new theme for a while

In anticipation of the new Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM lens I ordered on Amazon, for the next few weeks, I'll be posting previews I've gathered surfing the Net.

http://www.fred08.info/350D/350D+17-55IS.zip (already dead) http://www.fred08.info/30D/30D+17-55IS.zip (already dead)

http://www.jonsmithers.com/17-55IS-RAW/

http://martincisko.googlepages.com/

So far, looks like center resolution is excellent for a zoom, and is still good at least halfway from the center to the corner. One shot from the first link showed really blurred out-of-focus righthand corners at 17mm f/8, but that may have just been one bad lens with decentered elements. The f/22 shot from the last set shows just a hint of smearing in the corners, but it's hard to tell, since at f/22 everything is soft.

Chromatic aberration looks to be almost non-existent, as good as I've seen in a Canon lens in this focal length range.

Looks like bokeh will be about the same as the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L or Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L, which is to say: okay, but not particularly good.

More worrisome is the color and contrast, which looks consumer-level (as opposed to $1200-level). None of the shots posted so far have been particularly well-lit though, so the jury's still out.

More to come.