I wanted an ultra sharp lens with a fairly wide angle for food photography and this does the job. A Not as sharp as the EFS-35mm I also bought but pretty close. The lens is beautifully built, fairly heavy (which I like actually) due to the thick heavy lens glass.

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...

Great lens with fast aperture and I.S! Use this lens for video work with C200 and C300mkii cameras. It's super sharp, light weight and a good zoom range for run and gun filming. Obviously not built as strong as an L series.... But at this price point you can't go wrong with this lens.

It's the nearest thing to a pro-grade Canon EF-S standard zoom...

Fast; consistent; accurate autofocus; Generous f/2.8 maximum aperture

Big for an APS-C lens; No weather seals

The EF-S naming refers to the S hort-back focus design which is only compatible to APS-C EOS SLRs starting with the EOS 300D (Digital Rebel). EF-S lenses feature a protruding rear element which requires a special mirror design to avoid a collision of the mirror and the rear part of the lens.

Nothing much to say. It's a great piece of glass that didn't get the "L" ring because it's EF-S, not because it's image quality lacks. Makes low-light photos easy with stabilization.

I've used this on a 50D and 7D mkII; it produces first class results on both.I'm sure if it were an EF lens and not an EF-S lens, it would have a red ring and be an L lens - the quality is that good

The large circular aperture produces a shallow depth-of-field, creating background blur that draws attention to the photographic subject. The lens construction includes UD and aspherical elements, which deliver impressive image quality throughout the entire zoom range.

Perhaps I am fortunate that I haven't had a dust problem yet. I took the lens, as my only lens, to an outing in Utah and Arizona. Beautiful focus and color for the sandstone formations and the wide angle shot well for the landscapes.

Comparatively light

Doesn't come with a hood

I bought this new 17-55 f/2.8 IS lens to replace a previous one I purchased in early 2011. Over 7+ years I took about 16,000 images with the previous lens, about 1/4 of all my photos. The previous lens stopped focusing about a year ago.