Need walk-around lens help me!!

[vd853]

I can't decide between these two lens: 24-70mm f2.8L or 17-55mm f2.8 IS USM. I am fine with the focal length, speed, and built quality for both lens. I am more concern with the sharpness, colors, and price.

 

[fokker]

I also shoot with a 40d and now using a 17-55 IS. For a while I had a 24-70 2.8L but I just found it wasn't wide enough a lot of the time. Plus it's a big and heavy lens.

No issues from the 17-55 image quality wise - a lot of people say it would be labelled an L lens if it wasn't EF-s.

Interestingly, I tested mine back to back against a tamron 17-50 f2.8 and the tamron was almost as good. The canon was sharper at 17mm and the tamron sharper at 50mm (I think, it may have been the other way around, hard to remember now). The only thing that made me keep the canon was the IS - now Tamron has a VC version of the 17-50 it should be worth considering.