I recently bought Canon EF-17-40L lens from CP to replace the kit lens that came along with my 350D.
Within a 1 hour of purchase I went on to test this lens side by side with the 18-55 kit lens. Since 18-55 is the only lens I have that can be compared to the 17-40L. I also have 50mm /1.8 II but the comparison wouldn't make much sense coz of the significant difference in the focal length of the two.
Anyways I had taken over 100 shots at various apertures / focal length pairings within which I have selected a few for showing the comparison. The crops have been made at random (mostly they are from the center of the image, but on few occasions I have picked up from the sides as well). The full frame images at the widest angle might give you a rough idea about the tentative location of the crop within the full frame at a particular focal length. Please note that the focal length for both lenses at times have differed by 2mm max, but I don't think that is much of an issue.
The difference is quite obvious, but I just want to confirm that is this difference consistent with what one should be expecting of 17-40L lens when compared with the18-55 kit lens ? I would like to hear feedback from those who have already tested out their 17-40L lens against the kit lens. How is the difference in my case compared to yours ? I believe that I have luckily got a reasonably good copy, however, I would like to confirm it with the ppl who already own this lens before drawing any conclusion.
In all the cases, the first image is of18-55 where is the second one is that of 17-40L. All the crops are at 100% actual size, except for the first Full-frame images. Here goes the comparison:
