Customer Ratings & Reviews

It's the best wide angle to moderate telephoto lens I've ever purchased.

I bought this to replace the kit lens (18-55) for my 450d, I also got to put my 28-75mm on the shelf. The focal range of this lens was the big attraction for me. I am happy with the look and feel of this lens, nice and tight, no creeping with camera down. Manual focus overide, will focus fairly colse too. Focus is fast and quiet, the IS function is quiet and works great, Canon gets better at this with every new lens. background blur is very nice as Canon states a round apature opening to aid in this. It is very sharp at the point of focus, even wide open. Upon reading professional reviews I was almost dissuaded by the vignetting and chromatic abberation issues. They both only come into play at very wide angles and you can help the CA by stopping down. Every lens has its flaws, but if it was perfect what would you buy from them next year?! Overall I really like this lens and I am glad I purchased it.

This is now my everyday use lens. I LOVE it. Quiet motor. Fast and Sharp picture taking. Just did a portrait photo shoot and the pic's turned ou excellent. $200.00 cheaper than our Canada stores. Highly reccomend.

Great lens. Very heavy duty and much better than the kit lens that came with our Canon EOS. The only issue is that in the wide angle you do get some almost fish eye effect as I guess would be expected. Photos have turned out excellent!

The pictures are very crisp, the lens is very quiet. The lens itself is under 4 inches and what most venues are requiring. I am unsure of the durability, 2 of my lens are at Canon getting repaired, so I'm not a huge believer in their durability (it may be me too, this lens will tell)

I bought this to replace the standard kit lens. On line reviewer give this lens a solid review for the price. I wanted a zoom with a little more range than the 18-55mm kit lens and better quality. This lens will serve as a walk arround lens when I don't want to carry several lens and keep changing. It is very sharp and functions as expected. I purchased this to go with my Canon 60D.

Fairly good pictures in low light, excellent pictures in sun light, fast focus and very good IS. This make an excellent all around lens and a noticeable upgrade from the camera kit lens.

To be honest, I don't know a lot about cameras and lenses--trying to learn--but the photos are beautiful. I really like the lens so far!

The lens is great. It allows me to take close up pictures from far away. The pictures come out clear and sharp.

Very sharp but not L lens sharp. CA is mild. This lens is highly recommended for crop bodies.

We were looking for a good inexpensive lens to fit our needs. This was a great deal and works exactly as we expected it to. It provides us with the type of pictures we were wanting to take.

Heavy duty lens, overall bokeh was not what I had expected and not in a good way. Best buy was amazing to work with, received product in great time and the return process was great!

Got this lens to pair with a Canon 7D. They feel very well suited to each other. Creates a compact, very high quality travel setup. Took on a trip to Puerto Rico and captured great landscapes, candids of the wife and food presentations. Also expected was low light performance could be better. Focus hunted in a room lit only by desk lamps. I have used the 17-55 and it was better in similar low light situations. But it costs more, is larger and weighs more. Video of the beach and moving children was limited more by me than by the lens. This will be my walk around for some time as the price/performance ratio will be difficult to top for my enthusiast needs.

Just received this from BB this week for my T1i. This is my first $$ lens and I did lots of researching before purchasing. I love this lens - the clarity, sharpness, contrast and colors are all up a notch over the kit lens. It is faster to focus and the little wider shots are pretty neat and the extra length will be great as a walk around lens. The IS is great -I was worried about camera shake, since this lens was much heavier than the kit lens, but actually it is easier to steady with the extra weight. I am glad I took the plunge on this lens.

Got this lens for the Canon 70D and it's worth every penny. It's a bit hefty and the built quality shows. Focusing is fast and quiet. The pictures are tact sharp. I highly recommend this lens for everyday picture taking from wide to semi tele range.

I purchased this lens about one year ago to replace the kit lens and am not dissapointed. With this lens being a little wider, 15mm vs 18mm, and a good bit longer, 85mm vs 55mm, it handles most situations I take pictures in. The pictures are very sharp and clear, almost comparable to my "L" lens. I wish it had a 2.8 max aperature for certain indoor/lowlight shots but this is not a major issue. The lens is a little heavier but I don't find it to be a problem. The auto focus is fast and quiet. I would buy this lens again as it has most of what I want in a single lens and it is on my camera 90% of the time.

This is my new walk around lens. Even though it's heavier than the kit lens I like the range, 15-85 compared to 18-55. It's very sharp, focuses easily in low light, and colors seem more vibrant. Most of my pictures are landscapes and grandchildren. Even in doors with a flash and taking pics of a 1 year old and 3 year old it focuses fast enough to capture them. I can't be happier with this lens.

After spending my budgeted amount to buy a Canon 60D which came with a kit lens, my expectations of photography with a SLR camera were not met. The results were not great and I felt my SLR-like point and shoot Canon S2 IS did a better job. Soon I came to a realization that your image quality is directly dependent on the quality of lens you use. Had I known this before I would have purchased a less expensive body and this lens. After shelling out more money to get this expensive lens I'm now really satisfied with the results I'm getting. Consistent image quality , very sharp and good color. Pictures are really good right out of the camera. IS is very quiet and is very advanced compared to the previous generation IS. Its a great walk-around lens, and I would say its priced correctly, all other canon lenses which are priced less than this are definitely not as good as this. This can be a L lens since its as good as similar canon L lenses out there, I guess canon does not give the L designation to the EF-S range. There is noticeable vignetting when you take shots when there is not enough direct light (eg. during sunset) , but this is not a big problem and overall this lens is good and is a keeper.

I think this lens is a great upgrade over the 18-55mm kit lens. It offers a wider range, better build quality, USM and great overall picture quality (sharpness). The downsides are that it has some barrel distortion, chromatic aberrations and vignetting. It is also not a large aperture lens, but I knew what I was getting into. If you need/want large aperture you'd be looking at the 17-55mm. Also for this price Canon could have at least thrown in the lens hood.

What is there to say that hasn't been said? Sharp as a razor. Silent and fast AF. Great image stabilizer. A little heavy for some users (not myself) but not to big either. I have owned more so called "standard" zoom range lenses for Canon (and other brands over the years) than I care to remember. However, this is without question the best yet. I really can't find any flaws. Some will complain that no hood is included. Yes, for this price it should be but if you do your homework before hand you will know this before you purchase so it is not really a flaw. It is pricey compared to other standard lenses but it really is worth it. If you are a Canon user who has the other kit lenses (18-55mm, 17-85mm or 18-135mm) I can honestly say this is worth the upgrade.