topic Re: Comparing lens on Canon 70D - Not really happy with EF-S 17-55 in EOS DSLR & Mirrorless Cameras

Comparing lens on Canon 70D - Not really happy with EF-S 17-55

fredclips — Tue, 06 Oct 2015 03:45:53 GMT

As the title says, I've never been happy with my EF-S 17-55 lens.

It has always sort of 'felt' softer than I would like... I completely understand this might just be me!

This is why I've (finally) done some testing and would very much like the thoughts of others regarding this.

In these tests I've tried to use the same settings for each of the lens I used.

All photos have been shot at

Exposure 1/100 at f/5.0

ISO between 100 and 160

All at around the same distance and zoom. (expect the 100mm of course)

Camera was mounted on a tripod and I used a remote trigger. (Image Stablisation turned OFF)

I tested the following Lens,

Kit lens EFS 18-55

EF 100mm 2.8 Macro lens. (not the L)

Niffty Fifty

and my large EF-S 17-55 2.8

I also took the photos both with and without Liveview. (As the camera focus differently in each)

Several photos were taken at each setting, only the sharpest have been included here.

https://www.flickr.com/gp/40776448@N02/JTKkrd

Can I ask what others think?

To me the 100mm Macro and the Nifty Fifty are the sharpest by far. Both in and out of Liveview.

The Kit lens looks as I would expect.

But the EFS 17-55 just looks unfocused without liveview and I don't feel the liveview is as sharp as the prime lens.

Is that correct? I don't know if I'm just expecting a zoom (quality I believe) lens to preform as well as a prime? (even a cheap 50mm?)

Thanks all, any feedback would be great.

* I would like to apologize for the subject of the photos!

I failed to get my teenaged daughters, 3 year old, or partner, to sit still long enough to do this correctly.

So it had to be me...

Re: Comparing lens on Canon 70D - Not really happy with EF-S 17-55

Peter — Tue, 06 Oct 2015 08:23:36 GMT

Can you upload an untouched image here of the 17-55/2,8 viewfinder? I want to check your focus points in DPP.

About the other lenses, yes, 50/1,8 is a good lens.

Re: Comparing lens on Canon 70D - Not really happy with EF-S 17-55

fredclips — Tue, 06 Oct 2015 09:10:52 GMT

I think I sort of hoped that the 17-55 at more than 10 times the cost, might be able to match the 50mm!

Here is that photo, untouched.

BTW: I did set the camera to only use the centre point for focus. (Trying to eliminate randomness)

Re: Comparing lens on Canon 70D - Not really happy with EF-S 17-55

Peter — Tue, 06 Oct 2015 11:51:29 GMT

What I see the focus is on the eye. If you use 2,8 instead live view vs viewfinder please upload again.

Re: Comparing lens on Canon 70D - Not really happy with EF-S 17-55

fredclips — Tue, 06 Oct 2015 13:01:28 GMT

It just happens I do have a couple of those at 2.8

Only did these with the 17-55. Although, in the past, the 50mm and 100mm Macro have looked good around this aperture.

There were also before I locked down my testing, I wasn't using a single centre point for focus.

However, the viewfinder image shown here at 2.8 is honestly not unusally. If I'm shooting at 2.8 I always try and just use the viewfinder or the photos are just not sharp at all.

(It's not like I haven't taken sharp photos at 2.8. I have with other lens in the past, but they were all primes. It's just that I don't seem to be able to do it with this lens)

Viewfinder

Liveview (This was too large to post, this is a close up screen shot with the Focus point highlighted)

Re: Comparing lens on Canon 70D - Not really happy with EF-S 17-55

ebiggs1 — Tue, 06 Oct 2015 13:56:32 GMT

I really don't understand your query here. You are not simply not comparing apples to oranges but apples to horse flies.

You just can't compare zooms to primes and than add a macro prime. Why would anyone be surprised that the kit lens isn't the sharpest? Oh, BTW, how about adding viewfinder to liveview?

Re: Comparing lens on Canon 70D - Not really happy with EF-S 17-55

Peter — Tue, 06 Oct 2015 16:26:32 GMT

Something seems wrong with your 17-55. Live view is always correct, but the viewfinder thingy may need a calibration.
Make a proper test. Put your micro adjustment to 0, put the camera 2 meters away from your target. A QR-code is a perfect object. 55 mm, aperture 2.8 and use live view to focus and take a picture. That picture will be your good one. After that you use your viewfinder. Take a picture. Unfocus and focus and take a picture again.

Question, do you have two micro adjustment values in your 70D? I have it in my 6D but not in my 7D. If you have two values, I have a software you may like. If you only have one value and your lens focus wrong, send it in for calibration.

Re: Comparing lens on Canon 70D - Not really happy with EF-S 17-55

Peter — Tue, 06 Oct 2015 16:29:48 GMT

Seems you have two values in W mode and T mode. Do the tests and tell me later.

Re: Comparing lens on Canon 70D - Not really happy with EF-S 17-55

fredclips — Wed, 07 Oct 2015 02:05:35 GMT

@ebiggs1 wrote:
I really don't understand your query here. You are not simply not comparing apples to oranges but apples to horse flies.

You just can't compare zooms to primes and than add a macro prime. Why would anyone be surprised that the kit lens isn't the sharpest? Oh, BTW, how about adding viewfinder to liveview?

The kit lens is really just included because I 'could'!

The main point of including the other lens in to prove that the Canon 70D itself can actually be sharp. Which I haven't really experienced while using the EFS 17-55. (Which NOT a kit lens!)

I was (perhaps incorrectly) expecting that a lens that costs 9x more than a 50mm prime might be almost as sharp.

(Australian prices are EFS 17-55 = $1149, EF 50mm = $129)

Re: Comparing lens on Canon 70D - Not really happy with EF-S 17-55

fredclips — Wed, 07 Oct 2015 02:09:25 GMT

@Peter wrote:
Something seems wrong with your 17-55. Live view is always correct, but the viewfinder thingy may need a calibration.
Make a proper test. Put your micro adjustment to 0, put the camera 2 meters away from your target. A QR-code is a perfect object. 55 mm, aperture 2.8 and use live view to focus and take a picture. That picture will be your good one. After that you use your viewfinder. Take a picture. Unfocus and focus and take a picture again.

Question, do you have two micro adjustment values in your 70D? I have it in my 6D but not in my 7D. If you have two values, I have a software you may like. If you only have one value and your lens focus wrong, send it in for calibration.

Thanks for that info. I will run the tests later and post the results.

Do you think the Liveview quality is ok?

The liveview, even though MUCH better than the viewfinder, doesn't look that great to me.

I could just be expecting too much from it...

But as the lens cost so much (at my budget level) I was hoping for a little more.

Re: Comparing lens on Canon 70D - Not really happy with EF-S 17-55

Peter — Wed, 07 Oct 2015 08:09:29 GMT

You can try live view vs manual focus 😉
17-55 is more expensive because of IS, zoom and 2.8.

You can compare 50/1,2 vs 50/1,4 here. The cheaper one is sharper at 2,8 on a camera with croped sensor.

Re: Comparing lens on Canon 70D - Not really happy with EF-S 17-55

fredclips — Sat, 10 Oct 2015 06:08:03 GMT

Ok, I've taken some more photos of sheet of paper.

These were taken at 2.8, 55mm.

Micro Adjustments are set to 0.

I have tried FoCal, it hasn't been able to correct this focus issue. (reports adjustment value of 1 or 2)

EFS 17-55 2.8 55mm

Liveview

EFS 17-55 2.8 55mm

Viewfinder

For comparason again, I've include the EF 50mm here at 2.8 as well.

This image is from the viewfinder. (the liveview was even sharper)

It looks to me that the 50mm, using centre point in viewfinder, is sharper than the expensive 17-55 using liveview...

(That is forgetting the problem that the 17-55 doesn't seem to focus sharply through the viewfinder at all)

EF 50mm at 2.8

Viewfinder

Re: Comparing lens on Canon 70D - Not really happy with EF-S 17-55

Peter — Sat, 10 Oct 2015 07:22:47 GMT

I think you expect too much of the lens. A zoom lens is not as good as a prime lens.

Live view shows the correct focus. You can try to focus manually, but I don't think you will get it sharper than that. If the lens is new and you can send it in for calibration for free it might be an idea. Or if calibration in your country is cheap. In Sweden, 120 $, in Japan 10 $.

Re: Comparing lens on Canon 70D - Not really happy with EF-S 17-55

ebiggs1 — Sat, 10 Oct 2015 22:34:25 GMT

" A zoom lens is not as good as a prime lens."

Sorry to be blunt but this comparison is silly.

Re: Comparing lens on Canon 70D - Not really happy with EF-S 17-55

Peter — Sun, 11 Oct 2015 08:15:02 GMT

My bad. I should have had written "the" instead of "a".

Re: Comparing lens on Canon 70D - Not really happy with EF-S 17-55

fredclips — Sun, 18 Oct 2015 06:26:11 GMT

Again, thanks for the feedback.

Looking at this now I think there is actually two problems I'm experiencing here.

The first is that I may be expecting too much from the lens!

I honestly did expect/hope that one of the expensive, well rated, zoom lens could at least come close to the sharpness of a cheap prime. (I've had experience with an old EF 20mm prime in the past as well, it was crazy sharp on my EOS 550D)

The second issue, which I do think is a problem, is the autofocus through the view finder.

It just doesn't give me sharp consistant results. (Liveview is always MUCH better, not just a little)

This problem isn't just limited to the EFS 17-55 lens. It seems to appear on everything.

I have the FoCal automatic micro adjustment software and I was playing around with it and the 50mm lens on the 70D.

Using the centre point and I am getting consistantly different micro adjustment values.

At 1m I'm getting around +5

At 1.7m I'm getting +11

At 3m I'm getting +6

This results are repeatable... Those numbers don't equal reliable focus.

(Which I don't experience either, this isn't just the FoCal software reporting the problem)

At this point I'm really not sure what to do. The 70D just hasn't felt right since I've got it and I don't really want to be limited to using Liveview all the time.

It also sounds like the often reported (hard to prove) centre point focusing issue with the 70D.

BTW: I've tried other points. They havn't improved the focus in these tests.

Re: Comparing lens on Canon 70D - Not really happy with EF-S 17-55

Peter — Sun, 18 Oct 2015 06:56:37 GMT

Call Canon and ask what a calibration of the camera and the lenses will cost.

Re: Comparing lens on Canon 70D - Not really happy with EF-S 17-55

fredclips — Sun, 18 Oct 2015 07:37:08 GMT

@Peter wrote:
Call Canon and ask what a calibration of the camera and the lenses will cost.

I will do so on monday!