2nd hand lens help

Doyle

I have a budget of £200 - £250 for a 2nd hand lens.  It's going to be my general purpose walkabout lens for a Canon 550D.

I have the following 3 lenses shortlisted, but I'm open to other suggestions.

Sigma 17-50mm f/2.8 EX DC OS HSM
Tamron SP 17-50mm f/2.8 VC Di II
Canon EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM

I can't try them out before buying and I've never used any of them before, so running a bit blind here.  Any advice will be greatefully received.

spannersatcx

I have the canon lens as my everyday walkabout lens, can't fault it. Wide enough and long enough for everyday stuff. Never used the others so can't say on those.

AMc

Can't seem to find those exact lenses but this might help with looking at the output on Flickr if you can find them
Flickriver Lens Explorer: find best lenses for you - Canon, Nikon, Tamron, Sigma and many others

Bl4ckGryph0n

Just as an alternative thought. I always felt a little limited by a 17-50 as a walk about lens. On my Nikon system I had the 24-120 range which used to be called the “street sweeper”. And they weren’t wrong. It is a really good walkabout range and you can capture nearly anything and frame it properly without changing lenses or do the manual zoom with your feet.

I’m not familiar with Canon but I’d be surprised if they didn’t do something in that range.

Ugg10

The sigma 17-70 f2.8-4 OS is also well regarded and combines the 2.8 of the 17-50 with the longer reach of the 15-85. I tend to use Lentip.pl for reviews, it provides lots of good objective measurements that can be compared.

noiseboy72

My EOS 600D lives with an 18-135 f5.6 on for grab and gun, with a 55-250 f5.6  and 17-50 f2.8 in reserve. I find this is a good combination for just grabbing a few shots on holiday.

                                                                       

jeallen01

FWIW, and not a Canon user (ever, nor probably ever will be ) but the original Pentax  Non-OS F2.8-4.5 mount version of that lens has become my walkabout lens because it's "sharp" with good colour rendition - and I got it 2 yrs ago for a bargain price (£70!!)

shotokan101

It's my walkabout Sony lens as well