In summary
This versatile standard zoom lens can cover everything from landscapes and cityscapes through to group, full-body and head-and-shoulders portraits. Although larger and heavier than Canon’s cheaper EF-S kit zooms, it affords greater control over depth of field for working with selective focus techniques.
Although the rotary zoom mechanism extends the inner barrel of the lens, internal focusing means the front element does not rotate, making using a polariser or graduated filter straightforward. The built-in stabilisation makes it useful for shooting movie clips.
The extremely fast and near silent AF drive is controlled by an ultrasonic motor and full-time manual override is available in one-shot AF mode.
The rudimentary weatherproofing means care is required when shooting outdoors, particularly in moist and dusty conditions, where contaminants may enter the mechanism.
Full review
This lens has been available since 2006, when it was launched as the fastest standard zoom lens for Canon’s APS-C DSLRs. And the EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM is still the fastest – and highest priced – of Canon’s EF-S lenses. Spanning focal lengths between 27.2mm and 88mm in 35mm format, it provides a constant f/2.8 maximum aperture throughout the zoom range. Optical stabilisation is built-in and the ultrasonic motor ensures fast and silent autofocus with full-time manual override.
Side view of the Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM lens without the supplied end caps. (Source: Canon.)
The optical design of this lens is complex and involves 19 elements in 12 groups. Among them are three aspherical elements, which minimise spherical aberrations and distortions while two elements made from Ultra-Low Dispersion (UD) glass reduce chromatic aberrations and colour fringing to deliver clarity and color fidelity throughout the zoom range. Super Spectra coating has been applied to individual elements to suppress flare and ghosting.
The constant f/2.8 maximum aperture makes this lens relatively large for its type and requires a 77mm diameter filter. Optical stabilisation provides three stops of shake correction and ensures a stable viewfinder image when shooting with the camera hand-held. Unfortunately, the IS system lacks a dedicated panning mode, although it can detect when the camera is tripod-mounted.
Autofocusing is controlled internally with a ring-type Ultrasonic Motor (USM) that delivers extremely fast and near silent performance while also supporting full-time manual focus override. A rounded seven-blade diaphragm contributes to a pleasing bokeh in shots with a shallow depth of field and selective focusing.
Who’s it For?
This versatile standard zoom lens can cover everything from landscapes and cityscapes through to group, full-body and head-and-shoulders portraits. Although larger and heavier than Canon’s cheaper EF-S kit zooms, it affords greater control over depth of field for working with selective focus techniques.
Although the rotary zoom mechanism extends the inner barrel of the lens, internal focusing means the front element does not rotate, making using a polariser or graduated filter straightforward. The built-in stabilisation makes it useful for shooting movie clips.
The extremely fast and near silent AF drive is controlled by an ultrasonic motor and full-time manual override is available in one-shot AF mode. The rudimentary weatherproofing means care is required when shooting outdoors, particularly in moist and dusty conditions, where contaminants may enter the mechanism.
Build and Ergonomics
Although not up to the standards of Canon’s L-grade lenses, despite containing L-grade UD lens elements, this lens is a cut above the standard kit lenses when it comes to build quality. Mainly constructed from high-quality quality polycarbonate (plastic), it has a sturdy metal mount and solid control rings for zooming and focusing that operate smoothly.
The zoom ring is located at the front of the outer barrel and is 45 mm wide. It carries a 28 mm wide band of wide, solid rubber ridges that sit in front of a 4 mm wide metal band that carries engraved indicators for the 17mm, 20mm, 28mm, 35mm and 55mm focal lengths. Zooming from 17mm to 55mm extends the inner barrel by 30 mm.
Immediately behind the zoom ring is a 3 mm wide fixed section of the lens that carries the index mark against which the focal length indicators are aligned. The focusing ring lies behind it. It’s 11 mm wide with moulded narrow ridges and turns through approximately 90 degrees.
A distance scale is embedded into the outer barrel of the lens behind the focusing ring, which is roughly 26mm wide. Around the barrel to the left of the distance scale lie the AF/MF slider and stabiliser on/off control. No zoom lock is provided and we found none was needed for the review lens.
The lens ends in a very solid, chromed mounting plate (shown above) that fits snugly to the camera body but shows no signs of a gasket to exclude moisture and dust. The lens is supplied with front and end caps – but no lens hood, which is disappointing in a lens of this calibre with such a high price tag.
Performance
We tested this lens on the new Canon EOS 90D camera body, enabling us to take advantage of its 32.3-megapixel resolution, which is significantly than the resolution of the cameras we used for previous standard zoom lens reviews. Our Imatest results with JPEG files showed it came close to meeting expectations for the sensor around the central zone of the frame at all focal lengths, with aperture settings up to f/4.5. Interestingly, in CR3.RAW frames recorded simultaneously with the JPEGs, resolution comfortably exceeded expectations for the review camera’s sensor.
The highest resolutions were recorded at the 28mm focal length, although all focal length settings delivered good results at aperture settings up to about f/5, where sharpness began to decline. Edge and corner softening were present at all focal lengths.
Diffraction reduced resolution from about f/8 throughout the focal length range, with a significant dip occurring between f/11 and f/22. The graph below shows the results of our Imatest tests.
Lateral chromatic aberration remained entirely within the ‘low’ band, which is unusual for a modern lens since this flaw is normally corrected by default in JPEG files, resulting in negligible chromatic aberration. All shots were taken with the default settings, which apply corrections and in raw files, where aberrations are not corrected, chromatic aberration was mostly in the ‘moderate’ band.
Interestingly, we found little evidence of coloured fringing in test shots, although edge and corner softening were detected. In the graph below, the red line marks the border between ‘negligible’ and ‘low’ CA, while the green line marks the upper boundary of the ‘low’ CA band.
Because rectilinear distortion and vignetting are corrected by default in JPEG files in the EOS 90D, we used CR3.RAW files to measure both aberrations. Slight barrel distortion was found at the 17mm focal length but it had switched to barely visible pincushion distortion by 28mm. Interestingly, the level of distortion didn’t change at longer focal lengths and for all focal lengths it could be easily corrected when converting raw files into editable formats.
Noticeable vignetting could be seen at all focal lengths, which is to be expected since lenses designed for cropped sensor cameras have a reduced image circle when compared with ‘full frame’ lenses. It was most evident at 17mm but stopping down to f/3.5 reduced it to barely visible and no vignetting was observed from f/4 on.
Autofocusing was extremely fast and accurate for shooting both stills and movie clips, including after dark and in low contrast conditions. The built-in stabilisation system was also quite effective, enabling us to use shutter speeds as slow as 1/4 second with the 55mm focal length and obtain more than 50% of shots looking sharp. No operational noises were recorded on movie soundtracks.
Backlit subjects were handled very well and we found little in the way of flare artefacts when a bright light source was just within or just outside of the frame. There was also very little loss of contrast due to veiling flare.
Focusing is limited to 35 centimetres, which restricts the ability to use this lens for close-up shooting. The fast maximum apertures across the zoom range mean that soft backgrounds could be obtained at the widest lens aperture settings, particularly with longer focal lengths. Low contrast transitions were generally smooth but haloing was common around brighter highlights.
Conclusion
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SPECS
Picture angle: 78 degrees 30 minutes to 27 degrees 50 minutes
Minimum aperture: f/22
Lens construction: 19 elements in 12 groups (including 3 aspherical elements and 2 UD glass elements)
Lens mounts: Canon EF-S
Diaphragm Blades: 7 (circular aperture)
Focus drive: Ring-type ultrasonic motor
Stabilisation: Built-in optical, 3 stops of shake correction
Minimum focus: 35 cm
Maximum magnification: 0.17x
Filter size: 77 mm
Dimensions (Diameter x L): 83.5 x 110.6 mm
Weight: 645 grams
Standard Accessories: Lens front and end caps
Distributor: Canon Australia; 1800 021 167
TESTS
Based on JPEG files.
SAMPLES
Vignetting at f/2.8, 17mm focal length.
Vignetting at f/2.8, 28mm focal length.
Vignetting at f/2.8, 35mm focal length.
Vignetting at f/2.8, 55mm focal length.
Rectilinear distortion at 17mm focal length.
Rectilinear distortion at 28mm focal length.
Rectilinear distortion at 35mm focal length.
Rectilinear distortion at 55mm focal length.
17mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/125 second at f/11.
55mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/160 second at f/11.
Close-up, 17mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/1250 second at f/2.8.
Close-up 55mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/2000 second at f/2.8.
Close-up, 17mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/200 second at f/2.8.
Close-up 55mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/200 second at f/2.8.
17mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/200 second at f/8.
Crop from the above image magnified to 100%.
17mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/320 second at f/8.
55mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/250 second at f/4.
Strong backlighting; 17mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/1000 second at f/5.6.
Backlit subject, 17mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/2000 second at f/2.8.
Crop from the above image magnified to 100%.
Backlit subject, 55mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/800 second at f/5.6.
17mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/60 second at f/11.
Additional image samples can be found with our review of the Canon EOS 90D DSLR camera.
Rating
RRP: AU$1199; US$930
- Build: 8.8
- Handling: 8.7
- Image quality: 8.8
- Versatility: 8.7
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