealed, but does require a filter (per-Canon) to complete the sealing. I give this lens 5/5 stars, simply due to its extremely affordable price (for an L lens) and excellent performance. Sure, there are sharper lenses out there, but that does not hinder this one at all. It still performs great and is a blast to use for dramatic perspectives. One of the most fun lenses to mount to the camera IMO. The light weight, great build quality and very good IQ make this a winner and a spot in my collection.

Ok, I'm an amateur, at best. I primarily shoot video. I wanted a lens that would be good for talking head videos, and that could replace my kit 18-55 EF-S as a landscape walk-around. The 17-40 won me over on price, IQ, and range. I have a 600d(T3i), so the lens is a 27-64 equivalent. Perfect for my needs, or so I hoped when I brought it blind. After spending some time with it, I'll say this, I'm won over, handily. The focus speed, even on the 600d, is amazing. The thing just feels solid. The main complaint I have is the f/4 stop. A little slow for most indoor work without a flash or tripod. That, and the fact that it outweighs the camera, even with a battery grip, are the only nitpicks I have, and they're both things I purchased it knowing. It's not like the kit lens is noticeably faster, even at 18mm. There's a lot of debate on what you should get to replace the kit 18-55mm lens as your first upgrade. A lot of that will depend on your shooting style. If you constantly wish you were able to reach just a bit further, or have to stand back less, this isn't the lens for you. As a straight upgrade, it works very close to the feel of the kit lens, only loosing a bit of the wide end, and gaining a little tele. A lot of people will tell you to supplement first, instead of upgrading, or upgrade to the 17-55mm EF-S, until you actually get a full frame camera. While I understand the supplementing idea, the 17-55 never made sense to me, it costs more than this or even the 24-105mm F/4L IS, and while a stop faster, isn't weather sealed, and is crop sensor only. Not a long term investment, in my opinion. In short, while I feel a little silly owning a lens that cost more than the body it's on, I'm in love with the thing, and have definitely caught L fever.

This is a magnificent lens deserving of high praise. In general, I tend to shoot "available light" and towards wide angle, and EF 17-40 F4L is one perfect lens for someone like me. On an APS size sensor camera (mine is Rebel XT), it works approximately like a 28-70 mm zoom--a perfect walk-around lens, giving you decent wide angle and at the tele end, a pleasing perspective on faces you expect from a moderate telephoto. I spent two weeks with EF 17-40 on the coast shooting nature and street stuff in small towns. It performed perfectly. But I only realized what a real treasure I have when I began having second thoughts about it on the eve of a long overseas journey. I asked myself whether I would not have done better buying EF-S 17-85 F4-5.6 IS. After all, it gives you better reach - an equivalent of 28-135 mm zoom on a 35 mm camera. Would it not be a perfect lens on an overseas trip? A dilemma worhty of Hamlet. So I decided to order it from Amazon while I still had time to return EF 17-40. As soon as EF-S 17-85 came, I did some tests taking pictures of still life, flowers and a portrait at similar focal lengths and at full zoom. The results put 17-85 to shame. Color and light were flat and paled next to 17-40. But there was still the problem of reach. I took a portrait at full zoom of the same person (40 mm or 65 mm equivalent and 85 mm or 135 equivalent), cut out the critical focus area from both pix and equalized the two crops in terms of pixel numbers. Unprocessed, 17-85 produced a perfectly focused picture, the 17-40 crop was visibly softer, but in terms of tonality and richness of gradations, it was way ahead of its rival. Photoshop to the rescue! After I fiddled with sharpening and contrast in CS2, the focus softness in 17-40 was gone, and the result was a better all-around picture of the same portrait detail. In other words, if you wish to take a picture, say, of a building's detail or a monkey mug shot in a zoo--a situation calling for a telephoto of 135 mm that 17-85 is capable of--EF 17-40 F4 can do the job, in fact a better job in terms of textures and tonality--and focus, too, if you do a little post-processing in SC2. I am returning EF-S 17-85 and will stick with EF 17-40, taking it on my overseas trip. Unlike EF-S 17-85 F4-5.6, which is a feels like a decent consumer zoom, EF 17-40 F4L is built like a tank and has weather sealing. It should also come in handy if and when I decide to switch to a full-frame camera (EF-S lenses work only with the APS-size sensors).

Awesome product. A beginner in the L series but serves as a tank for general purpose photography. The lens is particularly sharp above 24 mm at focal ranges of f5.6 or more.

Perfect landscape lens with outstanding quality in build and performance = 5*

Ich bin sehr zufrieden

This lens is simply great. The only concern I had about it was the sharpness in the corners but being a landscape photographer and shooting mostly at F8 and up, I don't have a single complaint. The zoom range is great, colours are fantastic and build quality is, well it is an L lens! I would definitely recommend for someone who has a full-frame camera. If you are shooting on a crop sensor, this would be more of a walkaround lens than wide angle.

Uso no Full frame, e acho fantástica. Uma lente que captura cores e detalhes, de forma clara e qualidade óptica. Excelente para interiores e paisagens.