Which lense would be better for photographing cars? or would you recomend something not listed..

1. Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM
2. CANON EF 17-40mm F4 L
3. Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM Lens

 

Have you ever shot with IS? I just got the 28-135 IS and goddamn, the majority of shots are sharp, handheld. I'm getting the 70-300mm IS as my next lens. I bracket alot of shots, and I miss way less shots than before.

That '1.6 crop only' 17-55 IS looks mighty good for car photography IMO. At 17mm, you're pretty close to the car to fill the frame, and at 55mm, perspective distortion is negligible. That bright 2.8 max aperture is icing on the cake. But at near $1,000... is it worth it? Looks like you're a graphic/visual artist anyways, so I guess it's worth it.

Looks like you're going high quality glass and remaining in-house with Canon stuff. But there are cheaper alternatives worth looking at. Some here have Tamron's 17-50 2.8. Read the reviews and look at the resolution (sharpness) charts and they are through the roof. Another I think worth looking at are the Tamron 28-75 2.8, which again, has resolution numbers through the roof, and Sigma's f2.8 lenses in the same zoom ranges. Sigma and Tamron are coming out with Image Stablization soon BTW. I had a Sigma 17-70, and it was bulit like a tank and had a great powdered finish that withstands scratches... returned it for the Canon 28-135mm which front area wobbles when extended and the finish is bare plastic, otherwise takes great shots.

Go for the EF-S 17-55 IS. That's my take. If you need a longer lens, I'd get some fast primes like the Canon 85 1.8, or the 100 2.0. I'll post later on the more advantages of using telephoto for car photograhy... but you may already know what they are.

 

I'd go with #1

#3 is not wide enough on a cropped sensor camera
#2 is too slow.. always nice to have an f2.8 and that extra 15mm is helpful too.

 

^- I was gonna pick #1 too.

 

17 55 f2.8 IS matched with one of the Canon 70 200 when you a longer focal length. I wish the 17 55 wasn't an EFS lens; I'd sell my 16 35 f2.8. The 17 55 is sharp, great colors, fast, and has IS to boot. Matched with a 1.6x crop body at 55 mm it'll give some decent compression when you want the car to stand out from the background but at 17mm it's still wide enough for indoor car shows or when you want to incorporate a background into the shot.

 

thanks guys, I'am gonna go for the 17-55 for sure now.

 

For indoor and close-up shots, that 17-55 f 2.8 is probably the most useful because of the fast lens and wide angle - the drawback is that you're stuck with EF-S cameras.

For outdoor shots, pictures look a lot better when taken at maximum zoom to create that nice blurry background, so for that, I'd pick the 24-70L f 2.8. Latter down the road, you can complete the kit with the 70-200L f 2.8. Those two lens would pretty much be all you'd need for most shoots, from 24-200mm.

I have the 24-70L with my 30D, and I love the color and sharpness it produces.

 

pick #1...

the lower the F.. the better it is