Get the big picture.

This is the first prime lens I have owned. Although I have taken only one roll of shots with it, I am very happy with it so far. It is lighter than I thought it would be. It balances well on my Canon ELAN 7. The construction appears to be top notch. Manual focus is ultra smooth. Auto focus is fast and silent. The 17mm setting is extremely wide with little or no obvious distortion. You can capture amazingly wide landscapes. Having a range of 17-40mm, this lens is strictly for wide angle shots, especially when used with a film camera. Used with a digital SLR, you would have a good all-around zoom range of about 25-70mm. Images are tack sharp. Color and contrast are superb. I compared photos taken with this lens to photos taken with a good quality Minolta zoom. Yes, there is a difference. The Minolta photos were nice. The Canon photos are awesome (on the same type of film, I might add).