This lens is good, but not great. I always compare it to a swiss army knife: it does a lot of things, but none of them as well as a more specialized tool would.
Keep in mind that this is a consumer-grade zoom lens – it’s not going to deliver the results that a prime lens or an L-series zoom will. Compared to ‘kit’ lenses and low-end consumer grade zooms, however, this lens shines.
It’s a good lens general-purpose lens for casual photography or when you only want to carry one lens, but it’s not really sharp enough or fast enough for the serious amateur or professional who needs to make large prints. It has close focus capabilities but can’t compare to a real macro lens. It’s not very fast. It covers a useful range, although it’s not quite wide enough for shooting indoors with a cropped sensor. While the image stabilization works well, it’s a first-generation system that’s not as good as the IS on more recent lens designs, especially while panning.
It’s an older lens that was designed for film, and it shows. While even a low-end DSLR will out-resolve this lens, film hits it’s sweet spot. I’ve found it to be very soft at focal lengths 50mm and below, it gets sharper at longer lengths and is good enough for most purposes in the 70-135 range. At 28mm on a 40D I can get good (but not great) 8×10 prints; larger print sizes make this lens’s weaknesses very prominent.
All in all, it’s probably not the best choice for the APS-C DSLR owner, but a great one for a film shooter. Within the same price range, the EF-S 17-85 IS is probably a better choice for the digital shooter who wants an all-in-one lens. Professionals or serious amateurs in need of a general purpose zoom should strongly consider stepping up to either the (considerably more expensive) EF-S 17-55 f/2.8 IS or EF 24-105 f/4L.
Help answer the question about Camera Lenses
What is the history of Vemar camera lenses?
I think it was a post-WWII Camera Lenses Japanese company. They mainly made screw mount lenses. I don't think the company still exists or possibly it was bought out.
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