Are there weather seal issues with Canon EF-S 17-55 f/2.8 IS USM?

[Edwin Herdman]

I don't like sounding like a lecturer, but there was a serious problem with the argumentative style and logic of the original reply, which is like this: Other people's bad experiences with lens x are coincidences, and my (your) positive history proves that those are not worth considering (especially when you say that some people just lie "for the feeling of power"!). The OP's question wasn't "people on the internet say the EF-S 17-55mm always fails, is this true?" but rather if anybody here thought there was sometimes a problem (yes) and if so how severe (your own positive history is an example of how it can never crop up; very relevant and useful but as you say, doesn't speak for everyone else).

This is why it's frustrating: You immediately put the topic in terms of whether people were "happy" with the lens or not, instead of it being a pretty focused technical discussion of some small possible issue. That is changing the question. I like my car but I know it can rust if I don't take care of it; swapping preventive maintenance tips isn't dissing the hardware. (But I drive an older Hyundai...so... ) And then there's the whole issue of saying that some people apparently lie for kicks...

I think that the community of serious photographers isn't big enough for us to just write off certain other groups as being usually wrong. There certainly is a lot of junk on Amazon.com, and you could spend your whole life trying to clear it up, but there are also a lot of awesome photographers who share their reviews.

Sorry if it seems rude and presumptuous for some random guy on the Internet to be running around giving unwanted advice, but I like to think that Canon Rumors had a friendly atmosphere. I don't see how you keep the atmosphere friendly when the first sentence of the first reply insinuates that some people lie about their 17-55mm lenses just to get a feeling of power...on Amazon of all places...sorry Scales, you just happened to be the person who said it this time.

 

[neuroanatomist]

I agree with the sentiment, Edwin. On the other hand, I think scalesusa is also touching on the 'squeaky wheel' phenomenon - people with a problematic whatever will make that fact known, whereas people who don't have any problems with that product rarely proselytize about that. Thus, there's a disproportionate representation of negative comments. IN this particular case, the 17-55mm also suffers from its price point - if your $99 nifty-fifty (or now $135, thanks to the recent price inflation) is not perfectly sharp, you're unlikely to complain too loudly. But if you pay $1000 for a lens (and it doesn't even have an L on it!), your expectations are higher.