Help with efs 17-85

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Aug 30, 2012
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My 17-85 is failing every few shots it gives me an error 99 or error 00. I looked at the canon repair site and it could cost about 150 to repair. My question is it worth repairing the 17-85 or should I look to replace it? If I choose to replace it i can only spend about 600 dollars. The next part of my question if I replace it could I find something decent for that price.
 
It probably depends if you were really happy with the 17-85 or if you were looking to upgrade anyways. If you were happy with the lens I say $150 is cheaper than buying a new lens for the sake of it.

If you were looking to replace it anyway then put the money towards a new lens, is there anything you can use in the meantime, nifty 50 etc?

The logical updgrades if you're sticking with a crop body are 15-85 or 17-55 f2.8 (which i use and is amazing) so if you're budget can't get to those I say repair the lens you've got :)
 
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The 17-85 is not a good lens at all. Get rid of it!!!!

Had exactly the same error on mine no chance its worth fixing. Upgraded to the 17-55mm and it is night and day the 17-55mm is so much sharper, less distortion and vignetting. You also get a constant 2.8 aperture throughout the zoom range which is very useful.

The 15-85mm is much better than the 17-85mm so I would go for that if you cant stretch to the 17-55mm. Gives you more range but is a slower lens but the IQ and distortion are much better.

I would not recommend going for an L lens like the 24-105 or the 24-70, not because of the quality, you cant beat it. But at 24mm on a crop body it must be multiplied by 1.6, so the widest you can shoot on those lenses is 38.4mm. The other option is to buy a 17-40mm but that is still 27.5mm so the only way to get wide on a crop is to stick with the 15-85, 17-55mm. Or buy using two lenses the 10-22 and the 17-40 combo.

Hope this helps
 
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I have repaired two 17-85mm's (both purchased broken). My first (the lens I'm still using) was a broken aperture cable (which is exactly what you describe with your lens - cost of parts <$35). The second one needed to have the USM motor replaced (much more costly - $85 for the motor alone). These lenses, while they have decent build quality, second generation IS, and Ring-USM are famous for these two problems. The image quality is not excellent, but the price (especially used) is not substantial.
 
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Just asking to be sure..

Do you have other lenses to verify that it's your lens that's the problem? I'm pretty sure I got error 99's when my shutter was dying on me. It started by giving that error periodically.. Then once every 5-10 shots.. a power-cycle and i was good to go. Then I think it eventually just stopped, and gave that error 100% of the time.

But right.. if that's your only lens, you might need to make sure it's not the camera.
 
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