Used Canon 15-85mm f3.5-5.6 is USM EF W/Box

I bought this lens to compliment my 7D and it does a fantastic job. CA is evident when shooting in sunny situations but nothing that can't be fixed through Canon's DPP or other post processing. A lens hood is highly recommended. The focal range is perfect and though there is some barrel distortion at the wide end it can be remedied in post processing nor is it enough to be a nuisance to me. This lens takes incredibly SHARP images and focus is very very fast (and quiet) The build is excellent and feels like a tank. The Image Stabilization of this camera is excellent. I am able to take handheld shots in low light at shutter speeds down to 1/4 with consistently good results. Part of this may be attributed to the hefty combined weight of the lens and 7D, adding to stability. The price does seem a bit much but I am not certain you will find anything that comes close to this lens in terms of performance, build, and sweet focal length for that price!For those of you contemplating between this lens and the 17-55 f2.8, I would strongly suggest the 15-85! You are paying much more and sacrificing a lot of focal length just to have a wider aperture of 2.8 - not worth it. Image quality is about identical and unless you really want the depth of field; I usually shoot between f5.6 - f11 anyway. Don't mistaken large apertures for the ability to shoot better in low light! Yes that's true but would you really want to take low light shots with a 50mm at f0.95? I suppose it depends but not unless you're really looking for a strong DOF effect. For 99% of low light shots made handheld, a good IS and short focal length (ie 15mm!)is your ticket. Otherwise use a tripod! For low light sports, a fast focusing body with good ISO performance may be more important than having large apertures which will give you less margin of error to focus on the moving target. If you really want to push low light, I would invest in a 5D MKII or MKIII (when it comes out) instead of dropping thousands on a single lens. With a good body, all of your lenses will perform that much better. Enjoy!

After working with the Canon 18 - 55mm f/3.5 - 5.6 IS II and 55 - 250mm f/4.0 - 5.6 IS II lenses that I bought along with my T4i last year (including taking a total of close to 10k photos with both), and finding the results at least satisfactory, I decided to save up the additional cash required for buying a higher-quality lens. Enter the EF-S 15 - 85mm f/3.5 - 5.6 IS USM UD lens. Not only is the build quality of this lens head-and-shoulders above that of either of my original two lenses (both of which I sold shortly after buying this lens a couple months ago), but the optical quality is equally as good. I had a feeling that investing a little more money into a better-built lens would pay off, and this has totally been the case with this lens. Yes, it's significantly heavier and bulkier than either of my original lenses, and it has a much larger lens mount (requiring much more expensive filters and a more-expensive hood), but these are hardly cons considering just how much this lens brings to the table, and it feels and handles like the high-quality lens I was expecting given its cost.The wide-angle CA that I was used to with my old 18 - 55 is now virtually non-existent with my new 15 - 85, and what remains can be easily fixed in photo-editing software. There is only minimal distortion at either end of the lens, with just very slight barrel distortion at the wide angle, and almost undetectable pincushion distortion at the telephoto end, and the contrast is excellent considering just how much glass Canon put into this lens. If there is any vignetting, it's not noticeable enough for me to find it worth commenting about. Focusing is totally silent assuming you're not in a sound-proof room with zero other noise present, and what you can hear sounds like a very light "swoosh" sound, rather than the gear-driven "zzzt" sound of either of my old lenses, which sounded noticeably cheaper in comparison. I've already taken this lens with me to Niagara Falls, and its zoom range turned out to be absolutely perfect for every photo that I attempted to take while there. I would have liked to have maybe an additional 25% of zoom range on the telephoto end (for a handful of closeups on the skylines of either side), but 85mm brought me in close enough that I could simply crop the remaining "extra" out of the frame, and the 15mm wide-angle could not have been more perfect.Overall, I can't speak highly enough of this lens, and if you're considering a travel zoom, aren't opposed to a little extra weight around your neck compared to the kit zooms, and are willing to fork over the additional money for an all-in-one, you can't go wrong with this lens. Sure, it's not nearly as bright as the EF-S 17 - 55mm f/2.8, but I'll take the 15 - 85's increased zoom range over the 17 - 55's slightly wider aperture any day- and with either lens, you'll definitely get what you pay for.